An Archival Footnote on Charles Colson

One of my favorite entries in the Reagan diaries is his description of Connecticut Senator Lowell Weicker as a “no-good, pompous fat head.”  Truer words have seldom been put on paper.

While cleaning out an old file today I stumbled across a transcript of a TV debate between William F. Buckley and Lowell Weicker from December 1973 (I said it was an old file) on the subject of the Watergate hearings.  In his conclusion, Buckley told the following story:

Take my learned friend here, Mr. Weicker. . .  [H]e received an ovation on the Committee room on the 29th of June.  What did he say?  “True Republicans do not go ahead and threaten.  And God knows Republicans don’t view their fellow Americans as enemies to be harassed.  But rather, I can assure you that this Republican, and those that I serve with, look upon every American as a human being to be loved and won.”  June 29th.  And June 30th a fellow American and fellow Republican comes to visit Senator Weicker—Charles Colson.  Charles Colson, as a fellow American and fellow Republican yearning to be loved and won, seeks to inform Senator Weicker of his position, and is greeted  with the following words—quote—“You make me sick.  You can just get your ass out of my office. I just don’t want even to talk to you any more.”  I remind Senator Weicker of Exodus, the 23rd, verse 5: “If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying prostrate underneath his burden, by no means desert him, help him rather to raise it up.”

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