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.
i just love Ben Stein... what a gifted man he is...
he was a speech writer for President Nixon...
Ben must be 60 by now. I find it hard to take seriously a well-educated professional man of his age who still does TV game shows.
The killers are responsible for the deaths. May they receive their just reward.
Having watched the Senate hearings on TV as a youngster I will never forget that the first Nixon staffer to testify against him was Dean, an unappetizing, weaselly rat who was hip-deep in the plans to burgle the Dems. Why?
John and Maureen Dean are at the center of Watergate conspiracy theories that sound as if they came from a steamy Washington novel. They filed a lawsuit for defamation after a 1991 book, "Silent Coup: The Removal of a President" suggested that John Dean masterminded the Watergate burglary to obtain documents linking Maureen and her roommate to an alleged prostitution ring.
The sources for the book were G. Gordon Liddy and Phillip Bailley, a lawyer for drug dealers and prostitutes.
Ask people what happened; and no one seems to know the inside story as to why it ever came about. . .
And now, one myth is begetting another. . .a 'hero' who saved his Country from Nixon. . .comes out of anonymity. . .
The barf of it all. . .
>The barf of it all.
Yup. Lost is the history of 1960 - 72 during which dirty tricks, wiretapping, and burglery were put to use against Nixon, some say invented, by the ilk of JFK and LBJ, the mindless hatred of him like that we see now against W, all the context of Nixon's late political life. Nixon lost his battle. But we're still at the same war. I am curious about G.G. Liddy's take on this.
Stein is correct. What was that Watergate breakin all about compared to Bill Clinton.
"The U.S. under Nixon invaded Cambodia, which had been a neutral power during the war in Vietnam. "
A neutral power? They allowed the NVA to use Cambodia as a supply route and staging site to attack SVN for years and that is neutral?
I'd like a Ben Stein autographed sneaker...if you see him getting low-in-the-tread, please drop the hint on my behalf...
Thanks FMC
Ping
Now, despite having lived through it, it hasn't been a item I have stayed with investigating in depth. Nixon, while extremely gifted, was a pragmatist and opportunist in the policies he promoted. I am much more inspired by people that lay down principles upon which they will act and base their service upon. McCain is much like Dick.
Stein was in St. Louis over election weekend. We were there to work in the campaign and spoke with him at the airport.
That said, his argument in this piece is absurd. We were losing in Vietnam before Watergate, and keeping Nixon in office would not have changed that, nor could Nixon have stopped the Khmer Rouge. The US was withdrawing from southeast asia in 1972, and Nixon was not going to further escalate the conflict into Cambodia.
If you want to look back, consider this: had Nixon not left office, we likely would not have been tortured by four years of Jimmy Carter, but we also would probably never have had a Reagan presidency. Some things turn out for the best.
Presidents neither sponsor nor cosponsor bills.
Didn't know that about him. I didn't figure he was that old.
LOL re your 1st comment.
He's totally right here, I really enjoy his insight and courage to take things to their logical conclusion.
Howard Stern is the mental and moral equivalent of a Larry Flynt Light.
i know what you mean... i was just thinking last night that he had to be pretty young when he worked for Nixon... i looked on his website, and he was born in 1944... he graduated from Yale Law in 1970 (valedictorian)...
In 1973 and 1974, he was a speech writer and lawyer for Richard Nixon at The White House and then for Gerald Ford. (He did NOT write the line, "I am not a crook.")
The man leads an amazing life.
He has written and published sixteen books, seven novels, largely about life in Los Angeles, and nine nonfiction books, about finance and about ethical and social issue in finance, and also about the political and social content of mass culture. He has done pioneering work in uncovering the concealed messages of TV and in explaining how TV and movies get made. His titles include A License to Steal, Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation, The View From Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights, DREEMZ, Financial Passages, and Ludes. His most recent book is the best selling humor self help book, How To Ruin Your Life. He has also been a longtime screenwriter, writing, among many other scripts (most of which were unmade ) the first draft of The Boost, a movie based on Ludes, and the outlines of the lengthy miniseries Amerika, and the acclaimed Murder in Mississippi. He was one of the creators of the well regarded comedy, Fernwood Tonight.
He is also an extremely well known actor in movies, TV, and commercials. His part of the boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off was recently ranked as one of the fifty most famous scenes in American film. Starting in July of 1997, he has been the host of the Comedy Central quiz show, "Win Ben Stein's Money." The show has won seven Emmies. He appears regularly on the Fox News Channel talking about finance. He is currently a celebrity judge on the CBS hit, Star Search.
He is also at presently at work on a detective show for CBS.
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