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Article: Spiro Agnew should be remembered as the blatant crook that he was.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- September 19, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON _ Politicians, who never speak ill of the dead, gushed praise at the passing of Spiro Agnew. They tiptoed as though the truth were a ticking bomb.
So say it plain. Agnew was a small-time pol who became the most blatant crook to sit one heartbeat away from the presidency. He was a demagogue ranting ghost-written bile that split Americans amid the war and fires of the '60s. But political peers, sensing in Agnew's tumble their own fragility, always treated Spiro as gently as a museum vase.
You saw their unreality a year ago, when Agnew returned from two-decade exile. Ramrod straight at 76, metallic mane swept back like a 1930s Buick grille, Agnew was ...