A gold nugget buried in 154 hours of archived recordings released for the first time today. By “needs” he of course meant we need them to run for office, not in any untoward sense. This is Nixon we’re talking about, people.

In February of 1973, President Nixon called future president and then-Republican National Committee chairman George H.W. Bush, and recounted a recent visit to the South Carolina state legislature.

“I noticed a couple of very attractive women, both of them Republicans, in the legislature,” Nixon told Bush. “I want you to be sure to emphasize to our people, God, let’s look for some… Understand, I don’t do it because I’m for women, but I’m doing it because I think maybe a woman might win someplace where a man might not… So have you got that in mind?”

Bush replies, “I’ll certainly keep it in mind.”

The good news: Big tent! The bad news: Turns out identity politics is encoded in the modern Republican Party’s DNA. Who’ll tell Heather MacDonald? Since there’s no way for me to analyze whether any “progress” has been made in implementing Nixon’s plan without setting off a clusterfark of feminist indignation, I’ll humbly demur and instead point you to this NYT piece, also about today’s tapes, in which Nixon declares that abortion is “necessary” for … interracial babies. Proof positive that not even the grave can spare the GOP bad press from racist anti-Obama douchebaggery.