"When Watergate came up, I was extremely interested. I don't think I missed, the hearings, a day of it."
Yeah suuure. How old were you then 12?
Posted on 01/05/2005 11:51:23 AM PST by demlosers
Sean Penn has accused American President George W Bush's administration of being more corrupt than any past ruling government in the US.
The Oscar-winning actor insists the infamous Watergate scandal of the 1970s - which led to disgraced premier Richard Nixon's resignation - is "like child's play" compared to what the present government represents.
Penn recalls: "When Watergate came up, I was extremely interested. I don't think I missed, the hearings, a day of it.
"But at that time, I had come into a history class with a history teacher who got me pretty interested in government. I think it was the first thing I really paid a lot of attention to other than the war. And this wasn' t the most crooked thing I'd sensed in him."
On the subject of current government corruption, he adds: "No question about it. The arrogance with which it's played out.
"There's a kind of general lack of diversity of principle within the Congress. So I think when you can get something like the Patriot Act passed, it would be kind of like child's play to pull off a Watergate."
Yeah suuure. How old were you then 12?
'Nixon's' Penn followed Watergate closely
The actor sits down for a Q&A on politics, the Oscars and his new film.
BY DAVID GERMAIN
Associated Press
TORONTO - While Hollywood shied away from reminders of Sept. 11, 2001, Sean Penn figures the terrorist attacks added urgency to produce his film "The Assassination of Richard Nixon."
Set in 1974, the film stars Penn as the real-life Samuel Byck, a business failure who blamed his shortcomings on societal corruption and attempted to kill President Nixon by hijacking a plane to crash it into the White House.
Penn, 44, who had been developing the project for two years before Sept. 11, said he never viewed the similarities between the Byck incident and the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks as impediments to the film.
"Not at all. If anything, it might have encouraged it," Penn said in an interview.
The dismay Byck felt over revelations of government deceit as Watergate unfolded is relevant today amid allegations that President Bush misled Americans by fanning fears of future terrorism to gain support for the Iraq war, Penn said.
The film, out in limited release, follows Penn's Academy Award-winning performance in 2003's "Mystic River."
Penn, who co-stars with Nicole Kidman in the upcoming United Nations thriller "The Interpreter" and a remake of the political drama "All the King's Men," sat down at last fall's Toronto International Film Festival to discuss the Oscars, politics and the seven minutes during which Bush sat without acting in a Florida school room after learning of the Sept. 11 attacks.
You showed up to accept your Academy Award, but you skipped the Oscars the three previous times you were nominated. What have you got against them?
I don't know, for some reason I cannot share the whole allure of the thing or equate it to something that really makes a statement of who you are as an actor. Sure, you're aware that it's a trademark. You know you're going to get more money and all that stuff. That's a good thing. The horror of the Academy Awards is what the press does leading up to it to make it a popular TV show. Where they'll actually make it like it's an arm-wrestling event between two actors. That becomes very petty, and that's something that's embarrassing to follow up with accepting the invitation to the party.
You were in your early teens when Watergate came up. What did you make of Nixon and the hearings?
I had grown up in, I would say, a socially left home, and so at that age, I think a lot of your politics are dictated by that. When Watergate came up, I was extremely interested. I don't think I missed the hearings, a day of it. But at that time, I had come into a history class with a history teacher who got me pretty interested in government. I think it was the first thing I really paid a lot of attention to other than the war. And this wasn't the most crooked thing I'd sensed in him.
Has corruption in government grown worse since Nixon?
No question about it. The arrogance with which it's played out. I think you'd have a very difficult time Watergating George Bush. The spin and the manipulation of media, the distraction of planned emergencies, is on a whole new level. And there's a kind of general lack of diversity of principle within the Congress. So I think when you can get something like the Patriot Act passed, it would be kind of like child's play to pull off a Watergate....
What did you think of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"?
All of that footage -- how long was it, seven-plus minutes (when Bush sat in the classroom)?... That's who George Bush is. I think it speaks very specifically to something that not everybody has. Forget politics, forget Republican, right, left. But it speaks to his unfitness to lead anything.
And they want drug legal?
I remember him! That was the guy from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I always wondered what happened to him. I heard he married Madonna and did some movie called Shanghai Surprise or something like that.
He's still acting? Good for him.
Sounds like Sam Ervin brainwashed him.
he's got the same problem as michael moore -- intestinal incontinence.
Sean Penn's political analysis means so much to me ...
Too bad such a talented actor is such a snotnosed liberal pinko traitor. What a waste.
Translation from Liberalese to English:
Sean Penn has accused American President George W Bush's administration of being more honest than any past ruling government in the US.
He may have followed Watergate (although I doubt it) but he must not have paid any attention to what the Clintons did. He's also never heard much about the corruption of the Grant and Harding administrations, to name just two, if he thinks Bush's "corruption" is the worst "corruption" in our history.
Of course, what he's complaining about isn't corruption at all. He's just upset that he's not getting his way. And that's the opposite of corruption since his way would be disaster!
The liberals ordinarily assume cocaine and they can't distinguish between legal and illegal. You know, they are famous... we (the Republicans) don't understand their needs! /s
Eat $h!t and just DIE, Spiccoli.
What a real piece of garbage.
The idiot speaks! Sean Penn, born August 17th, 1960. Fourteen at the time of Nixon's resignation. And here I thought all he needed were some sweet waves and some tasty buds!
Gnarly dude! Do you have the good stuff?
My exact thoughts!!! Penn is not old enough to remember that stuff. Right, at 12-13 years old he is worried about this stuff. BS. He was too busy sniffing drugs and chasing girls for sex. Like he actually went to a history class. Socialists do not attend history class because they don't care about history.
LMAO. Classic.
Sean Penn is a mentally challenged idiot who is as qualified to comment on politics as Al Sharpeton is on aerospace mechanics.
Nixon had many faults but "corruption" was not one of them and the entire country was taken in by the Democratic scam on Watergate - a tempest in a teapot compared with typical Democrat antics.
He must be recounting the time the IMPEACHED former president launched an air-strike against empty buildings the day his "vacuum cleaner" was testifying against him.
Penn makes Spicoli sound like a genious.
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