[HAL9000]

Although he was a key participant, eventually serving seven months in prison for conspiracy to obstruct justice, Magruder said he still isn't sure why Nixon was obsessed with tapping O'Brien's phone.

Because O'Brien was taking briefcases full of illegal cash contributions for the DNC.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I don't buy it. This is too much of a bombshell to hold back this long, after so many books and so much commentary have flowed by, and especially after major players are dead and buried. Plus, Nixon isn't around to dispute it, which really sucks.

[FreeLibertarian]

Somewhere, a few days ago, I heard that we now have the technology to recover the erased data from the Nixon/White House Tapes. This will be interesting!

[shhrubbery!]

This is ancient history. It was only about sex. Let's move on.

Oops, forgot, those phrases only apply to Dem presidents.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

He is revealing the information now only because he was approached by the makers of a new documentary on the scandal, "Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History," scheduled to air on many PBS stations Wednesday, July 30 at 8 p.m.

PBS dredging this up 30 years later, our taxdollars paying for what will doubtless be total smear job. The guy's been dead for 10 years, and still the left needs their pound of flesh.

It's too bad our local talk radio station dropped G. Gordon Liddy's show awhile back, because I'd love to hear his take on this.

[hattend]

PBS has to make sure that Nixon is historically perceived as a bigger crook than the Clintons.

[kayak]

It would be difficult to corroborate Magruder's story.

It's funny that the media will run stories about GOP politicians without any additional sources but hold back on revealing things about 'rats unless the story checks out from all angles. The reason that most of the media gave for not paying attention to Juanita Broaddrick's charges is that it happened so long ago and they couldn't find corroborating evidence and testimonials.

Media bias? No, of course not. :^)

[IncPen]

John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel who is credited with blowing the lid off the Watergate scandal, said via e-mail that he was unaware of the Nixon-Mitchell conversation until Magruder advised him about it a few weeks ago.

I guess it beats the other story going around, that Dean's wife was a hooker and...

[El Gato]

former CIA agent G. Gordon Liddy

What can you expect, or believe, from a writer that can't get the basic facts correct. Liddy was never a CIA agent. He was an Army Officer, FBI agent, a federal prosecuter and a Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, all before he got involved in the Watergate mess. Afterwards, before he became a talk show host, he was an actor

[Old Professer]

And just when G. Liddy got his blood pressure under control we get this.

[Old Professer]

And just when G. Liddy got his blood pressure under control we get this.

[Old Professer]

Sorry for the double post.

[Lancey Howard]

"He asked me to call Haldeman and I handed him the phone. He spoke with Bob first and then he talked to John. "And then the president got on the line," Magruder said. "I could hear him. His voice was very distinctive."

Magruder heard the distinctive voice of Nixon.... which, in this case, was basically a buzzing sound eminating from the earpiece of a 1970ish telephone which was being held to the ear of another person.

Okay. Let's include this completely unverifiable morsel in our "documentary". Yeah.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I though the current court cases dealing with the break-in were about Dean getting back the picture of his wife that the DNC had?

[Eva]

At this point, I regard any "new" information on the Watergate scandal with skepticism. It would seem that any change of heart regarding the "truth" would be more likely a play for press coverage and a ploy for money.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Breaking news: Marcus Aurelius may have had conspiratorial discussions with Cleopatra

[Mo1]

It would be difficult to corroborate Magruder's story. All of the major participants - Nixon, Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and O'Brien - are dead.

He should have made these claims years ago ..

[Political Junkie Too]

I guess this means that once Clinton passes, people can make all sorts of claims about what he ordered or knew.

-PJ

[Clinging Bitterly]

Yeah whatever. I guess as these guys get old they go senile and forget how it all went down. I was a kid then but I remember it being talked about quite a bit and the details of the break-in and Nixon's involvement have been settled for a good while. The great offense has always been the "coverup", not the break-in itself.

Our family was, I guess, what you'd call a "Nixon" family. I wore my NIXON-AGNEW button to school, and I still have it. And he made some history during his administration, the China trip, various arms agreements with the USSR, his part in the cold war paved the way for Reagan, no doubt. But I am troubled by some of his official doings on the domestic side, the "wage and price freeze" a glaring example. With hindsight, and with Humphrey & McGovern as the alternatives, it would have been tough to be voting age, holding my current values, and knowing what he was going to do. The authoritarian fringe of the political spectrum, from the left or the right, is something that bothers me (and I'll be perfectly honest, it bothers me about Bush too). With all of this to think about, the Watergate ordeal just doesn't matter. He was a man of priciple, right or wrong, and was dedicated to those principles to the very end.

But Nixon is dead, and that's probably too bad. Shortly before his death, he was beginning to come out of disgrace, and he had some interesting things to say and I think the world would be in hetter shape had it heard more. Now he is long gone and here comes Magruder or whomever with a partial rewrite of the history of his time. I should be used to it, this sort of thing happens all the time, but it chaps my hide just a bit to read an article or book about the history of a time that I have lived and it is saying things that just didn't happen.

What purpose is being served by issuing this "new" information (which I, for one, do not believe for a minute)? If I had bothered to read downthread before posting I might have seen some theories, but suffice it to say, I smell a rat.

Dave in Eugene

[cricket]

"And then the president got on the line," Magruder said. "I could hear him. His voice was very distinctive. The gist of it was we needed to get the information on O'Brien. The only way, or the best way, was Liddy's plan."

So the 'fact is'. . .that Magruder's conclusions, taken and now reported, as fact. . .are based on Magruder's overhearing a conversation in which he is sure the voice on the other end was Nixon's. . .

a 'fact'; in fact, that he can not really know, unequivocally.