Posted on 06/01/2005 4:57:54 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
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. Click here to subscribe.
Gosh, just how many speech writers did Nixon have?? It seems like many, many conservative pundits of today were in his employ in this role.
Thanks for the ping.
Yes, I heard Ben's article on Rush's show today.
Sadly, when Ben ripped into the Woodie-Bernie team for causing genocide as a result of their work against Nixon, I couldn't help but think of Michael Isikoff's apathy over the deaths that resulted from his own reporting. For all we know, Woodie-Bernie could give a flying eff about the genocide that Nixon would've prevented.
It's all about the attention and the money for Woodie-Bernie.
No. He was another disgruntled "civil servant" seeking retribution and a criminal himself.
I like it. Short, and it cuts to the quick.
Nixon, like Bush II was a true moderate.
The degree of invective and hatred aimed at these men by the far left extremists of the Democrat Party and their fellow travellers on the Federal benches, academia, the media and the liberal mainstream churches is just an indication of how very far America, or at least THEIR vision of America, has strayed from that of the founding fathers.
Nixon really cold-cocked us with OSHA, the EPA, and the HMO act. Other than that, he did pretty well as president.
I hated Nixon,but for reasons that have nothing to do with politics.
I remember the day he left office as if were yesterday and he was saying good bye to the White House staff and then got into a dissertation about how wonderful his mother was and not one word about Pat,who was standing beside him with that frozen smile on her face.
I realize this thread is about Nixon the president,not Nixon the husband,but I'll never forget the look on her face.His insensitivity to that wonderful,loyal wife,astonished me.
China may be communist but is a loyal economic ally, unlike Europe and Japan who wish to destroy us. China may be evil, but they were trying to help us destroy the wicked Viet Cong once and for all.
redrock
I don't think so. His father, Herb Stein, was chairman of Nixon's Council of Economic Advisors.
Ping per your request. :-)
Rush read this today on his show (Ben Stein makes some excellent points here). Rush said what the media did to Nixon they want(ed) to do to GWB. If it weren't for other sources of news today, they would have succeeded too. They tried a number of times beginning with the National Guard story.
ping
Great Post --- Silk Ping.
Pretty good actually.. worthy of a Mark Steyn piece.. which is high praise in my book.. /gush
Stein gives Nixon too much credit. He was no statesman, but a Machiavellian. The liberals hated him, but he was not an effective opponent of the liberals, nor did he try to be.
Almost all serious conservatives at the time -- at least, before Watergate -- had a low opinion of the man and of the president.
What's wrong with Watergate is not its ultimate outcome (RN's resignation), but the hypocrisy of the liberals.
One can take the position that all presidents, including Nixon, should get away with what Nixon did not get away with. Or one can say that any president who did what Nixon did should be forced to resign.
RN does have one excuse, however: He was a wartime president face with leftist sedition. Rather that try to blame Mark Felt for the loss of Vietnam, let alone claim that RN was an excellent president, Stein should focus on the possible extenuating circumstances for Watergate.
My view on Mark Felt: Some on the right have condemned him too hastily. It's too easy to assume that his motives were personal, when there is no proof of this. It's also too easy to say that he should just have gone to the prosecutor. The law is a slow, dumb process. If there was really a cancer in the executive branch, I for one would justify "Throat's" cooperation with the media, which can be much more effective than the law.
Finally, Stein should have given Felt the badge of honor he certainly deserves: Authorizing break-ins to protect Americans from the terrorist Weather Underground. He paid a heavy personal and legal price for this, and hundreds of FBI agents turned out to demonstrate in his favor. For this alone, an American patriot. I doubt there are any major figures in today's FBI who have the guts ...
I heard it repeated just a few weeks ago during the Howard Stern Show, when this smarmy, mal-educated, and completely charmless stand-up comedian repeating the cliched libel that Henry Kissinger was responsible for the unparalleled genocide that unfolded in Cambodia during the reign of terror perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge.
Apparently, the illegal incursions into Cambodian territory of the North Vietnamese, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the attempts by the USSR to turn the whole of Southeast Asia-from Thailand, to Burma, to the Indochinese peninsula, to Indonesia-into one vast vast collection of Soviet vassal states was something that this nitwit never learned before embarking on a stellar comedy career.
Bump.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.