as far as alexander haig being farmed out to nato, ford, too late, decides he has to have his own administration and starts moving out the members of the nixon administration. who do we get in? we get in as chief of staff the former congressman from illinois, donald rumsfeld, who brings in with him a completely unknown kid from wyoming as his assistant chief of staff, dick cheney. you have got ford being brought in at the cia. by the way, they call it the ford foundation, because so many of these people are going to go and work in some shape or form for ronald reagan or george bush, and they learned their craft under president ford. but i appreciate that. >> thank you. yes. >> spiro agnew has to resign. >> indeed, he did. >> who championed jerry ford to be vice president? >> excellent question, because

the list is actually very long. the first person who championed him was melvin laird, who was a congressman from michigan and nixon's secretary of defense. he knew jerry ford very well, and, by the way, this entire list, everything they say to nixon is the same thing. he will be confirmed, because nixon does not want ford. he wants john conley. nixon wants john conley, who is the secretary of the treasury, and who had split from the democratic party. nixon feels a kinship with conley, and he wants conley to run in 1976. everyone is coming to him and his saying, john conley because of the scandal, because he is john conley cannot be confirmed. jerry ford is liked by everyone. he will stay through. charles did dell says so.

i also saw literature where nixon told, i believe, nelson rockefeller and some other people who you would not think to be supporters of richard nixon, but the net was cast widely. everyone comes back with jerry ford, but who is number two? george bush. it wasn't his time yet. thank you. >> final question, bob. not part of the ford administration, but part of the ford story, that sort of weird moment at the 1980 republican convention where the was a brief moment when ford might have become reagan's vice presidential running mate, but he rented to -- wanted to run half of the cabinet or something. what was that about? >> ronald reagan had gone through was a very bruising primary, and the second -- the runner-up was george bush. that nancy reagan did not like

george bush. nancy reagan did not like the fact that he had coined the term voodoo economics. bush had gotten out of the race at time -- in time. he had gotten out of the race, so he was not holding on like pat buchanan and some other people, but there was a bad taste in the reagan people's mouths about george bush. they thought he was too moderate and that he would not be a good match. reagan himself comes up with the idea, along with kissinger, who is in reagan's ear, about bringing ford in. there is nothing that prohibits gerald ford from coming in. he can be elected vice president as many times as he wants. the constitution does not say, so the negotiations go through between henry kissinger, brent scowcroft, i believe, and the reagan team, and they are this close.