Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House

My interests in getting this book were twofold: I was a Marylander during the time Agnew was considered a liberal, civil-rights governor if only the second or third GOP governor in the state elected since the Civil War. But that was partly because an open racist captured the Dem nomination. The other reason was: Maddow is an exceptional politico-historical writer, as good as she is a commentator.But little did I know of the whole sordid story!As governor, Agnew opened up his racist side after the black riots. He viciously read the riot act to African American leaders. This got Nixon's attention and kazoom! Furthermore, like Ted Danson//Sam Malone the sports news commentator in a Cheers episode, Agnew knew how to alliterate: The Nasty Negator of the Nattering Nabobs of Negativism was on the national ticket!But: What a surprise! I knew that the Justice Dept was in a delicate full-tilt race to depose Spiro for his ongoing crimes BEFORE Nixon would be toppled by Watergate. However, saying I knew this is like boasting that I have secret information that Trump is a crook, too.The lynchpin of the connection goes deeper than the race to deny Agnew the post-Nixon presidency. It is that the Agnew prosecutors felt they needed a memo to explain an arcane legal point that you will need Rachel to describe cogently. This memo is the same one that it turns out, that kept Robert Mueller from fully investigating Trump's criminality, because it's the one that says (arguendo as the suits like to say) presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office so what's the point of investigating! (but VEEPS don't have that alleged constitutional protection).As, within a month, it is possible that the Department of Justice will start investigating Trump for his crimes, expect this obscure memo to receive repeated invocations.Incidentally but importantly, Maddow points out that Agnew tried to turn the entire contracting operation of federal agencies on the eastern seaboard into a vast kickback scheme as he'd done as Baltimore County Executive. In that job, he actually researched and set up an actuarially-based kickback formula, with a delivery system. When she appeared on Colbert, he said that Agnew would set up a visit with a bidder to discuss "problems" with his bid on a county job. Agnew would then open a desk drawer, leave the room on a pretext, and then return in a few minutes. If he didn't see a brown envelope in that drawer, he'd state that the contractor had not resolved his problems!Rachel details how Agnew and Nixon applied pressure against the prosecutors using the political influence they felt they had. The Baltimore US Attorney's office was headed by the younger brother of one US Senator. Glenn Beall won because Nixon supported his election! Thus, they tried to suppress the investigation by that favor.Maryland GOPers had backbone!Over the years, Maddow writes, Nixon got pissed at Agnew for not doing a lick of work, always playing golf (!!!!), and setting up the kickback procedure on the Baltimore formula (I don't recall she said if Nixon put a stop to it; back then, General Services Administration was among the several agency posts that were always given to the most dishonest campaign supporters of the newly elected president, by both parties), so decided to stop his attempts to prop up Agnew after the Beall brothers proved too honest, anyhow. In a postscript, Bagman describes how Agnew desperately curried continued favors with his buddy Frank Sinatra, lobbied Saudi Arabia to get a contract to perform a viciously anti-Jewish campaign, inter alia.Never have I been prouder of being an ex-Marylander than when I finished reading Bagman!!!Disclosures: my late uncle was a county school board member whom Agnew appointed to the state board of education. That constituted a major civil rights "breakthru" appointment back then. My wife is retired from the office of a former Baltimorean, so we have a continuing interest in Baltimore and Annapolis politics. Oh yes, we're longtime, proud members of the same political association in San Francisco as the NEW Vice President Elect!!!

As a denizen of Maryland for the last 12 years there was clearly a lot about the state that I wasn't aware of - this book opened my eyes about those things, specifically the corruption. But this isn't what the book was about, it's about one of the offshoots of that corruption, Spiro Agnew.I was vaguely aware of what was going on in the White House regarding Agnew, Watergate was sucking up all of the oxygen at the time and I was a sophomore in high school and politics weren't high on my list of concerns. I knew that he was out of office over something to do with taxes, and it would appear that I wasn't the only American with that understanding. Indeed, there was so, so much more.Writing anything about Agnew here isn't really worth the time - he was a dirt bag, period. What sent chills up my spine were the tactics he used to try and worm his way of the predicament he was in. Maddow and Yarvitz lay them out simply:Attack the investigation as a witch huntObstruct the investigation behind the scenesAttack individual investigators in personal termsAttack the credibility of the Justice Department itselfAttack the media informing Americans about the casePunch back. Hard. Until either you are broken or the system is.I read that and thought to myself, "Did Donald J. Trump read this list before it was published?"Trump is not an aberration in American politics, he had a clear predecessor who still exists in the memories of living American people. In the last 50 years we've seen two of these self-serving, racist, and amoral men make it to the highest echelons of the US Government; you have to wonder, when will we see the next one.I wasn't aware of the men who were responsible for going after and, in the end, taking down Agnew. Starting at the top George Beal, Ron Leibman, Tim Baker, and Barney Sklonik, attorneys for the US Government who doggedly pursued Agnew until they had an irrefutable case against him, and doing so against pressure from upper echelons in the government and, in the case of Beal, family. These men were heroes, they represented the best of us, they represented the best of what outstanding public servants, and there are MANY of them, do for the American people, and by and large this is the first time they're really getting the recognition that they so justly deserve. Elliot Richardson, then the US Attorney General, deserves recognition for Agnew's take down, too, but he's well known for other things tied to the Nixon White House.Lastly, the other take away for me, was how terrible it is when people place partisanship over what's right, and how this does so, so much damage. In the end Agnew admitted to this crimes, not in a court of law but in the end the truth came out. That truth was readily apparent to anyone who really took a clearheaded look at the evidence, but to the end Agnew had his supporters, people who loved him, in spite his representing the worst in American politics, in spite his literally stealing from the people of Maryland, people who allowed themselves to either be blinded by the tactics listed above and write off everything tied to the affair to Democrats with a vendetta, or who otherwise really, truly didn't seem to care about this crimes. But again we experience a deja vu moment as we look at events in just the last few months.An outstanding read, a book that should be widely read, a book that makes you ask why is politics in this country the way it is, and why is truth not good enough to overcome partisanship.

I love Rachel Naddiws work and I listened to the podcast of this book and really enjoyed it.I had to have a copy of this audiobook and again I am looking forward to hearing it!

The perfect Christmas present for anybody wondering why a sitting President is above the law.

The reads like a criminal fiction novel, and it is..criminal but not fictional. I did not follow political news during the Watergate era. I was too young and interested in other stuff. I only remember the resignation and downfall of Nixon. Agnew’s story is far more interesting and I read it in one sitting. Of course I would not compare this Presidency with any other that came after. Of course not. Read and enjoy..it was quite a ride.

Great book for those interested in U.S. political history. It's a great follow-up from her terrific podcast series a couple of years ago. Lots of fun detail, with a good story being very well told. It was fun to be astonished as I learned the details of Agnew's criminality. The parallels with Trump's behaviour are just too obvious to ignore, right down to the lying rhetoric. Read history to understand today!

Excellent narration of the equally criminal events that were simultaneously happening during the watergate crisis. Old enough to remember both in real time and glad to have more light shed on this another brand of rampant corruption. The whole administration was rife with criminals.Not enough lessons have been learned to have kept it from happening again