July 31, 2008
MUCH AS WE LOVE THE HATCHET MAN...:
Anne Armstrong, Presidential Adviser and Pioneering Politician, Dies at 80 (WILLIAM GRIMES, 7/31/08, NY Times)
Mrs. Armstrong was a prominent figure in Texas and national Republican Party politics when she was appointed counselor to Nixon in 1973. She was the first woman to be named to the cabinet-level position.In that job, she became highly visible for her willingness to face hostile audiences as the Watergate scandal gathered force. She was, as a reporter for The New York Times described her then, the Nixon administration’s “best, brave front to the public.”
Under Nixon, Mrs. Armstrong created the White House Office of Women’s Programs to provide a liaison between the president and women’s groups. It sought to recruit female appointees to high-level government positions and to broaden opportunities for women in the federal government.
Mrs. Armstrong stayed on as counselor under Ford, who named her to the eight-member Council on Wage and Price Stability. She helped plan the United States bicentennial celebration and, for a time, seemed a likely contender to be Ford’s running mate in the 1976 election.
Instead, she was named ambassador to Britain, where with her breezy, energetic style and the mere fact of being a woman, she seemed to fascinate her host country. She held the post from 1976 to 1977.
...as close as '76 was, she might have made a difference for Ford (though four more years of him might well have been a bigger disaster than four of Jimmy).
