If this Ben Stein piece and the links the Instapundit has collected are any indication, tempers are still very high about Watergae, and people are pissed at Mark Felt.
Personally, I think John Dean should still be in jail, and I still can not stand to see his smug, self-serving, preening face on television. The bastard arranged and knew about the break-in, lied to Nixon about it and gave him shitty legal advice, and then stabbed everyone in the back. I mean, if you want to talk about disloyalty, I would argue Dean would be the one you would point the finger at.
Rick
John,
Do you have a particular finger in mind?
Cordially…
Libertine
They did the crimes then did the time. Felt answered the last lingering question about that sad part of our history…turn the page.
Darrell
They did the crimes then did the time.
Actually, Felt did no time for his crime of leaking classified FBI info to the press
I love this observation in the Ben Stein piece regarding Nixon:
“Does anyone remember what he did that was bad? Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose”
ppgaz
That’s right. A criminal president employs every dirty trick in the book against his enemies, and lies through his teeth. But it’s the people who “betrayed” him that we should be angry at.
No wonder we have another lying craphead in the White House. apparently it’s loyalty that matters.
Okay, loyalty it is. Here’s what I’m loyal to: Anybody who stands up to any lying politician, any time and any place.
Richard Nixon deserved no loyalty. He deserved to be in jail, but was happy to let other people go to jail in his stead.
Screw him.
ppgaz
Ben Stein is a paid liar.
Nixon just lied? He presided over the commission of felonies and paid felons out of the White House. Then he employed every trick and juke-move in the book to try to weasel out of it, when caught.
I am glad to know that the mealy-mouthed apologists for Nixon are still around. I hope they squeal long and loud, because other people need to be reminded of how low these crapheads can go.
In my America, Mark Felt gets a monument on the Capitol Mall.
Richard Nixon gets a retroactive jail sentence.
David Frost interview:
Frost: Why did you have your campaign people call voters in the 1940’s and tell them that your opponent was a Communist?
Nixon: Well, you have to win.
Geek, Esq.
Listening to creeps like Colson, Liddy, and Pat “S.S.” Buchanan pontificate on public virtue is really just too much.
And the next wingnut who compares Watergate to Bill Clinton’s misbehavior gets a dozen lashes. Not to excuse the latter, but Nixon and his goons were a threat to the very existence of the Republic.
Compuglobalhypermeganet
but Nixon and his goons were a threat to the very existence of the Republic.
It is a day for hyperbole, obviously.
Rick
Compu,
Not, this is the *blog* for it. Nixon’s crew did many criminal things. In an existing Presidential tradition.
Glad they got caught, because it has drained the swamp some, making it harder for restoration of the criminal activity under a more Manhattan-approved President.
Cordially…
Stormy70
I have the Lynard Skynard approach to Watergate. It helps that I was too young to know anything about it. Glad to see the Republic survived Nixon. :-)
Rick
Stormy,
Yeah, like the Duke of Wellington said, it was the closest-run thing you ever saw.
Cordially…
Compuglobalhypermeganet
It’s all just part of the Myth of Nixon that the Democratic Party (motto: “Stuck in the ’70s!”) tries to keep alive.
Nixon was a paranoid, conniving politician. Granted. In no way did anything Nixon did threaten the Republic.
Had the Watergate burglary and subsequent cover-up never been leaked to the press, the only lasting historical effect would’ve been that we wouldn’t have had a President Ford or a President Carter, and Dems wouldn’t have the Nixon bogeyman to throw out every few years. No big losses (if not a net gain), if you ask me…and certainly no threat to the country.
In the long, old list of Presidential lies throughout history, which includes entering wars, turning blind eyes to murderous dictators, selling influence and secrets for partisan gain, etc., Nixon’s lies — and I’m glad they were discovered, but only because I have personal affinity for truth — seem rather trifling.
James
“If this Ben Stein piece and the links the Instapundit has collected are any indication, tempers are still very high about Watergae, and people are pissed at Mark Felt.”
Indeed. And these same people are undoubtedly now pissed at Newsweek, The NYT, Andrew Sullivan, et. al. and anyone else who dares report on any bad news out of Iraq, torture, etc.
It’s a strange old pathology: Someone has the temerity to report bad news? Blame the reporter! Never mind the ones actually committing the bad deeds…
Darrell
You got it James.. it’s not that we want honest reporting, or a sense of perspective or proportion.. nah, it’s just that we can’t stand any bad news being reported. How perceptive of you to pick up on that
Pug
Yes, Nixon lied like many other presidents.
He also collected slush funds and tried to pay witnesses for their silence.
Remember the tapes? “We can get the million dollars”, or whatever exactly he said.
Contrary to his own opinion, Nixon was a crook.
Rick
I think someone ought to be jailed for DARING TO REPORT THE TSUNAMI!!!
I blame someone!
Hmmm…I mentioned David Brock yesterday. He might have some blame the reporter tales to tell from his 1993 salad days. Unless Soros’s money is for hush-up.
Cordially…
Libertine
Actually, Felt did no time for his crime of leaking classified FBI info to the press
Leaking classified information?
I am waiting to hear to compromised a non-existent investigation.
JR
Gee….is this the same Mark Felt who had to be pardoned by Regan….
jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardons6.htm#historic
scroll down and check out the following:
W. Mark Felt and Edward Miller (Reagan, 1981; clemency for authorizing FBI agents to break into Vietnam protestors’ offices without warrants)
JR
More on the morally twisted Mr. Felt:
huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/dal-lamagna/felt-is-not-a-hero_1956.html
“Part of Felt
Geek, Esq.
