(California Governor Earl Warren - Warnings of the Right Wing Fringe in The Republican Party in 1952)
Before he was Supreme Court Justice, Earl Warren was three-time Governor of California and an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency in 1952.
On the eve of the convention, ABC Radio conducted a panel interview with Warren for their Crossfire Radio series, featuring newsmen Martin Agronsky, Elmer Davis, John Edwards and Bryson Rasch.
Warrend ducks and dodges a number of questions regarding his electability, but the most interesting one came from Agronsky:
Martin Agronsky: At the National Press Club here Governor, you described the Republican party as having, and I’m quoting you ‘a withering right wing’. Were you referring to the wing which supports Senator Taft’s nomination?”
Gov. Earl Warren: “I wasn’t pointing that at anybody, I was stating it as a fact, that there is a group in our party that is extremely reactionary, that would like to turn the clock back to former days if it could do so. . . . ”
Warren: "You folks know exactly what I mean. You know the people who believe that anything that is done for them represents social progress but if it’s done for anybody else it represents socialism."
Fancy that.