THE RISE AND FALL OF SPIRO AGNEW

Hear excerpts of Agnew's speeches

He was not the first vice president to face criminal charges (Aaron Burr was tried for treason) nor the first to resign (John C. Calhoun quit in 1832). But Spiro Agnew, who died last week at 77, does go down in history as the first vice president to leave in disgrace and be found guilty of criminal charges.

One of the fastest rises in political history ended with jarring suddenness when Agnew pleaded no contest to accepting kickbacks and bribes and resigned. Agnew was a typical member of the GI generation--born of immigrant (Greek) stock, raised in the streets of Baltimore, serving in World War II, moving to the suburbs with a wife and growing family. He was elected Baltimore County executive after scandal knocked out a Democrat, then was elected governor of Maryland, with liberal support, over a Democrat who opposed open-housing laws. His selection as Richard Nixon's 1968 running mate was, he said, "a bolt from the blue."

As vice president, he was a combative and articulate foe of liberal Democrats. Other Republicans had attacked the increasingly anti-GOP press--Nixon after he lost the race for governor of California in 1962, Dwight Eisenhower at the 1964 Republican convention--but Agnew was the first to take the media on time and again. "Pusillanimous pussyfooters," he called journalists in a phrase written by White House speechwriter and future journalist Pat Buchanan; "nattering nabobs of negativism," he called them in a phrase by White House speechwriter and future journalist William Safire.

Agnew was a favorite of GOP audiences across the nation. As he and Nixon in 1972 became the first ticket to be re-elected since Eisenhower and Nixon in 1956, he looked to be a front-runner for the 1976 presidential nomination. And as Watergate unfolded in 1973, it began to look as if he might become president even earlier. But unbeknownst to all but a few, Agnew was under investigation much of the year. His resignation, like Nixon's a year later, discredited for many the traditional morality and respect for the law that they had championed. But Agnew seemed unrepentant. After moving to California, he sought a tax deduction for $268,000 in bribes and interest he had had to pay to the state of Maryland. That, like his claim on high office, was denied.

BY MICHAEL BARONE

THE AGNEW YEARS

1966. Elected governor of Maryland
1968. Elected vice president of the United States, under Richard Nixon
1972. Re-elected vice president
1973. Pleads no contest to income-tax-evasion charges and resigns