Article On Ron Walker In Orange County Register

February 13, 2010 by admin | Filed Under American Politics, China, Foundation News, Nixon Administration, Nixon Administration figures, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library, Orange County, Presidents, Richard Nixon, U.S. History, White House, Yorba Linda | 1 Comment 

During the Nixon Administration, Ron Walker headed the White House’s advance team, working on projects ranging in scale from the thirty-seventh President’s 1972 visit to the People’s Republic of China to his visits to Washington-area schools. The concepts developed by the team Ron headed form the basis for all the subsequent advance work of American presidencies.

Today, Ron Walker is president of the Richard Nixon Foundation, and the Orange County Register has just published an article about him by Jessica Terrell. who often covers Nixon-related personalities and events for the newspaper. It contains some remarkable facts: it turns out that Ron, at the time he joined the Nixon campaign in 1968, was a registered Democrat. He also describes his ambitious plans for the Foundation, which include doubling the size of its endowment, and organizing more events to make the public aware of the accomplishments of the Nixon era in both domestic and foreign affairs.

Orange County’s Own

January 11, 2010 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Orange County, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

From an OC Register reader via staff writer Jessica Tyrell:

There is no denying that Richard M. Nixon was one of Orange County’s own. Born in a small, wood-frame house in Yorba Linda, alumnus of Fullerton Union High School. He was a regular American kid, working where he could to make a buck.

My father, Robert L. Torres, loves to tell the story of how he was working at the vast Murphy Ranch in Whittier one summer, picking oranges alongside his father, Rosario Torres, and a large group of other pickers from El Modena.

Late in the day, a large flatbed truck was inching its way through the orchard, loading the day’s harvest. (Nothing was easy about harvesting oranges, neither picking nor loading the heavy, fruit-laden boxes on the trucks.) This day, the trucker (also called swamper) was running late, so he asked my father, “Hey, kid, would you please give me a hand loading these boxes of fruit?”

Dad agreed and helped get the truck loaded, so that the trucker could race down to the local packing house to unload his bounty.

Slightly winded, the trucker said to my dad, “Thanks, kid, I really appreciate your help. By the way, what’s your name?” Dad responded, “Torres, Bobby Torres.” The trucker replied, “Nice to meet you, Bobby, my name is Nixon, Dick Nixon.”

Lo and behold, a decade and a half later, that former swamper was vice-president of the United States of America, and my dad could say, “Hey, I used to know that guy!”

John Dean At Yorba Linda, or Who’s Deep Throat Now?

June 16, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, John Dean At The Nixon Library, National Archives, News media, Nixon Administration, Nixon Administration figures, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events, Nixon in the News, Orange County, Presidential libraries, Presidents, Richard Nixon, U.S. History, Watergate, Yorba Linda | 1 Comment 

Tomorrow, June 17, is the thirty-seventh anniversary of the Watergate break-in. At the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, it will be marked by a lecture and book-signing by John W. Dean III, counsel to the President from 1970 until 1973, convicted felon (for obstruction of justice, to which he pled guilty on November 30 of the latter year), and one of the central figures in the Watergate scandal.

Several months ago, when discussing a post Dean made on the site The Daily Beast in which he defended historian Stanley I. Kutler from criticism of the latter’s transcriptions of the Nixon tapes, I noted that in it he said he planned to reissue his first book Blind Ambition, his own account of Watergate, with new material. That book will be republished tomorrow, with a new afterword which, according to a press release promoting the reissue, “truly closes the case on Watergate.”

It would seem a sure bet that one or another of our major conglomerate publishing imprints would be keen to acquire Blind Ambition, given such a promise, but the book is not being reprinted by any of them – not even Simon & Schuster, which originally published it. Instead, the book, according to Al Kamen in the Washington Post, is being “privately published” by Polimedia, the author’s PR firm. The event at the Nixon Library is described as the reissue’s “launch” at the firm’s site.

Dean’s appearance in Yorba Linda is not being greeted with universal hosannas, as Michael Isikoff of Newsweek makes clear in this article. Robert Odle, who worked in the communications office of the Nixon White House (and was later administration director of the Committee to Re-Elect The President) says in it that inviting Dean to the Library is “like having Monica Lewinsky speak at the Clinton library on the anniversary of President Clinton’s impeachment.” (As it happens, Isikoff is the journalist who broke the Lewinsky story.)

