I have no idea why the following comment, from Jeff, was rejected by the Movable Type blacklist, but what the hell. If you’re a Watergate hobbyist, let’s use it to kick off a thread on Deep Throat discussion. Add your own, if you’re so inclined:
.. . .and for those who haven’t followed the ongoing inside baseball recriminations of the fellow Nixonians, it was fascinating to listen to G. Gordo shiv his little alternative reality into every interview he did, elliptically enough to keep ducking a libel suit from John Dean. His theory, not voiced for ten years but pushed avidly the last twenty, is that the Watergate burglary was entirely a John Dean initiative, set out to recover info Dean feared the DNC had on his wife’s purported pre-nuptual career as a high-priced call girl. Mo was a wild girl, but most unlikely to have been a lady o’ the eve, and even if ’twere all true, it doesn’t begin to explain all the other nefariousness in the White House at that time.
But Liddy’s anger at Dean for squealing knows no bounds, not even of rationality. Colson’s unwillingness to concede the heroism of Felt was sad; the fact that Buchanan wanted to keep defending a President who we had just heard uttering anti-Semitic slander is, well, unsurprising, but still vile.
Ah, but it is all great political Kabuki for us mid-40’s age folk. Closure, not so much.
By the way, I’m pretty sure it was the phrase “call girl” that got the comment smacked down, so if you want to continue the conversation on that topic, come up with a euphemism to fool the blacklist filter — “hotel maid,” say.
Michael G said on June 1, 2005 at 8:48 am
It was the Politically Correct Police. Should have written “call person”. I watched all that stuff live. For some reason my favorite memories of the hearings were ol’ Senator Sam claiming he was just an old country boy and Sen. Howell Heflin (I think it was) expressing his deep respect at the revelation that Maurice Stans was a member of the accounting hall of fame. He must have beaten Stans over the head with it 20 times. The enduring thing is the complete disconnect from reality on the part of people like Liddy and the current administration folks.
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ashley said on June 1, 2005 at 9:00 am
Jeez, and I thought nobody took the rat eater seriously any more. As for Buchanan, well, that’s just sad. Can’t see the damned forest ’cause all the trees are in the way.
I wonder if Nixon would have stolen Edwin Edwards tagline: “Vote for the crook; it’s important”. This, of course, when Edwards was running against the “misunderstood” David Duke.
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Pam said on June 1, 2005 at 10:58 am
I’m glad that Mark Felt revealed himself as the deep throat. Now I get to explain all of this history to my son. Pat Buchanan (the idiot!) should just hear how he sounds. On television he basically said that it’s ok to break the law if it’s to advance a cause or a president that he personally believes in. Tom Brokaw found his statements “breathtaking”. I did as well and actually gasped when he said that Nixon was a popular president. That’s clearly not my recollection of Nixon. In discussing this with my son we also talked about the Oliver North scandal (my personal fave on the outrage scale). No wonder no one trusts the government or our elected officials. But I’m looking forward to the coming days of discussion on deep throat to see what everyone says about it and I’m sure, to get a few laughs.
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4dbirds said on June 1, 2005 at 11:20 am
Pam,
Oliver North and I shop in the same food store. I’m always amazed at the number of people who come up to him and want to shake his hand. I think it is the lure of celebrity. I want to yell “Murderer” but my Mom taught me better manners than that. Instead I just just snear at him.
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brian stouder said on June 1, 2005 at 1:34 pm
It is surprising indeed, how some of these people are reacting.
John Dean is the most interesting commentator so far….On Olberman’s show last night he seemed to be sharpening a long knife for use on Woodward (et al) and Felt, but he isn’t using it yet
Seriously – if The Congressional Medal of Freedom is worth anything at all, they should award one to that fellow. Whatever his motivations were (who cares?!) his actions served his nation….and unlike so many, he didn’t parlay that service into a pile of money, but instead simply grew old
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MarkH said on June 1, 2005 at 1:48 pm
For the record, Michael G., Heflin wasn’t in the Senate at the time of Watergate. It was Georgia’s Herman Talmadge, a Democrat no less, that marvelled at Stans’ status in the Accounting Hall of Fame.
In a terrific 30+ year old Watergate comedy bit, Robert Klein hit on Talmadge’s focus on this fact, and how the news media (and much of the country) let this go. Talmadge was relentless on this, and I have to think his point (and Klein’s), was that accounting funny business was at the root of the scandal, and it takes people with Hall of Fame skills and status in the field to finagle money in the way they did.
BTW, the Accounting Hall of Fame was started in Columbus at Ohio State University in 1950 and is a part of their business school.
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Nance said on June 1, 2005 at 1:56 pm
My fave Watergate-related comment came from Nixon supporter Earl Landgrebe, a state senator from — where else? — INDIANA who, when his support for Tricky Dick was questioned, said?
Anyone?
“Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
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brian stouder said on June 1, 2005 at 3:21 pm
“Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
Well, one fact that IS worth noting, is that the FBI had been directed by only one person in it’s whole history up ’till 1972 – and that that one person had constructed a loaded gun aimed right at whoever resided in the White House (to the extent that the Director of the FBI was simply un-fireable – and therefore unaccountable – to anyone.
Therefore one way of looking at the origins of Watergate, is that within two weeks(!) of Hoover’s death, Deep Throat began the process of firing that gun
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Michael G said on June 2, 2005 at 8:42 am
You’re absolutely right, Mark. Thanks. For some reason I couldn’t dredge Hummen Talmadge up from my poor old CRS ridden brain. They were all Dems in the South in the old days.
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