GOP Chief at Yorba Linda Fund-Raiser : Atwater Hails Nixon at Library Event

Lee Atwater, chairman of the Republican National Committee, carried the GOP’s blessing to the site of the planned Richard M. Nixon Library in Yorba Linda Thursday, telling about 300 contributors that Nixon is “a man who history will remember as a great President.”

“It is already happening,” Atwater told the crowd gathered at a reception in the bare steel structure of the future library building. “As I travel around the country, more and more people are thinking back on the Nixon years and understanding the massive accomplishments he made.”

Atwater also praised Orange County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, host of the fund-raiser for the library on the site of Nixon’s birthplace.

“I’ve got to tell you, this is a man with a future,” Atwater said. “This is a man you are going to be seeing and hearing about for years to come.”

Vasquez, 33, has been encouraged by the California Republican leadership to run for a statewide office in 1990. But he has declined, citing family reasons.

But Atwater, who met Tuesday with Vasquez in Washington, said the supervisor is important to President Bush’s effort to expand the base of the Republican Party. “I can’t think of a better example of what the President wants us to do than Gaddi Vasquez,” he said.

Atwater’s appearance at Thursday’s a $100-a-person fund-raiser for the library is part of Nixon’s recent re-emergence into the spotlight. And Yorba Linda has been at the forefront of the movement.

The city received national attention last week when its City Council voted unanimously to make Jan. 9--Nixon’s birthday--a city holiday.

Nixon “was deeply gratified by it,” said John Taylor, Nixon’s spokesman, who attended the fund-raiser. “He thought it was another gesture of the genuine hospitality he has received from the people of Orange County.”

The grand opening of the Nixon library is scheduled for June 21, 1990, almost 16 years after his resignation from office during the Watergate scandal.

Nixon is planning to appear at the grand opening of the library, which falls on the 50th anniversary of his marriage to Pat Nixon. Thursday, however, he sent a letter to be read at the fund-raiser that included a message for Atwater, who was known in the Bush presidential race for his aggressive, attack-style campaigning.

“From one old-fashioned, hardball politician to another: I know we are living in a softball era, but don’t be too kind and gentle tonight with our mutual friends in the media. If you are, they won’t respect you in the morning.”