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The left was after Nixon before that. He took out a beloved leftist New Dealer Democrat Congressman, Jerry Voorhis, in 1946, leading to the GOP winning back Congress for the first time since Hoover. The incident exposing Alger Hiss was one more thing, and defeating fellow leftist Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950 was the cherry on top (nevermind that a lot of non-leftist Dem politicians supported Nixon, and also including Joe Kennedy, Sr. sent $$ to Nixon).

Nixon’s ability to defend himself, the Checkers speech, was pretty good. Ike actually wanted to dump Nixon in 1956 for the Democrat Texan Navy Secretary, Robert Anderson (reading his Wikipedia entry is curious, Ike seemed to have an unusually strong affinity for him, apparently even wanting to draft Anderson against Nixon in ‘60, and then after Anderson refused, trying to strong-arm Nixon into making him his VP running mate). Ike was going to put Nixon at Defense (presumably then he’d dump him altogether).

Nixon was classy for not badmouthing Ike, despite his deserving a good criticism. As for Anderson, who had quite the post-1961 career (he ended up at Defense in lieu of Nixon’s refusal to job swap before then). He was later prosecuted in the 1980s for criminal activity. None other than Rudy Giuliani did the prosecution as U.S. Attorney. Curious how these folks all tie together.

True, I only mentioned the Helen Gahagan Douglas bit, because it WAS the "final straw" for all out, never ending, to this very day, of the villification of Nixon, by the damned stinking COMMIES! Also, that the flyer printed on pink paper has always tickled my fancy, even when I was very, very young.

The Hiss thing not really all THAT much, since that didn't cool the hearts of the damned lefties towards JFK, the "SPARE, BRAINLESS PRINCE" of the Kennedy clan.

Though yes, I agree, the first whiff of lefty/COMMIE anger was beating Voorhis, which predates my earliest, rather rabid interest in politics.

I do know that Ike hated Nixon and wanted to replace him. Thankfully that morbidly STUPID idea failed to come to fruition.

Re Nixon and something you said earlier....

Yes, Nixon had the guts to stand up to Khrushchev, had his number from the get go, and so there would NEVER have been the Cuban Missile, and as an added bonus, there would NOT have been the Vietnam War either, had Nixon been president instead of that drugged out of his mind, fornicating with any female who crossed his path, easily influenced JFK.