the months ahead, her controversial and always conservative remarks became a balm to Nixon’s “silent majority” base. She had it out for justices, educators, politicians, liberals, activists—even the nation’s hairdressers. Margaret Mead? “She caused a lot of trouble.” The Supreme Court? “Eradicate it!” Richard Nixon himself? “Sexy!” she declared. In an age where most high-ranking wives were still listed officially as mere extensions of their husbands, the idea of Martha making news under her own name was almost its own social revolution.
