He'd Rather Fight than Switch

A dynamic career has taken Pete McCloskey from Stanford Law School, through the Korean War, where he distinguished himself as a first-rate soldier, to a congressional victory over Shirley Temple Black, in 1967, and finally it has started him on the treacherous ascent to the presidency of the United States. Pete McCloskey has a lot of guts. Even he admits it may have cost him a political future.

The same aggressiveness which enabled him to work his way through Stanford and which won him the Navy cross, Rep. Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey (R-Calif.) has now applied to the presidential fight. Never subtle or sophisticated, McCloskey has spoken out viciously against the present Administration with relentless consistency. He calls the Nixon trip to Peking, "grandiose gimmickry", the Nixon Administration "embittered, hostile, negativist" and party loyalists, "criminals and prostitutes."

Boxer-like stance, jutting chin, sharply carved features, set on a square face make McCloskey's appearance every bit as vehement as his presidential thrust into New Hampshire--an impassioned vendetta against the Nixon Administration. "I am just tired of being lied to by members of the executive branch and having information concealed, and I think they have fallen into the habit of lying and not just to the people and the press, but to Congress."

Strangely enough, the impassioned ex-marine turns out to be a historian. His observations on American life cloak themselves in historical allusion. "Dan Ellsberg--I'd put him right in there with Nathan Hale 'I regret that I have but one life to give for my country' and Patrick Henry--'Give me liberty or give me death'--to me he's a patriot." On Eugene McCarthy--"It's the same problem as Sam Adams. Does the great rebel make a great leader?" and on the Pentagon Paper investigation: "I'll tell you where I'd draw the line. I'd go back to George Washington who was asked to give up the information on the disastrous St. Clair expedition into Indian territory..." Unfortunately, in the hard game of politics, history must take second place to necessity: McCloskey had to sell his favorite Benedict Arnold portrait to gain needed campaign funds.

His greatest problem is money. California industrialist Norton Simon is his sole major contributor, coming with around $40,000. McCloskey has had to turn elsewhere to supplement these funds. An ad in a recent New York Times proclaimed: "Pete McCloskey would rather have his campaign financed by 10,000 people who want to participate directly than by a few big spenders. It's an old-fashioned, Democratic idea."

McCloskey refuses to be intimidated by his extremely poor showing in the New Hampshire polls which show him at 6 per cent as opposed to Nixon's 70 per cent. He recalls that at the outset of his 1967 Congressional contest, Shirley Temple Black polled 80 per cent while he showed only ten per cent; he went on then to win the congressional race. Once again undaunted by the odds against him, McCloskey has spent 29 campaign days in New Hampshire dashing from coffee klatches to tea parties--sometimes five or more a day--trying to spread the McCloskey name and spirit throughout New England homes.

McCloskey would consider a vote of 25 per cent as a successful display of support for his candidacy. "We will interpret a vote of 25 per cent as an incentive to go on and a vote of 30 per cent will mean we are on the offensive and that we will go on to primaries in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Oregon, California, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. and North Carolina, New Hampshire campaign manager Mike Brower explained. McCloskey has a permanent staff of about 16 people, with 60 volunteers coming up on weekends and over 60 more recruited on a full time basis for the month of January. By March they hope to canvass all the Republicans and Democrats twice over.

A preferential poll conducted by the New Hampshire Television Network shows that the McCloskey campaign does have a slight chance for success. Fifty-nine per cent of N.H.'s voters have registered Republican; yet of these only 31 per cent have voiced support of Nixon who places first, followed by Muskie with 15 per cent. It is the remaining 28 per cent that McCloskey hopes to work on. What is more, McCloskey headquarters have heard a contradictory, but even more encouraging report that the President's polls in New Hampshire show McCloskey creeping over the 20 per cent mark. And the 85-95,000 new voters in New Hampshire present another important factor in predicting the results of the New Hampshire primary.

The McCloskey campaign in New Hampshire is perhaps the most important of the liberal candidates since he alone poses a threat to Nixon's party nomination. Haunted by the spectre of the impact of the McCarthy victory against LBJ in '68, Nixon has decided to revise his schedule so that he will campaign at least three or four days in the state.

For the present McCloskey is content to work within the Republican party and is not considering a party switch (a la Lindsay) or a fourth party candidacy. Referring to his strong belief in the two-party system he said. "If the present trend continues, it spells the death of the Republican Party. In my judgment, the two party system is one of the basic strengths of our political system, but only when both parties are vigorous and healthy." He refuses to say whether he will support Nixon if he wins the nomination, "If you fight right, you do not think about losing."

The hope of the McCloskey campaign is to attract the idealism and energies of the young voters. "If I win in March, it will be with the help of the young people." Yet McCloskey has had a hard time relating to college students who tend to be alienated at first by his tough military stance and appearance. Questions of the draft are particularly touchy. Asked if he would submit to the draft now, McCloskey said, "I don't know if I would go in now. Two years ago I would have said it is better to dissent after you have done your service. Now I believe you should do what your conscience dictates. It is hard for people my age to talk about the concept that someone would not want to serve. When I was young peopled used to fake their age to get in." McCloskey also limited his support of general amnesty for those who resist the draft and leave America. "There is one condition. You can't talk amnesty until the war is over; there should be two years of national service like working in a ghetto or fire-fighting because it is not fair that someone who does not go to Vietnam should be in a better position than someone who does not leave the country and obeys the law."

McCloskey also finds himself in trouble with the student community for supporting Rehnquist (who was his debating partner at Law School). "He is a highly respected lawyer. It is not important to appoint someone to the Supreme Court because of his political opinions. We must divorce political views from legal decisions."

McCloskey's strongest issues concern the Vietnam War, the military complex and the Nixon administration. He sees the Indochina War as the ultimate tragedy of Americans using their power against a people with whom they have no gripe. The tragedy is also a military one. "You can't run a retreat like this. Nobody wants his legs blown off in the last day of a war to save the president's pride." Sadly, bitterly, he explains that the Vietnam War is just that--a desperate effort to save the pride of a President. "He's got to be number one. He must establish that this man will not be our first President to lose a war."

McCloskey's distaste for the Nixon Administration does not confine itself to Southeast Asian affairs. He indicts the administration for its arrogance and for its deception. "We have added lies and news management to become almost a way of life under the present administration." And he points to the SST, ABM and Amchitka controversies as prime examples of Administration lies.

As an ex-soldier who says he has been emotionally committed to the American Armed Forces for years, McCloskey is depressed by the degeneration of the military structure in the United States. Military leadership has foundered over the dual pressures of following the orders of superiors and looking out for its men. He decries the criteria for success that military leadership has set up. "Search and destroy and body counts are such shameful things for soldiers to follow that it's incredible."

When the tumult of campaign subsides for a moment, McCloskey himself seems unclear about his future. It's not the kind of movement that is likely to succeed. His candidacy, a frenzied expression of acute frustration backed by little money, a small organization and few definitive domestic programs, he often seems gloomy about the outcome of it all.

"I'm not in this for my political future, but to end the war. If the fight is right, you shouldn't worry about winning or losing, just the fighting...."

He looks away for a moment to survey the bleak and chilly Cambridge streets, and then turns back again, drawing once more on his knowledge of American history to make his point.

"...But that's what Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, 'Sooner or later we shall all fail'. It remains for us to fix our eyes on that point, and get there."