Posted on 08/08/2004 9:24:21 AM PDT by Howlin
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Thirty years ago, Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which sparked a crisis in US government.
Nixon's resignation August 9, 1974, put an end to the affair that started with a burglary of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) offices in the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington June 17, 1972. The burglars had intended to place listening devices in the office.
Nixon, a Republican elected in 1968 and re-elected in 1972, was facing impeachment proceedings after the scandal exploded in the press a few months after the burglary.
Nixon's fate was sealed on July 24, 1974 when the US Supreme Court ordered him to hand over clandestine recordings of his private Oval Office conversations, the long-sought "smoking gun" that proved he and his top advisors had full knowledge of both the Watergate burglary and the subsequent coverup.
Three days later, a House of Representatives committee approved three articles of impeachment and forwarded them to the full House. Nixon resigned. And his vice president, Gerald Ford, became the 38th president of the United States.
One month later, on September 8, Ford signed a presidential pardon absolving Nixon for any crimes committed, lifting the specter of prosecution and imprisonment.
The scandal went unmatched until 1999, when president Bill Clinton (news - web sites) survived impeachment when the US Senate refused to convict him after a series of scandals culminating in his lying under oath about a sexual relationship he had with a White House intern.
Nixon's status as the only US president to resign has dominated his legacy since his death in 1994 at 81.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Even harder to believe he was POTUS during Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia in 1968.
This is true!
AH Watergate and Vietnam. Those were the salad days for the liberals before morning came to America.
They knew the Democrats were taking large sums of money from Communist Cuba. They were trying to prove it. (Sort of a Clinton/Gore preview)
I admire the Republicans motive, but their method was the problem.
Notice how the media is still more interested in talking about Watergate than ANYTHING negative about Kerry, Clinton, Kennedy, et al. A week after a Clinton scandal broke, Dan Rather and his ilk excused further discussion on the grounds that it was 'old news'. When will Nixon become 'old news'?
You nailed it.
The membership of the Senate and House marched down there and told him he had to go; we'll never see anything like that again in our lifetime.
That, and trying to get that little black book that listed Mo Dean as a call girl!
Ah yes. An election is near so it's time to start dredging up Watergate stories from 30 years ago. Can Iran-Contra be far behind?
Because if I was the one responsible for the Nixon anniversary thread, you all know that it would have been a complete debacle.
Leaving aside Monica Crowley's personal recollections of her time spent as Nixon's assistant-which I'm sure you all have read by now-I think that the best, impartial, honest and fair biography of Richard Nixon's political career was written by Jonathan Aitken.
Look for more stories about Watergate and Nixon from the Dem-controlled domestic MSM and the liberal overseas press. The BBC also has a story about the 30 year anniversary of Watergate. They are planting the seeds to link Nixon and Kerry before the GOP convention. The Nixon tapes mention Kerry by name as a formidable opponent in the antiwar movement. They will portray Kerry as the white knight versus Tricky Dick Nixon, Watergate, and the ignominious end to the Vietnam war. They may even hint that there are some similarities to Iraq. Mark my words.
Why do you say that?
If past is prelude this should be the story in 25 years:
"Thirty years ago, Bill Clinton became the second US president to be impeached by the US House of Representatives and the first US president to cop a plea with the Justice Department to avoid prosecution."
Time for another newspaper story: 33.2532416 years ago, a fat, jaded Edward Kennedy still evokes memories of Chappequidick.
Just a reminder: Nixon was never convicted of anything! I think the worse thing he did was to take us off the gold standard.
Exactly. You can also bet your wallet that come autumn the "PT-109" and "Camelot" stuff will get lots of air time just in case we've forgotten Crats noble, good, heroic ... Pubbies contemptible, evil, cowardly.
He would have been convicted had Ford not pardoned him.
Nixon was the RINO to end all RINOs; not someone who deserves to be defended by any conservative.
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