40. Robert F. Kennedy(D-MA)
Jan. 20, 1981-Sep. 24, 1986
Robert F. Kennedy also known as Bobby Kennedy, Bobby K, etc. started his political career as the Attorney General for his brother Jack.
Bobby diligently worked as an advisor to his elder brother. Bobby worked to resolve the Ole Miss situation (though he failed). But when Goldsboro blew up in his brother’s face and Bill Scranton swept him out of office Bobby was out of a job.
And if he was going to go anywhere in politics he needed to find something that could distance himself from his brother’s administration. However, where could he go? He couldn’t win a primary or a general election, and there lay the problem. Where was Bobby Kennedy to go?
The answer came in the summer of 1965.
On June 21st, 1965 long-time FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover got into a very, very nasty car accident. Hoover didn’t quite make it.
Bobby saw an opportunity.
Not even a minute after Hoover was in the dirt he went to President Scranton and asked to be appointed the new FBI Director. Scranton obliged figuring it would keep Bobby out of his hair. While the agents grumbled they obliged and Bobby quickly found his power base.
Bobby quickly built his power base around him enriching himself in the shadiness of the FBI. He quickly gathered up whatever political dirt on potential enemies he could find. Of course, Bobby still had to be slick, such as when Scoop Jackson brought to him the unveiled the Northwoods plan.
Bobby already knew about Operation Northwoods from his time in his brother's cabinet and seeing the iceberg ahead he quickly looked for a way out. He found one when his brother Teddy got into a car accident that left him needing help to recover for a while.
Bobby quickly took the opportunity and resigned pointing out his brother’s injury resulting from his car accident. He returned to Hyannis Point and watched from a safe distance as Scoop’s administration crumbled to ash in the resulting calamity. In the fallout following Scoop Jackson’s resignation as well as the resignation of the FBI Director with his brother having largely recovered from his car accident Bobby announced his return to “clean up” the department.
The new President Bob Casey would gleefully appoint him to his old job seeing him as a safe face the whole country could get behind. Of course, nothing truly changed with Bobby back in charge, the wiretapping still ran rampant as did the spying and dirt gathering on potential political enemies but it didn’t seem that way so nobody was none the wiser.
When Ford beat Casey to become President he saw no reason to replace Bobby who had admittedly done a good job at chasing down criminals and putting them away so he left Bobby to his own as FBI Director.
This would later prove to be a huge mistake as in early 1979 Bobby Kennedy announced his intention to run for the 1980 Democratic Nomination for President joining other heavyweights such as Senator Morris K. Udall from Arizona, Governor Jerry Brown of California, and New York Governor Hugh Carey. Kennedy however would not be deterred and instead moved to take down his opponents one by one.
Using the connections he had built up during his time as FBI Director Kennedy secretly released medical files that revealed Senator Udall was hiding his Parkinson's diagnosis. The effect was immediate with Senator Udall dropping in the polls and withdrawing after Iowa. Kennedy simply let Carey bury himself with his flipping between bouts of energy and palpable depression and boorishness on the campaign trail as well as the use of targeted attack ads on Carey in New Hampshire.
Kennedy carried New Hampshire causing Carey to withdraw and endorse him leaving the only two serious opponents Brown and Askew. Kennedy would sweep a majority of the primaries from there and would easily sow up the nomination.
At the convention social liberals concerned by Kennedy’s opposition to abortion and gay rights sought a replacement for Kennedy. However, their attempt failed and Kennedy was nominated overwhelmingly on the first ballot.
To balance the ticket both regionally and Ideologically Kennedy chose George Senator Jimmy Carter to be his running mate.
While many liberals were upset by Kennedy’s seemingly strong social conservatism (mostly his stances on abortion and gay rights). The DNC ignored Kennedy’s rougher edges in favor of the polling that showed him defeating Ford (surprising to some considering his obvious ties to his brother).
Things got even worse for the sinking Republican ticket when North Carolina Senator and arch-conservative Jesse Helms stagged a walkout among conservative Republicans at the RNC following the easy renomination of President Ford. Helms announced his intention to run as an independent with Congressman Guy Vander Jagt as his running mate.
Kennedy largely ignored the third party ticket instead focusing on his main opponent Ford whom he repeatedly hit with the worsening inflation, deep recession, and poor handling of the Iran-Hostage Crisis. While Ford tried to trade blows back it only led to Kennedy coming out on top each time.
Kennedy campaigned in the Northeast and the Mid West largely leaving the South to his running mate (Carter’s job was to try and keep as many Southern states as he could to vote Democratic). While surrogates such as Governor Brown campaigned in the Pacific.
As election day neared closer and closer it seemed that time did indeed heal all wounds as the public voted for their second Kennedy. Perhaps he would be better than his brother? The public hoped and thought.
1980 Election
FBI Director Robert F. Kennedy(D-MA)/Sen. Jimmy Carter(D-GA)-341 Electoral votes
Pres. Gerald R. Ford(R-MI)/Vice Pres. George H.W. Bush(R-TX)-138 Electoral votes
Sen. Jesse Helms(IND-NC)/Rep. Guy Vander Jagt(IND-MI)-59 Electoral votes
On January 20th, 1981 just 20 years following his brother’s inauguration Robert Francis Kennedy became the 40th President of the United States.