And at the Washington Times, Susan Naulty, who was the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace’s archivist from the institution’s dedication in 1990 until 2003, explains why she believes Dean’s appearance is not appropriate. She says, in part:

[T]hanks to Mr. Nixon’s voluminous archives, scholars with a better understanding of the man and his career-long struggle to advance freedom over tyranny on the one hand, and with considerably more data regarding the congressional investigations directed against him on the other, may well begin to wonder who was the real Machiavelli in Watergate – the president or his accusers. If the latter, the lessons of that crisis have enormous relevance for us today – and for freedom-loving people everywhere and at all times.

One drawback of Ms. Naulty’s article is that it does not precisely explain how Dean will come to be in Yorba Linda tomorrow. He was invited to speak by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, which is part of the federal National Archives and Records Administration, and which now operates the museum facility in Yorba Linda and will be transferring the Nixon presidential documents to the library facility next year from Maryland. The Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation (sponsor of TNN), which was in charge of the Library when it was a private institution, not part of the NARA presidential libraries system, from 1990 until 2007, was not consulted about Dean’s appearance and, as Isikoff points out, has expressed its disapproval of the invitation.

Ms. Naulty’s article has attracted several comments at the Times’s site. A rather interesting one, from “anonymous222,” refers to Dean’s involvement in the quest for the true identity of “Deep Throat,” the Watergate informant.

In 1975, Dean suggested DT was Earl Silbert, who was the prosecutor of the Watergate defendants in the early stages of the scandal. Then, in his 1982 book Lost Honor, Dean devoted a number of pages to arguing, rather unconvincingly, that Gen. Alexander Haig was DT.

Twenty years later, Dean wrote an e-book published by Salon.com, Unmasking Deep Throat. Several articles, before the book was published, claimed that Dean would identify Washington lawyer Jonathan Rose as DT, which reportedly prompted Rose to inform Salon that he would sue for defamation in such an event. But when the book finally came off the cyberpress (or whatever one would call it), Dean instead suggested DT was a composite of more than one of Bob Woodward’s sources. (After Mark Felt “confessed” to being DT in 2005, Dean told Keith Olbermann of MSNBC he still held to the composite theory.)

And then there are the still-murky events of 2003. In that year, a group of student journalists at the University of Illinois came to the much-publicized conclusion that Fred Fielding, White House counsel for two presidents (and Dean’s deputy in the Nixon years), was DT. At the time it was reported that Dean had gone to the trouble of personally contacting some of the students to explain to them why Fielding could not be DT.

But some questions remain. As Olbermann observed in 2005, according to All The President’s Men, DT talked to Woodward about the famous 18 1/2 minute gap in the tapes before it became public knowledge. Felt, who had left the FBI, would have been unlikely to know about the gap. Fielding, who was still White House deputy counsel at the time, would have known. (Rather intriguingly, Fielding’s Wikipedia entry incorrectly states that his work in the Nixon Administration ended in 1972.)

So, were I in Yorba Linda tomorrow, one question I’d like to pose to Dean would be: Why did you try to steer the Illini journalists-to-be from the conclusion Fielding was Deep Throat? There are some other questions that come to mind, and tomorrow I hope to discuss them here.

Art Training

April 1, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Nixon family, Orange County | Leave a Comment 

With an item about Diane Disney Miller’s new Walt Disney Family Museum, the New York Times presents this 1959 photo of the Nixon family with Walt and, in the bubble top of the Disneyland monorail, Art Linkletter.

Colin Powell At Intermission

March 30, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under American Politics, Orange County | Leave a Comment 

What’s the next act for the 65th secretary of state, who visited Orange County last Saturday?

Noah’s Lark

March 25, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Nixon Library, Orange County | Leave a Comment 

That’s state-of-the-art marketing guru and St. John’s Episcopal School trustee Noah McMahon (right), who cut his teeth at the Nixon Library, riding the merry-go-round at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California.

Perhaps you’re wondering why.

See, you never know what Noah will get up to — such as, for instance, floating around at 30,000 feet with legendary astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in Zero Gravity Corp.’s specially rigged 727. This time, Noah and Wing Lam, owner of Wahoo’s Fish Taco, were assisting their fellow supporters of the Orange County Register’s “Season of Caring Presents the Possible Dream,” a collaboration between our hometown paper and world-famous shopping center (all presided over by the energetic Sandra Segerstrom Daniels) to raise $270,000 for ten local children’s charities. I’m proud to be one of the judges as well as a board member of Register Charities.

After a campaign over the holidays had raised 70% of our goal, Noah and his colleagues had the bright idea of putting 17 county leaders on SCP’s famed carousel with their cell phones and riding (and riding, and riding) until each had raised $4,000 from friends, colleagues, and anyone else who felt sorry for them.

