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In the process fairness and decorum would fall by the wayside. Birch Bayh's chief of staff, Bob Keefe would later admit "to maintain the fantasy that they were unworthy for reasons other than their judicial philosophy, we had to develop other rationales. In the case of Haynsworth, we found that he had a rather loose view of the appearance of conflict of interest."

Unlike the lifelong ethical challenges that ended Abe Fortas' career on the Supreme Court, the conflict charged against Clement Haynsworth was minor in comparison: he had voted in a case involving the Vend-A-Matic Company, a company that he held 3% of shares in. Combined with foot soldiers from the AFL-CIO and the NAACP working Capitol Hill around the clock in full opposition to Haynsworth, this fiction was just enough to destroy any chance for a successful confirmation.

Like the failed candidacy of Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court, Haynsworth would still manage to narrowly win a Senate Judiciary committee vote to favorably confirm him. But with reports of his ethical lapses so widespread, his prospects for success looked dim and shortly after the committee vote Nixon would consider asking Haynsworth if he wanted his name withdrawn.

A reprieve of sorts came in the form of a complaint about the lackluster support given the nominee by the White House congressional affairs office. The complaint was lodged by an Assistant Attorney General, relative unknown William Rehnquist (who would ultimately be nominated by Nixon to the court and elevated by President Reagan to be Chief Justice) who had been assigned to assist Haynsworth through the confirmation process. Because of the complaints, the White House responded with an innovation that continues to this day for each Supreme Court nominee: it created an ad hoc team of Nixon staff and outside supporters designed to help keep the nomination from derailing. The team was led by two young Republicans on Nixon's White House staff Patrick J. Buchanan and Lynn Nofzinger.

In the space of a couple weeks, these two had developed the first "pro-confirmation campaign" for a Supreme Court nominee. It included focusing on the newspapers in the home states of targeted senators and even having Harry Dent, President Nixon's Counsel appear on "Johnny Carson's" evening show to pitch the judge. Recognizing the high stakes involved the two men went so far as to call major campaign contributors to the targeted Senators as a way to keep the pressure on. Even President Nixon himself got in on the effort with the task force setting up an Oval Office press conference in which the president claimed that his nominee was a victim of "character assassination." And for the first time the White House asked a conservative group, the National Rifle Association to weigh in on a Supreme Court nominees behalf.

The strategy almost worked and likely would have if it had started sooner. Although the attacks by his opponents cost him dearly among Republicans, the campaign had successfully moved 19 Senate Democrats into Haynsworth corner offsetting the 17 republican Senators who had defected. But that would be insufficient to prevail.

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