Kennedy quickly got to work. Working with Congress he crafted a massive 358 million dollar stimulus bill which passed easily. Kennedy got his first Supreme Court nomination when Ed Muskie retired in 1981. Kennedy’s first and only choice was former Secretary of the Interior under his brother Stewart Udall, Udall easily breezed through the process and was confirmed.
Kennedy also signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Act of 1981 which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program much to the chagrin of the more liberal members of Congress (including his younger brother Teddy).
Kennedy also passed a middle and lower-class tax cut. Of course, the biggest achievement for Kennedy was the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or Kennedycare as some liked to call it.
The bill prohibited healthcare providers and businesses called covered entities from disclosing protected information to anyone other than a patient and the patient's authorized representatives without their consent. The bill also protected health insurance coverage for workers and their families when they change or lose their jobs. And introduced two new major Federal healthcare insurance programs, Part C of Medicare and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP{1}.
The law was signed into law in March of 1982. In 1983 Kennedy got to appoint his second and final justice to the court when Bryon White stepped down. Of course, Kennedy wanted to replace White with a pro-life Democrat. His first choice was Secretary of State, Sargent Shriver.
Shriver’s nomination caused an uproar from the more liberal pro-choice side of the Democratic party which included New York Senator Elizabeth Holtzman who filibustered Shriver’s nomination until Shriver rescinded. Kennedy reluctantly nominated longtime Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm was easily confirmed to the court in September.
Come 1984 the economy had slowly but surely recovered from the recession and inflation was dealt with. Kennedy and Carter were both easily renominated by the Democrats with little to no challengers, while the Republican side quickly turned into a slugfest.
The two heavy hitters were former Vice President George Bush and Kansas Senator Bob Dole with Congressman Jack Kemp and Senator Howard Baker usually had decent showings coming in second or third. Vice President Bush eventually managed to win out over Senator Dole in what was a contentious primary.
Bush tapped Senator Baker to be his running mate.
Kennedy hit Bush over and over again on his ties to the still deeply unpopular Ford administration painting Bush as an even worse disaster in waiting. Bush of course tried to hit back by attacking Kennedycare only for Kennedy to point out in debates and stump speeches that Ford proposed his own healthcare reform plan when he was President and Bush never said anything. When Bush tried to attack the stimulus passed in early 1981 Kennedy hit back painting Bush as an elitist who didn’t care that the average American was suffering.
With the economy doing well and recovering Kennedy was reelected over Bush.
1984 Election
Pres. Robert F. Kennedy(D-MA)/Vice Pres. Jimmy Carter(D-GA)-393 Electoral votes
Fmr. Vice Pres. George H.W. Bush(R-TX)/Sen. Howard Baker(R-TN)-145 Electoral votes
Bobby Kennedy barely lifted his hand off the bible when a border dispute between Argentina and Brazil nearly kicked off a war between the two. Luckily Kennedy stepped in and mediated the dispute to avoid bloodshed.
In March of that same year, Kennedy met with General Secretary Gromyko to negotiate the SALT II treaty which was signed and ratified in the summer. Things were looking quite good for Kennedy…that was until a very dark secret was uncovered.
In February of 1986, a Fairchild C-123 Provider was shot down over Nicaragua. The cargo the plane was carrying was carrying 60 collapsible AK-47 rifles, 50,000 AK-47 rifle cartridges, several dozen RPG-7 grenade launchers, and 150 pairs of jungle boots.
A Fairchild C-123 Provider Circa 1971
The “kicker” Eugene Hasenfus also the only survivor having parachuted to safety was captured by the Nicaraguan government and interrogated. Hasenfus confessed to smuggling weapons into the country and was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Nicaraguan court. Hasenfus was released at the behest of President Kennedy and others investigating Iran-Contra in exchange for Sandinista soldiers captured by the Contras.
Though there was no direct evidence linking Kennedy to the arms sales it still damaged him. However, the worst was yet to come…
In the spring of that same year, prominent Texax politician Ben Barnes came forward to the New York Times with a bombshell story. Barnes confessed to unwillingly and unknowingly aiding the Kennedy camp in keeping the hostages trapped in Iran so he could win the 1980 election against Gerald Ford.
Barnes told about how in the summer of 1980, he accompanied his mentor and one-time business partner, former Texas governor John Connally(and Secretary of Defense under RFK){2}, on a trip to the Middle East during which Connally asked Arab leaders to communicate to Iranian officials that they should not release the hostages before Election Day and if they waited, Kennedy would offer them a better deal.
Almost immediately Kennedy’s approval ratings plummeted. Connally resigned as soon as the scandal was published. And soon after the floodgates opened and all the skeletons came out.
Stories of Kennedy’s rampant use and abuse of the FBI to spy on political opponents hit the airwaves. Stories of how Kennedy knew of the Northwoods scandal before it even started to come out. Facing impeachment and very likely removal from office Kennedy resigned in disgrace on September 24th, 1986.
Robert is seen as a below-average to awful President by historians. His defenders point out his achievements such as Kennedycare, welfare reform, and the great economy while his detractors point towards the Iran Hostage scandal, his abuse of the FBI to spy on opponents, and the massive damage he did to both the office of President and the country as a whole.
Authors Notes
1. This was a proposal by Bill Clinton in the '90s.
2. John Connally stays a Democrat ITTL.