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Mr. Max Friedersdorf
Shortly after, Donald Rumsfeld contacted Mr. Friedersdorf offering him the congressional relations position at the Office of Economic Opportunity under President Nixon. From there, he says, he met a lot of people who went on to bigger and better things. It opened a lot of doors. After a year at the Office of Economic Opportunity, he received the offer to work at the White House in congressional relations. Upon receiving the call, his response was, “When do I start?”
As a journalism major with a political science minor, he had always had an eye on politics but recognized that it was about getting the right breaks and meeting the right people at the right time. During the Nixon administration, Friedersdorf served as the Special Assistant for Congressional Relations and Deputy Assistant to the President for the House of Representatives. Through the Watergate scandal, Mr. Friedersdorf decided to stick it out, he said he liked his job and he liked the president.
The day that Nixon resigned, President Gerald Ford had a receiving line in the West Wing and the employees walked through. When Mr. Friedersdorf through the line, President Ford told him, “Max, I want you to stay. I’m going to need all the help I can get.” He served as the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. He was also a part of the delegation that was appointed to travel to China. He served as the Staff Director of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
When President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1991, he reached out to Mr. Friedersdorf to notify him that he had been recommended for the position of Assistant to the President for Congressional Relations and wanted to see if he had any interest in joining his staff. Before the phone call ended, Mr. Friedersdorf had accepted the position and started the next day.
In a 2002 interview, Stephen Knott spoke of how he was preparing a briefing book on Max Friedersdorf and could not find a single criticism anywhere. He said that it was unheard of, and found nothing but tremendous praise from both sides of the aisle. Mr. Friedersdorf said that he had good mentors and good teachers and that it all started in Indiana. A master communicator… he is a remarkable man who had a remarkable career.