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the Constitution.

Most of the Democrats from New York are opposed to him, certainly all the reformers are -- whether it's on Attica: that would be Badillo and Chisholm, or the war and his identification with the Vietnam war, and that would be Abzug's shtick, or just the general opposition to Rockefeller would be most people's feelings. But I approached it on the basis that the 25th amendment, as I saw it, required that I vote for someone that is intellectually able, who is financially honest and who is within the mainstream of the party in power, which would be the Republicans. I felt that Rockefeller qualified in these areas.

But I would not vote for him if his position on Israel were bad, but it was always very good until they released the testimony when he was interrogated by the Senate and he made two stupid statements. One related to Palestine, and he had a line in there which went something like this: “They” -- the Jews -- “took their land away” -- the Arabs’ and also language which indicated that he thought Israel should negotiate with the PLO.

So when Cannon came to see me, I said, “I'm telling you now -- I'm not voting for Rockefeller.” And up until that moment I had been very helpful to him, telling him what I thought he ought to do and contacting people. I said, “I'm not voting for him.” He said, “Why” I said, “Why? Have you seen that statement that he made before the Senate committee?” And I had gotten a copy of it. And he said, “Yes, he was tired.” I said, “I want to tell you now that unless that is corrected, I will not vote for him.”