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Even before the burglary of the psychiatrist's office, the White House had begun to shift its clandestine activities toward the effort to re-elect Nixon. In 1971, Nixon's prospects for re-election were not promising. A Harris poll in May showed Muskie with an eight-point lead over the President, assuming Alabama Governor George Wallace would run. Nixon, who had declared that "when I'm the candidate, I run the campaign," did not trust the Republican Party professionals to handle his re-election drive. He wanted a separate organization. A group of admen and pollsters were consulted; they found Nixon's personal popularity was so low that they advised that he stress the office rather than his name. Thus his organization became the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. It was largely composed of Administration officials, who were relatively inexperienced in politics but who had demonstrated their total loyalty to Nixon.
The first Nixon aim was to knock down the chances of Muskie's or Senator Edward Kennedy's becoming his opponent and to build up McGovern, who was rightly considered the easier man to beat. This tactic of interfering in the Democratic campaign was approved by Haldeman. Hunt began probing the intimate backgrounds of the potential Democratic candidates. He investigated Kennedy's accident at Chappaquiddick Island. Hoping to further discredit him, Hunt fabricated a State Department cable falsely stating that President John Kennedy had ordered the assassination in 1963 of South Viet Nam's President Diem. Liddy also joined the sabotage operations.
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Before the first primary in New Hampshire on March 7, many white residents of that state complained of telephone calls late at night from people claiming to represent the "Harlem for Muskie Committee." The callers urged them to vote for Muskie because "he's been so good for the black man."
In Florida, shortly before the March 14 primary, Muskie stationery was used for an unsigned letter, mailed to thousands of Floridians, falsely charging Democratic Candidates Hubert Humphrey and Henry Jackson with sexual misconduct. (Last week a federal grand jury in Orlando indicted Saboteur Segretti, charging him with conspiracy in the mailing.) Muskie finished a poor fourth in that primary, behind Wallace, Humphrey and Jackson.
Next, Muskie had surprising problems in California: trouble with floodlights that disturbed his delivery; his stationery was used again to tell potential large donors to keep their cash because he preferred to get a lot of collections from less affluent givers. Given the normal chance for foulups in any political campaign, it would be absurd to suggest that all of these incidents were the result of sabotage. But Segretti's activities provide ample reason for suspicion.
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907212-11,00.html
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