Posted on 06/01/2005 3:38:22 PM PDT by zetapsi
Washington is the land of hardened conventional wisdom, despite its validity or even truth. Much conventional wisdom has been hardened as a result of the Watergate scandal, though little good has come of it. Perhaps the most enshrined notion of all is the sheer malevolence and evil of President Richard M. Nixon. These sunglasses of blindness that the media has distributed to the American people have neglected some of the great achievements of the Nixon Presidency and scapegoated him some of the great atrocities of other administrations.....
One of the Bush appointees that is being filibustered by Senate Democrats is Brett Cavanaugh, who was an assistant to Kenneth Star during his famous/infamous investigation of Bill Clinton. What is the Democrats qualm with Cavanaugh? That he allegedly leaked information of the Star investigation as an anonymous source to numerous news organizations, often to Michael Isikoff and Matt Drudge. So Mark Felt is a brave hero that helped bring down the evil Richard Nixon, but Brett Cavanaugh cannot be trusted to serve the public for identical actions....
(Excerpt) Read more at DavidEhrlich.com ...
Now that he has "exposed" himself, I hope the truth about him and his co-conspirators, W&B, will be pursued.
GREAT take by Stein!
Perhaps the most enshrined notion of all is the sheer malevolence and evil of President Richard M. Nixon. These sunglasses of blindness that the media has distributed to the American people have neglected some of the great achievements of the Nixon Presidency and scapegoated him some of the great atrocities of other administrations.
This is Ben Stein at his best. Thanks for posting it.
Deep Throat and Genocide
The American Spectator ^ | 6-1-05 | Ben Stein
Posted on 06/01/2005 5:55:15 AM PDT by veronica
Re: The "news" that former FBI agent Mark Felt broke the law, broke his code of ethics, broke his oath and was the main source for Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's articles that helped depose Richard Nixon, a few thoughts.
Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. 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. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.
That is his legacy. He was a peacemaker. He was a lying, conniving, covering up peacemaker. He was not a lying, conniving drug addict like JFK, a lying, conniving war starter like LBJ, a lying conniving seducer like Clinton -- a lying conniving peacemaker. That is Nixon's kharma.
When his enemies brought him down, and they had been laying for him since he proved that Alger Hiss was a traitor, since Alger Hiss was their fair-haired boy, this is what they bought for themselves in the Kharma Supermarket that is life:
1.) The defeat of the South Vietnamese government with decades of death and hardship for the people of Vietnam.
2.) The assumption of power in Cambodia by the bloodiest government of all time, the Khmer Rouge, who killed a third of their own people, often by making children beat their own parents to death. No one doubts RN would never have let this happen.
So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide. If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life of the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide. I hope they are happy now -- because their future looks pretty bleak to me.
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu, and author of "Ben Stein's Diary" each month in The American Spectator.
hey man.... I wrote that :) The stein peice is a link, but the article is mine.
After all these many years, can we shove the puke back down the deep throat? If he was so 'honorable' why has he hidden his identity like a scared little rat all these years? Shame hides in the darkness and follow the $ trail. He is a miserable old twerp IMHO with gold digging offspring. and idiot media complicators! This is all yesterday's news (1973-4) Who cares about this creep now.
One of the few news/commentary programs that I watch when I am able is Brit Humes Special Report. (I am madly in love with Charles Krauthammer, one of the regular panelists. There. Ive said it and I feel so much better. :) He was absent in tonights program, and his stand-in was none other than Nina Easton (she of 'Gang of Five' infamy). Selecting her to sit in for Krauthammer is akin to asking Paris Hilton to substitute-president for a day for Ronald Reagan. The sublime yielding to the ridiculous.
When someone else on the panel observed that the uncovering of the identity of deep throat is occupying too much of the news, she interrupted and responded (this is absolutely verbatim I was so astonished that I immediately grabbed a pencil and wrote her words down before they slipped from memory), If it [the Watergate scandal] were wrapped up neatly, what would everybody talk about?
No, she was not smiling, indicating sarcasm. She was completely straight-faced, and looking into the camera as if she had just uttered something extraordinarily profound, and the audience ought to take some time to digest her insightful comment.