At a ceremony this afternoon at the Santa Ana offices of my valiant friends at the Register (who are battling to save democracy by saving the newspaper business), I forgot to ask Noah what was worse: Floating upside down for 30 seconds in Zero Gravity’s vomit comet, or spending two and a half hours on a giant bunny rabbit while trying to dial numbers on BlackBerry keys the size of Chicklettes.

Either way, Noah and Co., you brought big dreams to life for some of those hit hardest by the economy — even if you were just going around in circles.

Blue Orange?

March 14, 2009 by Jack Pitney | Filed Under American Politics, Barack Obama, California politics, Democratic Party, Election 2008, Orange County, Republican Party, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

(Cross posted from Epic Journey)

Orange County, birthplace of Richard Nixon, may be on the cusp of political upheaval. In the Orange County Register, Dena Bunis reports:

Orange County Democrats have become so emboldened by how well President Barack Obama did here on election night that as far as they’re concerned they can compete for any seat in this Republican rich environment. Case in point: Irvine Councilwoman and former Mayor Beth Krom. She made it official this week that she is going to take on Republican Rep. John Campbell.

Outside of Southern California, Orange County is synonymous with wealth, glamour (e.g., The OC) and conservative politics. The reality is more complicated. Republicans have generally won there, but in 2008, McCain took the county by a slim 50-48 percent margin. What’s up?

• First, it’s now a majority-minority county, about 33 percent Hispanic, 16 percent Asian, and 2 percent African American.
• Second, while coastal areas are indeed as affluent as the stereotype holds, there are gritty working-class areas farther inland. (I used to live in one of them.)
• Third, it is home to large numbers of high-income professionals, who liked Obama. Nationwide, he won narrowly among voters making more than $200k a year, and by a 58-40 percent margin among those with postgraduate study. As Michael Barone has argued convincingly, The GOP cannot take upscale voters for granted.

Orange County Republicans will have to work hard to keep their turf from turning blue.

The Nixon Family And Walt’s House

February 23, 2009 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Nixon family, Orange County | Leave a Comment 

Davidlandblog begins a series of illustrated posts about the Nixon family and Disneyland, including insights from Julie Nixon Eisenhower:

It was always a thrill for Julie to visit Orange County & Disneyland, as it meant that she could play with her cousins on both sides of the family: The Ryans (her mother) and the Nixons (her father). “Disneyland was a part of our lives. The major happy feeling that I remember about Orange County was seeing my cousins, which was always tied to a trip to Disneyland.” Between 1961 and 1963, the Nixon family would visit the park at least once every 3-6 months.

Orange County At A Crossroads?

February 17, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Orange County | Leave a Comment 

Though Orange County, California is famous for its Nixonian roots and GOP flavor, Barack Obama won a great proportion in last year’s Presidential election including the very well to do and fundraising juggernaut 48th District, now represented by spending hawk John Campbell and previously by former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Obama’s success could have very well been an anathema since the (erratic) McCain campaign lacked a concise fiscal message, with local voters bracing for a moderate economic and social policy from an Obama administration. One that, residents hoped, wouldn’t alter their way of life greatly.

But suppose high-income OC residents really came around to embrace  fiscal liberalism and broad social welfare policies, what would be their reaction if such an agenda hit close to home. How about as close as Laguna Beach?

Heather MacDonald’s article is pertinent as newly installed and uber-progressive UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky is suing the boutique town for its policy against crime and vagrancy. MacDonald is arguing that Chemerinsky is using his prestigious law school perch for such advocacy at the expense of tax payers:

The Laguna City Council has been struggling to solve its homeless problem for nearly two years. Following the recommendations of a task force, it is now paying for a full-time police officer to assist the homeless with getting into treatment and off the streets. Despite a nonstop effort, the officer has found only a handful of takers. The council has also approved funding to enlarge Laguna’s homeless assistance center. Neighborhood resistance, however, has blocked the expansion effort.

Such democratic process, laboriously balancing the competing demands of homeless advocates, employers and homeowners, fails to impress “public interest” lawyers such as Mr. Chemerinsky. He and his fellow attorneys want a federal judge to enjoin enforcement of Laguna’s anticamping ordinance until the city builds more no-strings-attached homeless housing. In fact, the homeless can have camping violations and other low-level infractions wiped off their record by participating in a rehabilitation program — surely a better outcome than being left to drink themselves to death on the streets. The lawsuit does not charge that any of the plaintiffs have sought, but been turned away from, a shelter or other assistance.

