Hey I read that book, It didn't start with Watergate, by Lasko I think it was. Most excellent book, I'm sure out of print now, showed how FDR, JFK and LBJ were all in the dirty tricks business bigtime but they add the press and the congress on their side so no worries for them!
Another interesting point - LBJ's spin-meisters were Moyers and Jack Valenti. Didn't Jack Valenti also recently step down from his motion pictures mouthpiece gig?