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

A most revealing and well written book by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz tells the story that shocked us in the 1970s, when Watergate dominated the news and we were firmly focused on the upcoming impeachment of Richard Nixon, no one really expected that the first indictment would turn out to be Vice-President Spiro Agnew. Suddenly, Agnew resigned his office and in a plea bargain, was convicted of not only accepting bribes, but demanding them as the price to get the VPs support. What is more, he had previously done the same as governor of Maryland and prior to that, even as a county official.Bag Man by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz is a fascinating look at, arguably, the most corrupt person in the most corrupt presidential administration in the nation's history. The Justice Department had a deadline that had to be met to get the VP out of office before he could be the successor when Nixon resigned or was impeached. You thought Nixon and his band of political cronies were bad? Just imagine what it would have been like to live under President Agnew! And Agnew gave his prosecutors plenty of ammunition.But it all had to be about the timing. The DOJ had plenty of evidence to get the VP arrested and thrown in jail, but the concept of a long, drawn-out trial was just too much. It had been agreed through history, that while the President could not be indicted while in office (though he or she can be tried for crimes committed while in office after leaving the office) the Vice-President had no such constitutional protection. What would have happened if a VP, going through a lengthy trial, had become President due to the resignation or removal from office of the sitting President? The mind boggles.

Rachel Maddow's Bagman digs deeply into the case that led to the first resignation of a sitting vice president in U.S. history. I lived through the event, so I knew something about it. But Maddow's thoroughly researched book, which includes new primary sources, explains a lot more about not only what Spiro Agnew did but also the context in which he did it. In clear, conversational language -- in my mind, she was "reading" it to me and sounded not very different from how she sounds on TV -- Maddow also draws straight-line connections between Agnew and Donald Trump.To the extent that the book is a cautionary tale, it illustrates the bad things that can happen when high-ranking criminals are allowed not to go to prison, no matter how well-intentioned the reasons for it are. In Agnew's case, in the summer and fall of 1973, the Justice Department and some in Congress increasingly suspected that Richard Nixon's presidency likely was doomed because of Watergate. So they wanted very much to get an obvious criminal out of the line of succession to the presidency by any means necessary. I'm not saying that offering a plea deal to Agnew that included no prison time was a wrong call; rather, in a limited universe of uniformly bad choices, that deal was the least bad -- but not by much.The book is enlightening and engaging, a history book whose relevance today is unquestioned. My heartiest recommendation.

A compelling book & podcast. Really well done portrayal of a bad time in American politics. A bad president & Vice President never truly held accountable & who some want to look back on as “not so bad”. Problem is it DOES get worse, doesn’t it?

An excellent job by Rachel Maddow & Michael Yarvitz in overturning the rock that is the history of Spiro T. Agnew. Under that rock has lain dormant a history that reverberates to this very day in it's implications for us all. What crawls out from under, is a hodgepodge of slimy creatures we sadly haven't yet found a proper and expeditious way of dealing with in judicial fairness. This is a warning to everyone, that if we cannot put aside partisanship in bringing justice and learn from our past mistakes, we will have abandoned democracy and our progeny to the whim's of an unlawful few.

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!!!

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