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Dorothy Copus Brush Why all the fuss over Cheney? Such a fuss over Vice President Dick Cheney's
heart. Even though all the doctors have made a point of saying
that millions of Americans have the same condition, the focus
is on Cheney. This was not the case when in 1973 Vice President
Spiro Agnew resigned before going to court on tax evasion. All
the speculation centered on whom President Richard Nixon would
name as his successor. I was lucky enough to be in Washington,
DC, and an eyewitness to that unprecedented bit of history. I was there for the board meeting of the National
Federation of Press Women the weekend of Oct. 12-14, 1973. Rumors
were flying that an announcement was about to be made. Among
the guesses was that of Gerald Ford. Since there were six of
us at the meeting from Michigan, we were very interested. All during Friday the 12th we were in seminars,
but at 8 that evening we met for our business meeting. A TV was
brought in and left on mute as the meeting progressed. At 9 sharp,
President Nixon appeared and during his quite-lengthy talk he
said, "It is time for a new beginning. To continue the obsession
with the past will destroy our future." Finally he led up
to revealing the name and he mentioned that his choice had served
25 years in Congress. Our small Michigan delegation whooped.
It was Gerald Ford. Then we learned there would be an unusual
session of the House of Representatives Saturday morning to receive
the president's decision formally. Our national president of
NFPW had served on the staff of the Idaho representative for
years, and she was able to get prime seats in the gallery so
we could attend. At precisely 10 a.m. Ford walked down the
aisle to his regular seat. The members all stood and gave him
a rousing ovation as did we Michiganders. Then Rep. Fish called
out there was a message from the president. It was read and the
House adjourned. The whole thing lasted 10 minutes. As we left we saw TV cameras by an entrance,
so we waited and soon Mr. Ford came out. We clapped loudly, he
waved and was whisked away by the Secret Service in a limo. The Michigan six had a cup of coffee in the
House dining room, and there we heard the Senate was about to
reconvene. We rushed there, but since we had no passes we were
turned away. Undeterred, we raced to the congressional subway
and then up to our Senator's office where we received passes.
We made it back to the Senate chamber in time to hear the president's
message again. Some of you may remember the column I did
last December about the Red Flannel City, Cedar Springs, MI.
That was where Ford flew immediately after his appearance before
the House of Representatives. He had promised to take part in
their big Red Flannel Day parade. It was his 24th consecutive
year to attend the festivities and even though he had just passed
through a life-changing 48 hours this trip was his priority. That weekend was one to remember, not in the
detail I have told here but for my penchant for saving things.
Most of our group flew to New York on Sunday to get our flight
to Russia. On Saturday night I wrote a letter home telling my
husband all that had happened that day and mailed it as we left
the hotel. At the airport in New York I bought The New York
Times and during the long flight I tore out all the articles
reporting the Washington story. When we landed in Amsterdam I put all those articles in a KLM envelope and mailed them home. The Soviet Union in 1973 made visitors uneasy, and I feared those pieces of history might disappear if I had them with me. All these years they have been tucked away and forgotten until I found them in their original envelopes this past week. |