GEMINI AND APOLLO 



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remained the ranking Republican on the committee until his defeat in 

 the Massachusetts primary of 1966 and his subsequent retirement, 

 Martin yielded to Fulton on most questions of minority policy. 

 Fulton's abrasive personality and tendency to shoot from the hip 

 exasperated his fellow Republicans, not to mention his Democratic 

 colleagues. Thus the full force of a unified minority bloc was rarely 

 brought to bear on behalf of resolving the staff issue, except in the 

 forum of a committee report. 



During the 1960's, younger and more aggressive Republican 

 members like Rumsfeld, Wydler, and Roudebush joined Bell and 

 Mosher to raise a chorus of protests against a lack of minority staff. 

 Fulton, as the senior Republican spokesman, repeatedly badgered 

 Chairman Miller on the issue. When the subject was brought up in 

 public, Miller usually tried to change the subject, displaying either 

 angry irritation or amused tolerance in unpredictable mixtures. Miller 

 and Ducander both had been trained under the tutelage of "Admiral'' 

 Carl Vinson, who would never deign to allow a minority staff and 

 decreed that the staff should serve members of both parties equitably. 



A combination of factors, including some developments totally 

 outside the committee, finally helped achieve a breakthrough for the 

 Republicans. The Madden-Monroney Joint Committee on the Organi- 

 zation of Congress reported its recommendations for congressional 

 reform on July 18, 1966, including the stipulation that two professional 

 and one clerical staff be assigned to the minority on each standing com- 

 mittee on request. Although the Senate passed the reform recommenda- 

 tions, they remained bottled up in the House Rules Committee until 

 1970 when the law was finally passed. But even then, with an almost 

 solid Democratic vote, the House acted quickly to repeal the minority 

 staff provisions before they could actually take effect in January 1971. 

 Minority staff was a priority Republican goal. "Effective criticism 

 from the loyal opposition is essential to good government," stated 

 Representative James A. Cleveland (Republican of New Hampshire), 

 in the book We Propose: A Modern Congress. 



Journalists and political scientists interested in congressional 

 reform began to turn out articles and stir discussions which generally 

 favored the concept of minority staffs. Fulton and his allies became 

 bolder and more frequent in challenging Chairman Miller. Finally, 

 according to Ducander, Miller confided to him: 



"I cannot stand that man coming to me and worrying me. Let's give him one 

 goddam minority stafi member. * * *" This went right against George Miller's 

 grain. He could not stand to have Fulton on his back any more. 



Ducander added: 



When you get right down to the nitty gritty, (Fulton) just caused so much 

 goddam trouble that George Miller said: "I cannot stand it." So I called Fulton and 



