He was the brains behind this thing. Francis and his brother had them find a council. There was a partisan staff leftover from keller who was defeated. And he understood this had to be seen as nonpartisan and really fair. Fran francis and his brother john went out and found the council for the committee in john door who was in the Justice Department working on civil rights and was a hero but no one called john door a flame thrower or a partisan figure. And they understood that this had to come from the center. It had to be bipartisan for the country to accept it. And that is why the vietnam war, the invasion of cambodia and other things suggested were set aside. They had as much trouble pushing aside the lefties who wanted to go into issues and the people on the far right who could find no wrong with nixon. And then you had members you really didnt know about. There was a man carl butler was one. A man from south carolina. James man. He looked like a founding father. He imputed to them and thought they were all like james madison. They were all very serious. James man was a conservative on the democratic side. Southern democrat. Man was very very involved in this. There was paul servings from baltimore who was involved in shaping article two. They worked together. Butler and hogan who was also from maryland. And these were sort of beforehand we saw them as average figures and house members, no body did anything outstanding. One was a plain spoken not terribly eloquent man. And they all rose. And they took it very seriously and we took them very seriously and they reached this bipartisan agreement that the country accepted. Now, i can tell you afterwards i had dinner with one of these heroes to clear up question for the book and he invited me to this Cocktail Party on the hill. It was a lobbiest party and he told stories about people wanting to get on the Judiciary Committee because of the wonderful trips you took around the world and things that went on that would not fit to be printed. They were normal people and when the occasion came they really rose to it. This was true of the staff. It was a complicated thing to keep under control. I dont know if anyone remembers seeing that committee or watching it on television. You may not remember you didnt see any cameras, because francio obrian didnt want he wanted the people to be in there with the committee so he said to the network you want to cover it you will do it through a hole in the wall. You will not be in the room. And things like that; things most people dont think of. Mainly it was the character that came out. They all knew the gravity and the book will show you i was talking to a lot of these members who could not make up their mind but they talked to me because the deal was i wasnt going to write about it until afterwards. And they were serious. What is a crime . What is a high crime . What is a misdemeanor . What does that mean . Do they just have to burglarize people or is that beyond that . What is accountability . This is very serious sets of questions. And it was sort of a model impeachment. The stuff that goes on and it was ruined when gingrich ran the impeachment against clinton about lying under oath. And it is really too bad this thing is out of control and used so losely. Because it was very grave. Public servants regular people, not stars, made it happen and held the country together while they did it. Is that what you wanted to know . Yes, that is what i wanted to know. [applause]. Rose to the occasion. Elizabeth will be sitting here and signing books. We will line up this way. As usualplease help us with the chairs. And thank you cspan. Thank you for coming. Everyone of you. [applause] presidency 1968. Monday marks the 40th anniversary of the pardon of Richard Nixon he has spent a number of years at Richard Nixons side. Remember when he lost the two elections the election in 60 and gubernatorial in 62 people wrote him off. They said Richard Nixon is . He said this is my last press conference. Not so. At about the same time a young man left Columbia University joined the st. Louis post dispatch became an editorial writer and along the way met Richard Nixon. That began a magnificent journey a Magic Carpet Ride from nixes defeat through what nixon described as a Wilderness Years to the achievement of the highest office to the president of the United States and pat buchanan was with him every step of the way it is recorded in this great book once last week. This is the Pacific Coast launch the greatest comeback how richard the greatest comeback how Richard Nixon rose from defeat to create the new majority and how he won the presidency. He spent every day strategizing, planning, and the first and eyewitness to their brilliance of the 307th president. Please welcome pat buchanan. [applause] [applause] thank you very much. With that reception i may start looking at 2016. [laughter] [applause] this is the second time i have spoken in the east room in to mention the folks that i have served with over the years or even going back four or five decades to symbolize being with nixon the campaign for governor in 62 before i was there a and trying to save very goldwater when i was there and shelley buchanan. Standup. [laughter] el also like to say a couple of words can tell me when you get to washington there are three people you want to see. Of the old friends and loyalist it has done a magnificent job in a thank you deserve more than one round of applause. [applause] the greatest comeback is not a definitive history of that period