The dairy industry sought a deal with President Richard Nixon to write a huge campaign check to his reelection campaign-in exchange for price supports that would artificially raise the cost of milk. But federal law strictly limited the amount it could donate. So Nixon's henchmen devised a workaround: Dairy companies would funnel $2 million through various Republican Party committees, which could then transfer the cash to Nixon's campaign.
Today in history: On Nov. 26, 1973, President Richard Nixon's personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court she'd accidentally caused part of the 18 1/2-minute erasure of a key Watergate tape. The gap was in a 1972 recording of a conversation between Nixon and his chief of staff. Also on this date: In 1791, President George Washington held his first full cabinet meeting; in attendance were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox
He was the underappreciated star of Sam Ervin's special committee looking into the break-in, and general campaign of dirty tricks and sabotage that led up to, activities that entered the political lexicon as ratfcking. It was Ulasewicz's job to deliver hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money to a variety of Watergate participants, most notably G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt.
