Beware Of Greeks...

A web second look at Spiro Agnew: He may not have been as bad as Cheney, but he was an asshole. Some gems: The words Spiro Agnew may be rearranged to spell grow a penis. Agnew was sent out on the campaign trail, and later as vice president, to attack the hippies, leftists and pinkos that Nixon felt were primarily responsible for the decline of America (which couldn't possibly have been his fault). Armed with a series of ad hominem zingers penned by Nixon's sleaze purveyors Pat Buchanan and William Safire, Agnew made many memorable contributions to the history of destructo-politics with gems like these: "A Nixon-Agnew administration will abolish the credibility gap and reestablish the truth — the whole truth — as its policy." "(The media) are an effete corps of impudent snobs, a tiny fraternity of privileged men elected by no one and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by the government. They are nattering nabobs of negativism." "Ultraliberalism today translates into a whimpering isolationism in foreign policy, a mulish obstructionism in domestic policy, and a pusillanimous pussyfooting on the critical issue of law and order." "The criminal left is not a problem to be solved by the Department of Philosophy or the Department of English--it is a problem for the Department of Justice.... Black or white, the criminal left is interested in power. It is not interested in promoting the renewal and reforms that make democracy work; it is interested in promoting those collisions and conflict that tear democracy apart." "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals." "(Whomever he was attacking this particular day were) the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history." "If you've seen one city slum you've seen them all." Here's an Agnew slide show set to an appropriate track featuring Dennis Leary