but it is a memoir of my a time with nixon before he became president and a story of the men who rose from one of the worst defeats and though worst occasions and came back basically from a broken career to lead not only to victory in 68 but create a Great Coalition that exceeded fdrs coalition for the next 24 years i have told friends what nixon did in the 20th century is matched by only one other man, fdr to create that coalition that dominated the white house if you exclude eisenhower for seven or nine presidencies after 1932. So i will go back to try to tell some of the story in a limited time that we have available the first words i heard from the president of United States were these. Buchanan, was that you throwing the aches . [laughter] he was just inaugurated and coming up pennsylvania avenue and his limousine and was showered with debris and he showed up at the white house and shelley and i were walking along the boards the secret service had put down because it was so muddy. They kept saying could you step off the board to serve . And that isnt the president said. Buchanan, was that you throwing the eggs . [laughter] but let me go back and that incident is a metaphor. The first president to take over the white house with congress is an opposition. Either lowes store detested nixon by and large that bureaucracy was built up and was overwhelmingly democratic. It was a high style city that nixon came into the hedges broke in the presidency of johnson after he stood down in 68. That was the america if you will that we saw. Take a look at what happened in the years before Richard Nixon. Jfk was assassinated. 64 the first uprising at berkeley with a campus deserters. This was the beginning of the revolution. And the words race riot in the beginning of the revolution i drove back to washington to hear Martin Luther king delivered his famous speech in the memorial. I was up there with him. One years later 50 years ago this month i was in mississippi before they found the bodies of the three civil rights workers. And those that had started off so well was rapidly disintegrating into violence with black power and black panthers and the rest. Take a look at what nixon himself was in that period. People talk about 62 and 64. But if you go back through 1950 that was the last election he won in his own right to. The one with eisenhower but he could have an elected on any ticket but in 54 leading the Republican Party they lost 13 senate seats and in 1960 he lost narrowly in a contested election. We heard what happened in chicago he ran for governor and was defeated by governor brown. Then he had the famous press conference when he said this is it. He had it with the press think of all the fun youll have when you dont have Richard Nixon to kick around because this is my last press conference. He was finished with even though he was out not only introduced goldwater at that convention in than campaign for himself. And then i arrived in 65. The republicans had 130 seats in the house. The 17 governorships. The state legislators were outnumbered it was between the goldwater wing and rockefeller romney. That is what nixon inherited with his great to come back. That is the situation i a encountered and how did i get bored . As i was the editorial writer and having some difficulty with my publisher at the time. And i thought maybe i should get out of the office and into the real world. So nixon was invited to fill in for a speech in illinois 50 miles across the river. So he was going to go to a Cocktail Reception who was a cartoonist at the globe democrat and a good friend. And i said i want to meeting he said i will do it. The event to go over to his house he introduced me to Richard Nixon. Ice said mr. Vice president how are you . I would like to get on board early for 68. Dont be around the bush. [laughter] he said what do you do . I said in the assistant editorial editor. He said i dont want to know your title. What do you . And i said i write editorials we have to and i rise on everything, local Politics National tax policy form policy come on everything. So he seemed pretty impressed angeles to convince him but to say we have met before. He said what . I was at the country club when i was 14 years old. I was the last one on the bench and they were coming in on what they had. So after the lateafternoon out comes this bag and i said that is the vice president. Sure enough the procure now we were the only two sitting there and he centcom over. And we went 18 holes, four hours. I did the name of the pro and assistant pro. So the next morning nixon was driving out and the cartoonist said nixon talked about you all the way out. I said that is a good sign the. [laughter] then i didnt hear anything from him for about two weeks later i get a phone call. It is the voice can you come to new york to continue our conversation . I said sure. And for three hours in Richard Nixons office he quizzed me on everything i could think of for policy, domestic policy coming congress, it was exhausting for three hours and when we were done he said i would like to hire you for one year. One year . Because if we dont pick up seats in 66 there is no nomination in 68 to. My salary was 50 higher than what i was making. I said i am interested. [laughter] i will take it but you better call my publisher because he doesnt know i am here. [laughter] so that is how i got on board Richard Millhouse nixon 1965. He said mitt first reassignments help write a column, get rid of the stack of mail this high and i said fine but i have larger