"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to.
This is the last stand on Earth."
~Ronald Reagan
please click the pic
Help support Free Republic!
Posted on 08/07/2014 12:23:52 PM PDT by Kaslin
On the occasion of this week's 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency, The Washington Post sponsored a reunion featuring Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporters who "brought down" the 37th president.
In fact, Nixon committed political suicide. He thought he could get away with what other politicians had done, but forgot the rules are different for Republicans.
The Post event resembled a celebration with much laughter and stories about how Publisher Katharine Graham and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee had told the newsroom "no gloating" when it became apparent Nixon would resign. But gloat they did for years to come.
The story of how Lyndon Johnson “stole” the 1948 Senate election away from Coke Stevenson, allegedly by use of voter fraud, which, The New York Times writes, allowed him to overcome "...a 20,000-vote deficit to achieve his famous 87-vote victory," is chronicled in Robert A. Caro's book "Means of Ascent," a multi-volume biography of the 36th president. It is also no secret how Kennedy money and, according to journalist Seymour M. Hersh in his book "The Dark Side of Camelot," a little mafia influence delivered the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy.
These men were Democrats and though Johnson's legacy is tarnished by his escalation of the Vietnam War, he deservedly earns plaudits today for his work on civil rights legislation.
Nixon was different. While Kennedy expertly schmoozed the press and Johnson was a master manipulator and arm-twister, Nixon brooded about slights and injustices he felt had been done to him.
When Pat Nixon died in 1993, I wrote a column about her. I had met her on a few occasions and said she did not fit the "plastic Pat" label assigned to her by critics. I noted she didn't like politics, but endured it for the sake of her husband, preferring instead to stay out of the limelight.
Nixon wrote and thanked me, but then launched into a diatribe about the media and how they never understood her and by implication him.
My other personal remembrance of Nixon came in the early 1970s. I was trying to become a network correspondent at NBC News in Washington and was assigned to weekend stories more seasoned reporters didn't want to cover. One of them was Nixon's Sunday White House “church” service. Bob Schieffer had recently arrived in Washington from Texas for CBS News and he drew the same assignment.
Nixon, or someone on his staff, likely pre-cleared the speakers in order to avoid the potential embarrassment of one of them criticizing Nixon for not immediately ending the Vietnam War. Speakers included Rev. Billy Graham and a Catholic prelate whose name now escapes me. Afterward, a reception was held in the East Room where reporters and guests could speak with Nixon, Secretary of the Treasury John Connally and other Cabinet members.
I found these events uncomfortable and a contrast in content and form from my own church experience. An explanation came when the secretly recorded Oval Office conversations became public and Nixon is heard taking God's name in vain and disparaging Jews and his "enemies." On hearing the tapes, Graham expressed shock and dismay at Nixon's language, though on one recording Graham is heard agreeing with Nixon about Jews controlling the media, a comment for which he later apologized.
Nixon defenders have always contended that he did nothing different from other presidents. Maybe, but he certainly appears to have done a lot more of it than other presidents and his personality was anything but endearing to the press and to those on his "enemies list." Nixon seemed to be saying to the press, "hit me again, I can take it.
Nixon was not a conservative Republican. He imposed wage and price controls, created the Environmental Protection Agency and two of the four justices he appointed to the Supreme Court -- Harry Blackmun and Warren Burger -- were part of the 7-2 majority vote in the Roe v. Wade case, which ushered in abortion on demand.
Still, he remains one of our most fascinating presidents and one we can be sure historians will "kick around" for at least another 40 years.
Nobody died from Watergate.
Benghazigate.... that’s quite a different story.
Fast and Furiousgate... ditto...
I never understood why Nixon forced out his Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and replaced him with Elliot Richardson, a Northeastern liberal of the sort Nixon supposedly despised. Kleindienst, a Goldwater man, would never have hired Archibald Cox, a Kennedy man, to be the special prosecutor investigating Nixon. Had he kept Kleindienst, who never had anything to do with Watergate, Nixon would probably have finished his term.
America owes a huge apology to Richard Nixon. In light of the 1000 plus crimes and misdemeanors Obama has gotten away with; Nixon looks like an Altar Boy.
How about Clintons 9 gabillion freakin’ gates? Only when he got caught redhanded committing perjury did they do anything and still he remained in office. Remember him selling grave plots in Arlington? Larry Lawrence, never served a day in the military but Bubba sold him a grave plot in Arlington. Or how about renting out the Lincoln room to celebrities high on cocaine jumping on the bed? The same room the Emancipation proclamation was signed and these pigs were crapping all over it, Danny DeVito completely drunk on TV bragging about it.
I agree completely
When I was a kid, Nixon was about a dirty of a word as you could hear in politics.
After seeing him at Pat Nixon’s funeral, I could never bring myself to be angry at the guy for what now seems like a trivial offense compared to the treason Obama is engaging in.
you said it all
Nixon was a Quaker, if I’m recalling correctly.
That’s racist.......
Woodward used to work in the navy communications room with Haig as his boss - which was kept secret by BOTH parties throughout.
Woodward's direct boss was an Admiral Thomas(?) Moore. When he was implicated in running military secrets around the WH, and accused of spying on the WH diplomatic issues, he said something like “It is absolutely preposterous to think that we would be spying on the White House.”
I read that in the book “Silent Coup” 20 years ago.
Ten years ago I read a magazine article where Moore had been convicted of buying “museum” military hardware and then selling them abroad for other countries, including not too friendly ones, for them to fix up and use.
In his unsuccessful defense, he used the EXACT same phrase that he had used rebutting the Silent Coup allegation.
Also interesting that Haig tried to use his position when Nixon resigned to say “I am in charge.” Which he also used when Reagan was shot.
Power hungry, fame driven (Woodward) egos running amuck.
Must be...
Flipping through channels the other night, there was a discussion on CNN about zero and impeachment.
The graphic in the background had a huge picture of zero next to nixon.
I guess that they didn’t get the memo that nixon was not impeached. Intentionally deceiving, imo.
There should have been a picture of bjclinton next to zero.
I remember them digging his ass up and carting him away, hidden from view, and wasn’t that Markie Post bed-hopping? [I will confess to wanting her to hop into mine a LONG time ago] ;)
~Ronald Reagan
please click the pic
Help support Free Republic!
Though from Canada via England, it could be said I did not "have a dog in the hunt". I was drawn to the drama of the Nixon demise. It seemed to me that the press were like hyenas and jackals. I shook my head and wondered what Dick Nixon really had done. I still wonder; though presumably in technical terms he did commit an offense. How easy for him to have turned away and gravely said "Do not mention this to me again, seek the proper counsel".
I try to avoid Woodward and Bernstein when they appear on television, milking the past for all they are worth. Have they no shame?
Nixon evoked his Quaker mother, whom he said was a saint. "If you hate those who hate you, then they have won." This on his resignation. For me, that is President Nixon's epitaph.
Watched the watergate house impeachment hearings on cspan last night. What struck is how all of them including the libs spoke better and at least tried to sound like adults. Things have sure deteriorated in 40 years.
What also struck me is how petty Nixon’s crimes were compared to Obama’s. Particularly on the IRS allegations. Nixon talked about it. Obama did it.
“...How about Clintons 9 gabillion freakin’ gates?...”
Exactly...
Kleindienst resigned. He said he knew too many of the people involved in Watergate to be able to deal with the case. A lot of people quit or were fired at about the same time and Nixon was a pretty devious guy, so Kleindienst could have been forced out. But as you say, it's hard to figure out a reason why Nixon would have done wanted Kleindienst out, so maybe he did leave of his own accord.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
