The letter's immediate effect was to compel the candidate to give a speech in front of the newspaper's offices, subsequently known as "the crying speech".[a] The letter's indirect effect was to contribute to the demise of Muskie's candidacy.
William Loeb III, aged 66, was publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, a conservative newspaper based in Manchester, New Hampshire. Loeb had previously been critical of Muskie—after the senator visited Moscow in January 1971,[5] Loeb labeled him "Moscow Muskie" in a front-page editorial that also deemed him "a very dangerous man".[6]
Letter to the editor
On Thursday, February 24, the Union Leader published a letter to the editor about Muskie. It was accompanied by a front-page editorial by Loeb, headlined "Sen. Muskie Insults Franco-Americans", which concluded with (in all capital letters), "We have always known that Senator Muskie was a hypocrite, but we never expected to have it so clearly revealed as in this letter sent to us from Florida."[7] The letter itself appeared in the paper on the editorial page in its entirety.[8]
In a childish scrawl with poor spelling, the author of the letter claimed to have been present during a visit by Muskie and his staff to a drug rehabilitation center known as Seed House in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[9] Someone asked Muskie how he could understand the problems of African Americans when his home state of Maine had such a small black population. A member of Muskie's staff was said to have responded that the state did not have black people, but it did have "Canucks" (which the letter misspelled), and that Muskie laughed at the remark. In part, the letter read:[10]
He didn't have any in Maine a man with the Senator said. No blacks, but we have Cannocks [sic]. What did he mean? We asked —Mr. Muskie laughed and said come to New England and see.
While an affectionate term among Canadians today,[11] "Canuck" is a term often considered derogatory when applied to Americans of French-Canadian ancestry in New England; a significant number of New Hampshire voters were of such ancestry.[12]
On Friday, February 25, Loeb published a "guest editorial" in the Union Leader that was critical of Muskie's wife, Jane Muskie, entitled "Big Daddy's Jane".[13][14] The content came from a Newsweek editorial of December 27, 1971, which itself drew from an article written by a reporter with Women's Wear Daily who traveled on the campaign trail with Jane Muskie.[13]
The editorial, as reproduced in the Union Leader, said the reporter "took down all the breezy quotes", which included Jane Muskie saying "Let's tell dirty jokes" to reporters and staff, along with comments about smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.[15][16] The source article in Women's Wear Daily, which ran on December 17, 1971, began with:[14]
BEDFORD, N.H.—"Put your notebooks way, girls, Momma's going to sing tonight." With that, Jane Gray Muskie lit another filter-tip cigarette and invited the members of her traveling press corps to cheese and drinks in her room and dinner at the Steak House in her motel.
The author of the Women's Wear Daily article, Andrea "Kandy" Stroud, felt that Newsweek had "picked up the sensational parts of the story".[14]
The crying speech
Muskie delivering his speech in front of the headquarters of the Manchester Union Leader
On the morning of Saturday, February 26, ten days before the 1972 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary of Tuesday, March 7, Muskie delivered a speech in front of the offices of the Union Leader. Muskie called Loeb a liar and lambasting him for impugning the character of Jane Muskie. During his speech, Muskie said of Loeb, "By attacking me and my wife, he has proved himself to be a gutless coward."[17]
Most significantly, newspapers reported that Muskie cried openly.[18][19]David S. Broder of The Washington Post had it that Muskie "broke down three times in as many minutes".[20]David Nyhan of The Boston Globe had Muskie "weeping silently".[21][22] James M. Naughton of The New York Times wrote, "The Senator broke into tears minutes later, his speech halting",[23] although in later discussion, Naughton said he could not confirm that Muskie cried.[19] On television in New York City, CBS ran film that appeared to show Muskie crying, while ABC had run out of film during the speech, and NBC said they did not receive any film from the event.[18]
Muskie maintained that if his voice cracked, it cracked from anger at Loeb. The tears, Muskie claimed, were actually snow melting on his face.[24] White House aide Pat Buchanan later noted that "as Senator Muskie himself has stated", Muskie's emotion was primarily due to the editorial about his wife, rather than the Canuck letter.[25]
Effect
In early March, Rowland Evans and Robert Novak wrote in their syndicated political column that Muskie had, in their view, committed three errors: first, allowing state-level staff to convince him of a questionable tactical decision (verbally attacking Loeb); second, digressing into topics (the editorial about his wife) not discussed with advisors; and third, losing control of his emotions.[26]
Whether Muskie cried or not, fear of his alleged unstable emotional condition led some New Hampshire Democrats to defect to George McGovern. Loeb was quoted in The Boston Globe stating, "if I was voting[b] I wouldn't vote for a man who gets as excited as that, to put his finger on the nuclear button."[27] Muskie's winning margin over McGovern on March 7 in the New Hampshire primary, 46% to 37%, was smaller than his campaign had predicted.[24] The bounce and second-place finish led the McGovern campaign to contrast Muskie’s weakness with McGovern's growing strength.[24]
When Muskie finished fourth in the Florida primary of March 14, the Associated Press wrote it "cast doubt" about his status as Democratic front-runner approaching the Wisconsin primary of April 4.[28] After McGovern finished first in seven of Wisconsin's nine congressional districts, McGovern was established as a "major contender" in the race while for Muskie it was "another smashing setback".[29] With additional poor showings in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania on April 25, Muskie suspended his campaign on April 27.[30]
Reflecting on the episode in 1987, David S. Broder wrote, "Muskie never recovered from that Saturday in the snow."[24]
Authorship of the letter
On October 10, 1972, FBI investigators revealed that the Canuck letter was part of a dirty tricks campaign against Democrats orchestrated by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP, later derisively nicknamed CREEP).[31]Washington Post staff writer Marilyn Berger had reported that, on September 25, White House staffer Ken W. Clawson had bragged to her about authoring the letter.[4] Clawson denied Berger's account.[4]Union Leader publisher Loeb maintained that the letter was not a fabrication, while admitting to having some doubt after receiving another letter claiming that someone had been paid $1,000 to write the Canuck letter.[4] The founder of the drug rehabilitation center in Fort Lauderdale, site of the supposed event described in the letter, said he was present throughout Muskie's visit and, "What Mr. Loeb printed in his newspaper never happened."[23] The purported author of the Canuck letter, a "Paul Morrison" of Deerfield Beach, Florida, was never found.[4]
