Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House by Rachel Maddow

Spiro Agnew had to resign the Vice Presidency due to a bribery scandal. However, his story has become nothing more than the answer to a trivia question due to Nixon's Watergate downfall a few months later. The irony was that Agnew was the more serious crook. He was receiving envelopes of money in return for Maryland government contracts. These bribes continued even when he was in the white house. He used this to help sustain a lifestyle beyond his means. Nixon downfall, on the other hand, was caused primarily by actions to cover up the bad activities of those around him.

In this book, Agnew is portrayed as somebody that would make Trump look like an upstanding citizen. He was tapped as Nixon's VP to help get the vote of racist southerners. He did not have a huge amount of political experience and was willing to speak his mind in any uncouth manner. He was not in Nixon's inner circle, and not much involved in the administration. He was caught up in a Maryland bribery investigation. Initially the administration tried to call off the investigation. Agnew's camp went on the offensive and tried to attack the press and Department of Justice leakers. He also tried to use the constitution to prevent an investigation while he was a sitting VP. Eventually, it became too much. He pleaded no contest, though continued to maintain his innocence.

Was Agnew the prototype for Trump? I wonder if a lot could be traced back to Nixon's TV debate with Kennedy. Had Nixon become too paranoid after losing the election due to bad TV performance? He surrounded himself with many people for the purpose of getting elected rather than actually governing. Agnew was one of those "bad decisions."