I thought that it was Spiro Agnew, Nixon’s VP, who said that.
Though Spiro Agnew said it, Pat Buchanan wrote it for him. Along with nattering nabobs of negativism came their allies, the pussalanimous pussyfooters, as well as the tomentose purveyors of something or other. Pat had a great time. (Tomentose, sp?, sent reporters scurrying to their dictionaries. It referred to having thickly matted hair.)
I stand corrected... And after googling it I was enlightened in determining that it was William Safire who actually wrote it for Spiro. Of course, William being a speech writer for Nixon and Agnew was fully familiar with the liberal agenda embedded within the media during those years, and the left of center liberals have become even more brazen with every passing year.