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.
IMHO, Untrue...It has been suspected, why the break-in occurred, Deans' "then girlfriend" was a "Workin' Girl", her photo(s) were kept in a DNC "VIP Perks" book. The people who "broke-in" did so on the orders of Dean, not Nixons'..they were to retrieved those photos for Dean, not Nixon...and since Nixon was the head of the GOP @ that time. he got the blame.
...of course, if Slick Willie/sHillary and their Ilk had done this, MSM would have given "the Whole Gang" a Pass and then have cheered him for it, when/if it were revealed.
The most terrible thing that he did is be a Republican...and accusing (backed up by Whitaker Chamber's "Pumpkin Papers") Algier Hiss, of being a Soviet Spy.
What nonsense. As others have noted, for good or ill, Nixon's domestic policies were quite extensive and precedent setting.
..flame suit on..BULL SH!T..read post #61
..So true. :/
Too bad...he wasn't using an "Cat of nine-tails"
Thanks for that. Nixon's 'crime' was he exposed Communists. For that no one was forgiven. McCarthy's name is now a smear word because he investigated communists. McCarthy was wrong. He underestimated the number of communists in the government [and elsewhere].
Dear kabar,
Once upon a time, I knew all this stuff by memory. I was a teenager when all this occurred, and I absorbed it all like a sponge. I stayed home from school, feigning illness, to watch the Senate Select Committee hearings, and later, I watched the House Judiciary Committee impeachement hearings. However, the passage of time has dimmed (my) memory (at least). I'd have to go research what I once knew by heart.
But I remember a few salient details. I remember that the plumbers started out after Mr. Nixon felt that the ordinary channels for finding leakers had failed. I remember that Mr. Nixon's folks ran a poll prior to the opening of the 1972 presidential election season which showed rather competitive races against most of the possible Democrat nominees.
I won't tell you that Mr. Nixon's folks successfully got Sen. McGovern nominated. I'm not sure the dirty tricks really had that much effect. That isn't to say the attempt wasn't made.
I also don't think that Mr. Nixon's minions did anything different than previous presidents.
But some of the stuff that occurred under his auspices, including third-rate burglaries, and some of the stuff that he countenanced, including the cover-up of third-rate burglaries, were felonies.
And Republicans don't think that presidents should be felons.
Remember, as well, when wage and price controls went on, there was a reason for that. A year and a half or so out from the election, the November landslide didn't look so certain.
sitetest
The "everybody does it" defense is something Stein wouldn't accept from a 12 year old.
Try http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=26038 It is an article that has to do with Bob Weiner.
HA! LOL! Good double pump! :D
I still regard Nixon's demise as a coup d'etat engineered by the press. The whole thing was started by the Pentagon Papers and Nixon's efforts to stem the illegal leaking of classified information to a press determined to undermine the Vietnam War.
I guess being a key instrument in Nixon's downfall is enough to exonerate a person for all past sins.
I see that Dana Milbank is having a hissy fit because President Bush used the word 'hop' yesterday. He said he would take two more questions and then had to 'hop'.
Definitely a high crime and misdemeanor, yes?
Yikes, remembering wage and price controls.......
Neither the South Vietnamese or the Cambodian government would not have fallen if not for Watergate. The Soviets, looking for "Detant" would have backed off their assistance to the North Vietnamese, the radical congressional class of 1974 would have not been elected, and 3 million people in Southeast Asia would not have been butchered.
That is the real legacy of Watergate.
You can even take it a step further. If the US had not decayed both militarily and diplomatically under Ford/Carter (nether would have ever been in the WH had Nixon survived) would the Soviets have invaded Afghanistan, and without that, would we be fighting in the Mideast today? The latter is of course speculation, but not at all unreasonable.
...and the Kennedy mafia will in turn blame the initial military commitment on Eisenhower -- as if a small military 'mission' is the same as putting combat advisers into the field. Sheesh.
Kind of sad that two of this country's worst regulatory behemoths -- the EPA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) -- were brought to us by Republican administrations.
Hoping to live long enough to see her reap what she sowed.
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