dreams of what my functions would be. And i said first is win the nomination. I respected you those folks in california and nebraska but i with the goldwater movement. If we can put together the goldwater movement with the nixon center of Republican Party nobody can stop you from the nomination. They are too far off the left. So nixon had something from buckley followers that they were more dangerous and i said we have to clear that out. So i wrote a letter what he meant. So we shield that breach. Then we would hold meetings all day with leaders of various leaders. I was a journalist so we met with them in every columnist that was a conservative to come up to meet nixon to have an interview so of with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Then with his own idea went out on his own in 1966 and campaigned in 35 states come 80 congressional districts and all over the country working for the Republican Party. And i say in my book it was in this nixons interest to do this but he was a fighter. His party was in trouble so he went out and said we will fight in every district we can. He was a spartan. I have never seen anybody work harder. Of course, if he had some trouble with the rockefellers. I will tell you one story from the campaign of 66. We were in fort smith arkansas and nixon got up at a press conference from john paul who eventually would be to bill clinton for congress. So nixon goes to the motel and he says i do not want to be disturbed by have a big speech at a want anyone to disturb me. So i went to my own room and i saw going straight across the hotel to nixon in store. Yelling dick. Dick. So i started to run and i did not get there on time. The door opens and he let him in and i thought that is the end of pat buchanan and nixon said had you met rockefeller . This was the brother of nelson and david but he was a great war hero. A great fellow and that was my first introduction. The second to wusses a congressman and now here. We got to organ and the killings came up to me in the news of rockefeller it is hard to describe how harsh they were. [laughter] so he says the old man will endorse rockefeller. I said what . So i took off down bohol i get to his suite i opened the door to the bathroom he is about to get into the shower and i said you will not endorse him are you . And he said dont worry we will get something for it. So sure enough so this does is something about the man. New york and treated him like dirt. And here he is to endorse Nelson Rockefeller because he said first we all have to diminish our egos a bit in and come together and this is the right thing to do. So he endorsed him then at the end of the campaign, we heard a word that Lyndon Johnson was coming back to the summit meeting and was going to campaign for the one dozen states and said the president is coming back so nixon said we will have to see about that. He was pretty shaking and then he endorsed the governor of light but he called him god almighty and finally the audience said it is tom. That is a lesson with politics do not give bad news before he is about to go make a speech but nixon was down thatd johnson comes back we could lose the seats to win back to my room and he called me and dictated his speech from vietnam. En el logo campaign through the states of washington that i will come to boise. And then we worked on it and just before the election he dropped it to the New York Times and said take a look at the date 1966 a critical moment and on the front page of the New York Times. In from Lyndon Johnsons tapes he called Hubert Humphrey and said the you see what he said about us . And then johnson went out to lambaste nixon as badly as any president has ever attacked a leader to the opposition party. And mike wallace and i was on the play and listening on the radio and i said youre not going to believe with the president is saying about us. So we caught nixon he was gracious in city is our hardworking man he was tired from his trip by a understand this. And though whole country said Richard Nixon is saying the right thing soapy is bolted up into contention for the republican nomination. However the 66 election will not be one. So we get to the weekend after that the celebration at the drake hotel we had a great time but time and newsweek, now after the election. Six republicans reagan, rockefeller, romney, senator percy and senator brock and though richard dixon. It was a downer for us because he was left after all the work he had done but they did us a favor to fall to everybody else up. Just before that election that he told the press after this election is over i will take a six month moratorium from politics completely and i saw him later and i said is this wise . Governor George Romney from michigan is ahead of johnson by eight points in the National Polls and we are going to drop out for six months and do nothing . And nixon said pat, let them shoot on him for a little while. [laughter] and i gather he meant the press corps. And if you read my book is exactly what the press did. Knight put space in my book about how tough it must have been for mitt romney to be 20 in paris to see what happened to his fathers launch for the presidency. Romney went out and he got caught up on the vietnam issue and after all the attacks one of the worst things i have seen. In the editorial i said i have never seen anything this vicious. But they said you should see what they write about you. [laughter] but agreed deere post writer and i was admirer of his everybody remembers George Romney was that american