The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

A goLd wAtch foR MAggie 151
Judd told a wartime assembly at Evanston High School that public service
was the highest calling.
In politics, timing is often everything. While most of his brain trust
and many potential donors were skeptical, Gorton felt in his bones that
1980 was his year. He believed Maggie was vulnerable and that Carter
was an albatross for the Democrats. The president seemed impotent,
even whiny. All the charm had evaporated from his Georgia drawl. On
the Fourth of July, 1979, lines at gas pumps stretched for blocks. Eleven
days later, responding to a bleak memo from his strategist and pollster,
Patrick Caddell, the president gave his famous “malaise” speech. Carter
lamented “a crisis of confidence” that “strikes at the very heart and soul
and spirit of our national will.” It was a thoughtful speech laced with
candor, just not what the doctor ordered. Americans were disillusioned
and pessimistic, out of gas, literally and figuratively. Carter’s bracing Baptist
sermon wasn’t going to pump them up.
That November, Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran and took hostage 66 Americans. The conservative tide that swept
Margaret Thatcher into 10 Downing Street was also buoying Ronald Reagan.
“Government is the problem, not the solution,” Reagan said, adding
that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were “I’m
from the government and I’m here to help.” 3
Washington hadn’t elected a Republican senator since former Tacoma
mayor Harry P. Cain in 1946, and he was evicted by Scoop Jackson after
one controversial term, even in the teeth of the Eisenhower landslide.
Gorton vs. Magnuson was shaping up as one of the most dramatic
races in state history, with national implications. The Republicans were
counting on Gorton to help them gain a majority in the U.S. Senate. First,
however, he needed to win the Republican nomination.
Gorton had invited Howard Baker of Tennessee, the Senate minority
leader, to headline his first fundraiser. When other Republicans joined
the race, Baker sent his regrets. The only other volunteer for a pre-primary
visit was Rudy Boschwitz, an ebullient freshman senator from Minnesota.
Slade called to let him off the hook. “I said I’d be there,” Boschwitz
replied, “and I’ll be there.” He became one of Gorton’s best friends.
voteRs A geneRAtion LAteR would be accustomed to hearing Gorton
characterized as a movement conservative. In 1980, unless you happened
to be an Indian, he was viewed as what he is—an intellectual centrist
with libertarian tendencies. During his 22 years in Washington politics,
Gorton had evolved as less liberal than Evans and Pritchard (opposition to