Felt was no angel, but one doesn’t look in Heaven for witnesses against the Devil.
Compuglobalhypermeganet
The one thing I’m getting from the Deep Throat revelation (being too young at the time of Wgate) was how the media created the myth that W&B at the Post really “cracked” the Watergate case.
It’s becoming more and more obvious that W&B were handpicked by Felt for his “get-even” leaks because they were regarded as lightweights who wouldn’t have that level of FBI connections. If W&B would’ve been complete morons, Felt would’ve spoonfed them the scoop. He was using them — and if it wouldn’t have been them, it would’ve been someone else.
Of course, that doesn’t make quite as good a movie.
Dave Ruddell
Can we a least agree that telling lies about a robbery is worse than telling lies about getting a hummer?
Stormy70
Not if lying about said hummer was in your sexual harrassment suit. This isn’t a Presidential pissing contest between two crooked liars.
Rick
With Clinton, a cigar isn’t always just a cigar, but with both Bubba and Tricky Dick, obstruction of justice is just obstruction of justice.
Discuss.
Or ignore.
Cordially…
ppgaz
Yep, it’s the same old routine, as if it were just being dusted off from the 1970’s and trotted right out there.
Don’t focus on the insane, alcoholic egomaniac Nixon and his den of criminals in the White House.
Focus instead on the shortcomings of those who exposed him.
Look! Over here! Scary! Never mind the lying lunatic behind the curtain.
You know what, I’m sick of it. I’d vote for anybody who would just come out and tell the truth about this kind of stuff.
Somebody who would not resort to this kind of slimy manipulation:
Bush: WMD? Well, maybe they were moved to another country?
Russert: Okay.
Welcome to the world where Anything Goes, as long as you can dance around it later.
tim
This is a little late, but it is hilarious. Now everyone always knew who it was.
About Bob “Leaks within 12 hours, or your money back” Novak, the LA Times says this:
And longtime Washington pundit Robert Novak topped them all. Even though Deep Throat’s identity had been one of Washington’s most enduring and fascinating mysteries, Novak declared that just about everyone in the Capital had known all along.
Insert quarter *here*. Turn crank. No, I said insert **here**.
Ellen1910
John Dean . . . stabbed everyone in the back. John Cole
As my father used to say, “You lie down with dogs, you get up with flees.”
Nixon and his White House ran on paranoia. Loyalty ran in one direction, upward and often, solely to the President.
Dean knew how the game was played. He sensed he was being set up to take the fall. Was he wrong?
Organizations which don’t trust outsiders wind up not trusting insiders, either.
The Disenfrachised Voter
Mike Felt is indeed an American Hero. He is no saint, and I disagree with some of his actions as an FBI agent; but I applaud him for bringing down a corrupt Administration and the criminals inside it.
I was disgusted by the media yesterday. Many of them interviewing convicted criminals from the Watergate case, such as G. Gordon Liddy, and asking these people what their opinion of Felt is. Who gives two shits what these people think. They are the one who did the criminal acts in the Watergate scnadal. Mark Felt is no traitor, and the only people who would think so are unamerican fools–yes I’m talking about you, mike in houston.
We all owe Felt great respect and a big thank you. Thanks Mark.
With that said, Nixon did do some great things as President, but that does not give him the right to lie–which some of his defenders, such as Ben Stein, are suggesting. Does anyone other than a Nixon apologist really care what people like G. Gordon Liddy and Pat Buchanan think about Mark Felt? I sure as hell know I don’t. How these people think they have the right to talk about anyone’s ethics is ridiculous. After reading your article I also thought about something…
For being so “book” smart, Ben Stein sure is a complete dumbass when it comes to politics.
tim
It’s becoming more and more obvious that W&B were handpicked by Felt for his “get-even” leaks because they were regarded as lightweights who wouldn’t have that level of FBI connections.
Um, you might want to actually read up on what, you know, actually happened. Felt contacted Woodward because they were pals.
Compuglobalhypermeganet
I’m not convinced that your statement and mine are mutually exclusive, tim.
AlanDownunder
Felt could have asked his boss to launch a formal investigation or he could have leaked as he did.
I don’t know what to think about Felt without knowing whether his boss would have approved the investigation without tipping off the suspects.
That said, Nixon & his co-conspirators compare favourably with the current President and his co-conspirators (even allowing for the degree of overlap – Colson, Liddy etc)
A more strongly unfavourable comparison can be drawn between press and congress now and then. Right now there’s plenty of Felts but no pelts.
AlanDownunder
Felt could have asked his boss to launch a formal investigation or he could have leaked as he did.
I don’t know what to think about Felt without knowing whether his boss would have approved the investigation without tipping off the suspects.
That said, Nixon & his co-conspirators compare favourably with the current President and his co-conspirators (even allowing for the degree of overlap – Colson, Liddy etc)
A more strongly unfavourable comparison can be drawn between press and congress now and then. Right now there’s plenty of Felts but no pelts.
The Disenfrachised Voter
“I don’t know what to think about Felt without knowing whether his boss would have approved the investigation without tipping off the suspects.”
Felt’s boss–the head of the FBI–destroyed evidence for the Nixon Administration. I think it is rather obvious that Felt’s boss wasn’t the man to go to.