Political strategist key in Carter’s ’76 win
Robert Strauss, who rose from the Texas Plains to become an influential Washington insider, leading the Democratic Party and hopscotching among White House posts when not making millions as a lobbyist and deal maker, died Wednesday. He was 95.
His law firm, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, confirmed his death.
As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Strauss helped mastermind his party’s recapture of the White House in 1976 with the election of Jimmy Carter. He went on to become a trusted adviser to Carter, serving as special trade representative, a negotiator in Middle East peace talks and chief adviser to Carter’s anti-inflation campaign.
It was Strauss whom Nancy Reagan asked to tell her husband, President Ronald Reagan, that the Iran-contra arms-for-hostages scandalwas corroding his administration and that he had to make changes. It was Strauss whom President George Bush in 1991 appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Bob Woodward wrote in his book Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate (1999) that when some Republican leaders in the House were having second thoughts about impeaching President Bill Clinton, they turned to Strauss to ask other Republican leaders to consider censure instead.
Through the law firm he co-founded - Akin, Gump - Strauss deftly navigated the territory where business and government intersect and deals are made. Over Thanksgiving dinner in 1990 at the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan, he brokered finaldetails of Matsushita Electric’s takeover of MCA for $6.6 billion. His reported $8 million fee was split between both sides, because he had represented both.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/21/2014