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148 Chapter Twelve CIVIL RIGHTS AND PEACE The distance the party had traveled between 1976 and 1980—only four years—away from moderation and toward increasingly conservative positions was dramatic. Equally dramatic was the change in Mary Louise Smith’s status in the party. In those four years, she had gone from party chairman to party outsider. The anger that conservatives felt toward her was unmistakable. As with any new administration, the clamor for appointments began before Reagan took office. Smith recommended several people for a variety of posts in the administration, but it does not appear the appointments were made. She did not request an appointment for herself, but her friends did. For example, Iowa congressman Jim Leach recommended Smith for Special Assistant to the President as a liaison with women’s groups. Nothing came of his suggestion. Smith’s good friend George Bush, now vice president, recommended her for US Treasurer, but conservatives objected. An article in Human Events, a conservative weekly magazine, on January 10, 1981, outlines Smith’s transgressions against conservatism, and it is an extensive list. Her support for the ERA and abortion rights headed the list of her wrongheadedness regarding issues, but her use of power to support those issues also angered conservatives. “What bothers many conservatives about Smith, who is the present GOP National Committeewoman from Iowa, is that she has consistently used her Republican leadership positions as a base from which to promote causes that are anathema not only to conservatives but to most mainstream Republicans.” Conservatives had opposed the creation of the Woman’s Policy Board, which Smith had chaired during the 1980 campaign, regarding it as a“major campaign blunder,” and faulted Smith for her role on it.1 Smith’s biggest failure, however, was that she had not supported Reagan. Again according to Human Events: “While in charge of the supposedly neutral CIVIL RIGHTS AND PEACE 149 RNC during the Reagan–Ford contest in 1976, Smith ran the committee as a virtual appendage of the President Ford Committee.” In addition, in a speech after the 1976 elections, Smith had criticized Reagan and conservatism, calling on the party to move to the center and castigating conservatives for what she called their “inflexibility.”2 The facts bear out everything in the Human Events article. The significance of the article is the clarity with which it announces conservatives’ rejection of her for those beliefs and actions. The article acknowledges that the Treasurer of the United States holds almost no power, but the position does have a certain status. The Treasurer’s signature is on all US paper currency, which Human Events wrote made the post “highly coveted, and many conservatives believe that it should go to someone who has been more loyal to Reagan than Smith has been over the years.” Her competency was not an issue, her character was not explored, her loyalty to the party did not matter. At the same time, rejecting Smith because she had not supported Reagan was reasonable—it is the way politics work. Smith did not receive the appointment.3 Despite conservatives’ clear message, George Bush did not give up on his quest for an appointment for Smith. In April he proposed a position on the US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR). While at least three top Reagan officials—Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel, E. Pendleton James; Counselor to the President Edwin Meese III; and White House Chief of Staff James Baker III—supported the appointment, others in the White House objected to Smith’s appointment because she had not enthusiastically supported Reagan’s candidacy. Reagan was quoted as asking,“Where was she when we needed her?” Others contended that her appointment would please moderates in the party. There were, however, enough letters objecting to Smith to prompt an in-house memo noting them.4 Created in 1957, the six-member USCCR investigated, studied, and reported on discrimination, providing a mirror on the nation’s progress toward equality and giving civil rights activists ammunition in their battles for change. The commission had no enforcement powers, but it could subpoena witnesses and make reports and recommendations. Politically balanced by law, three Democrats and three Republicans were appointed by the president for undesignated lengths of time, making them virtually lifetime appointees. Presidents filled vacancies as they became open, with senate approval. Presidents also appointed the commission’s chairman and vice chairman. After Reagan took office, he wanted to have his own appointees on the commission...

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