President Nixon: Yeah.
Operator: Congressman [Leslie C.] Arends [R-Illinois] is on the line, sir.
Leslie Arends: Yeah.
President Nixon: Hello.
Arends: Hello.
President Nixon: Well, you won a close one.1
Arends: [chuckling] Oh, Mr. President.
President Nixon: Yeah, and I just wanted to tell you how pleased I was, and I've been trying to reach you earlier, but you were running around.
Arends: Yeah, yeah.
President Nixon: Where have you been? Out at Burning Tree?
Arends: No, no [laughs].
President Nixon: [Laughs.]
Arends: Not with that [unclear].
President Nixon: Well, that was a wonderful job, wonderful job.
Arends: [Unclear] real hard work.
President Nixon: Yeah, and it's great. Now, you know just get good conferees--”
Arends: That's it.
President Nixon: --”because we'll force that Senate. You know, even if we lose it there. You can't recede completely, can you?
Arends: Hell, no. No, sir.
President Nixon: No, sir. Never.
Arends: No, that's right. Now we've kind of got them on the hump a little bit.
President Nixon: OK. How do our guys feel now that they've won it? Do they feel good?
Arends: They feel, a lot of the boys feel real good about it. Yeah, and I think some of the boys who even voted against us are a little happy about it now. You know?
President Nixon: Great.
Arends: We changed four of them in Illinois. We got four boys from Illinois. [Representative Robert H.] Michel and [Representative Harold R.] Collier and [Representative Philip M.] Crane. And--”
President Nixon: Isn't that wonderful.
Arends: [House Minority Leader Gerald R.] Ford∇ got them to withdraw their --œno-- votes and vote present. We got pairs for them.2
President Nixon: [Laughs.] Good!
Arends: That made the difference.
President Nixon: That's great!
Arends: Oh, yeah.
President Nixon: That's great.
Arends: It was great.
President Nixon: Well--”
Arends: Well, I'm glad it worked out.
President Nixon: Well, I appreciate it Les. Bye.
Arends: Yeah, I know you do, and gosh, we're on the team.
President Nixon: Bye. Right, bye.
Arends: Thanks, Mr. President.
1 The House had voted 201--“197 to resume financing the Supersonic Transport. New York Times, 13 May 1971, --œRoll-Call Vote in House on Financing of SST Project.-- (↑)
2 Arends refers to the parliamentary maneuver of --œpairing-- lawmakers who plan to vote opposite ways, thus canceling one another's votes out. (↑)