Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

When U.S. President Lyndon Johnson unexpectedly announces in March of 1968 that he will not seek reelection, the Democrats scramble to find an acceptable alternative. They settle on the “stolid, predictable, no-nonsense” (6) Hubert Humphrey, Johnson’s vice president. The Republicans nominate Richard Nixon, who chooses little-known Maryland governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate. Chaos unfolds at the Democratic National convention, where Chicago police brutally suppress left wing protesters who fear Humphrey will continue the war in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Republicans see an opening to make law and order a central pilar of their platform. Despite violent protests near the site of their own convention in Miami Beach, FL, the convention itself is a tame affair, with Nixon easily winning the nomination over challengers Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan. His nomination of Agnew for vice president, however, is a complete surprise to the delegates, the press, and Agnew himself, about whom very little is known: “Spiro Agnew had gone from obscure local official, to fluke governor of Maryland, to the nominee for the vice presidency of the United States in less than six years” (12). Nixon, however, sees Agnew’s nomination as a “politically expedient” way to fend off a third-party challenge from former Alabama governor George Wallace.