The police have used the camping ordinance only when calls from residents and business owners about vagrants’ unruly behavior grew too insistent, and they have done so with restraint. A clothing store owner testified to the city council in January that in 12 years in business she has seen the homeless spit on, curse and ridicule the police, but has never seen the police react with anything other than professionalism and compassion.

This legal action could not come at a worse time. As John the drifter observed from his post outside City Hall: “The homeless situation is hurting business. Tourists come in the winter, they don’t want to get harassed.” City officials are spending rapidly declining tax revenues negotiating with the plaintiffs’ attorneys, who demand in their complaint that the city pay their fees.

Yet the lawsuit augurs poorly for Orange County’s future. The U.C. Irvine law school has already signed up a Who’s Who of left-wing advocacy groups such as the Western Center on Law and Poverty, California Women’s Center, and the Public Law Center to work with and recruit its students. Expect a steady stream of similar litigation against cash-strapped local police departments, welfare offices and private employers to roll forth from the tax-subsidized school.

Firefighter’s Wife, 1; Ayn Rand, 0

December 8, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Orange County | 2 Comments 

In which a woman who knows whereof she speaks takes on the libertarians at the Orange County Register, who got miffed over excessive praise of firefighting “heroes.”

Yes on Obama, No To Liberalism

November 5, 2008 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Democratic Party, Election 2008, Orange County, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

Sen. Obama ran the table in Southern California Republican strongholds (which Pres. Bush won overwhelmingly in 2004) San Diego (53-44), Riverside (50-47), and San Bernadino Counties (51-46), while Sen. McCain barely held on to Orange County (50 -47).

As Rush Limbaugh noted this morning, this doesn’t mean conservativism is dead in America, pols were just invariably lacking a consistent and clear message. In California, where language was unambiguous and immutable, conservatives scored a victory in Proposition 8 (even in Los Angeles County), and maintained an effective status quo in state and congressional seats.

California Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine) lists what Republicans can look forward to:

1) At the Congressional level, we maintained the status quo – the power of the 2002 gerrymander remains intact – State Sen. Tom McClintock remains ahead in the 4th district by 50.1 to 49.9 with a 451 vote margin saying he’ll go to Washington.

2) The State Senate, at this writing, may get a little bluer by one, with former GOP Assemblyman Tony Strickland down by 108 votes to former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, 50.1 to 49.9. Based on the late returns, it is better than 50-50 that Strickland can win this, but I’m sure a brigade of lawyers will be deployed to ensure all the rules are followed. This district is McClintock’s district out by Santa Barbara and it has trended strongly Democrat in the past few years.

3) The State Assembly this morning appears to favor a net Democrat gain of two seats, with the Democrats apparently picking up all three of the seats that they gerrymandered for their party in 2002, but the Republicans picked off that year, however, Republicans added a seat in the Bakersfield area. Two other seats were in play too due to the massive amounts of money the Democrats and the unions had at their disposal – the seat vacated by the term-limited Alan Nakanishi and the seat held by Audra Strickland. Republicans held both seats.

4) In a race having national implications, Prop. 8, which provides constitutional protections to traditional marriage, passed by a little more than four percent with a 415,839 vote margin. Generally speaking, Prop. 8 passed in all but coastal counties with even Los Angeles County supporting it. There is 4.2 percent of the vote outstanding, but it is largely from counties that heavily supported Prop. 8. With Hollywood, the media, Gov. Schwarzenegger and every Democrat politician in the state opposing this measure, with Obama beating McCain by 24.3 percent in the state and opposing Prop. 8, as well as the “No on 8” side outspending the “Yes on 8” side, it is a remarkable victory that should give pundits pause when they seek to write off California as indelibly “blue.” Especially interesting is the huge disconnect between traditional liberal areas that massively opposed 8 and regions where working Californians lived who gave heavy support to Pres.-elect Obama AND big margins to Prop. 8. There is a powerful internal inconsistency there that can harm the Democrats if they do not adjust to it with politicians such as Sen. Barbara Boxer calling Prop. 8, “unfair, unnecessary, and wrong” with the “Yes on 8” campaign being “mean-spirited” while practicing “the politics of fear and division.” The only other big proposition that had major implications which apparently passed is Prop. 11, the redistricting initiative which I supported and most Democrats opposed. It was ahead by 50.6 to 49.4 as of Wednesday morning. Should it pass, California may finally see competitive legislative districts by 2012.

Light Sabers Out Of Darkness

July 23, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Orange County | Leave a Comment 

Children at play Tuesday night at the Orange County Fair