WHAT do Bill Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Russell Kirk-the three giants of American conservatism—conspire about at a secret 1962 meeting in Florida? How to decouple the ultra-right-wing Robert Welch and his John Birch Society from the conservative movement and from Senator Goldwater, who is then warily considering a run for the presidency.
What critical task is Goldwater operative Richard Kleindienst given in the middle of the 1964 New Hampshire Republican primary? To get Doloris Bridges, the outspoken widow of Sen. Styles Bridges, to stop campaigning for Goldwater and reminding people that Barry once said he’d like to lob a bomb into the men’s room of the Kremlin. There’s only one way, New Hampshire campaign chairman Sen. Norris Cotton remarks, placing a bottle of Old Crow before the virile young Kleindienst: Make love to Doloris.
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