And then, as if delivering the knock-out punch to her fellow pundits sitting around Brits table, she followed with, Mr. Felt has lived a difficult, conflicted, isolated existence since his revelations helped to bring down a President and she cited the Vanity Fair article (certainly the reference I would turn to for in-depth, unbiased political reporting :) as evidence of his heroism and resulting conflicted life. The appeal for admiration and empathy for Felt was conspicuous.
I wrote the following e-mail to Nina at the Boston Globe tonight:
________________________________
Ms. Easton:
I found your comment on Brit Humes Special report tonight (If it [the Watergate scandal] were wrapped up neatly, what would everybody talk about?) fascinating in its absurdity.
What would everybody talk about, if not the final, minute puzzle piece regarding a third-rate burglary that occurred more than thirty years ago, and has been politicized and media-covered perhaps more than any event in the last three-plus decades, with the possible exception of 9/11/01?
Are you aware that we are engaged in a bloody war with a somewhat undefined murderous cult of madmen whose rules of war include regularly torturing, blowing up, incinerating, dismembering or beheading not only soldiers in uniform, but adult civilians, children, and charity workers?
Are you aware that Americas borders are porous, resulting in the very real potential that many of the above-mentioned madmen are certainly already living in our midst, with more of them no doubt intending to continue to infiltrate our borders for the sole purpose of causing massive death and destruction to innocent Americans, once again?
Are you aware that the trial lawyers of America have seized sufficient power so as to affect, in a virulent and insidious manner, virtually every aspect of every Americans life and that their self-serving, agenda-driven crusade has resulted in significant loss of both economic and physical freedom for every citizen of this country?
Are you aware that the socialization of America is no longer a goal of some, but a reality for all?
I, for one, am not at a loss for something of far more significance to discuss or debate than Mr. Felt's recent admission.
Are you also aware that, since the Watergate scandal was finally and belatedly put to rest, there have been a myriad of other scandals, none of which has been sufficiently addressed by either the media or the legal system/courts to be considered (as you say) wrapped up neatly?
In fact, there are dozens of important unanswered questions related to each of these scandals serious questions that will no doubt never be answered.
Just a handful of countless swept under the carpet outrages, each of which makes the Watergate affair seem utterly trivial and irrelevant:
· The buying of an American presidential election, in part, by large illegal donations from wealthy foreign interests, who surely expected, and did receive, in return special favors that compromise, even today, our national sovereinty and security
· Rampant drug use by a President and his White House staff
· A President who commits perjury, preys on women and then destroys the reputations, or threatens the lives, of those who dare speak publicly of his darker side
· An American administration being complicit in the selling of sensitive satellite and missile technology to Americas ideological enemies
· An American administration allowing foreign interests to purchase prime public land and to have jurisdiction over portions of Americas national parks and forests
· The pilfering of more than a thousand confidential FBI files of a Presidents political opposition
· A Presidents political friends ordering the IRS to selectively audit his critics
· An administrations refusal to accept an offer to extradite a known terrorist who, a few short years later, masterminds the worst holocaust ever to occur on U.S. soil by foreign hands
· The illegal removal of top secret documents on terrorism from the National Archives which would most likely have corroborated the above, and much worse
The list is endless, and I have better things to do than to list facts for you of which you are completely aware, but choose to ignore.
I have a few questions for you. If youve made it this far, perhaps youll read them. And, if you read them, perhaps youll answer them for me. But, since I value my well being, Ill not be holding my breath in anticipation of a response.
Do you have to practice in front of a mirror in order to keep a straight face when voicing opinions that you know are ludicrous?
At what point in your life did you abandon truth in favor of ideology?
How long do you and your ilk intend to live by two sets of rules?
Do you sleep well at night?
Just curious
~ joanie
LOL!
and she cited the Vanity Fair article (certainly the reference I would turn to for in-depth, unbiased political reporting :)
I also used People Magazine and Cosmopolitan for a lot of my information. :-)
You could have added the Billy Dale travel office firings to your list but I guess your point was made without it, even though that one really made me angry.
Let me know if you get an answer from her. I wont hold my breath either though. Her type doesnt enjoy a real debate.
Thanks for the great answer!
Sorry! You outdid Stein with that one!
I still say you should have been an attorney. Maybe even Attorney General.
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