[Steely Tom]

I still wonder why it’s so tough to prove the Liddy/”Silent Coup” thesis, which has all the earmarks of truth.

I got "Silent Coup" years ago. Every once in a while, I try to read it and figure out what the story actually is; I always give up in the end. Just not enough time to plow through the whole story.

Could you possibly summarize it here?

[BilLies]

Silent Coup is a 1992 book written by Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin in which they contend that former Nixon “White House counsel John Dean orchestrated the 1972 Watergate burglary at Democratic National Committee headquarters to protect his future wife, Maureen Biner, by removing information linking her to a call-girl ring that worked for the DNC. The authors also argued that Alexander Haig was not Deep Throat but was a key source for Bob Woodward, who as a Naval officer had briefed Haig at the White House in 1969 and 1970.”
Source Wikipedia
I read the book and that is a good summary. Some of the other comments in the Wikipedia laughable, especially the criticism by WaPOSt. I listened to one very interesting Liddy Radio program long ago when he had as guests the police and private security people who investigated the break-in.
I believe the Silent Coup theory in its entirely.

[MosesKnows]

Just not enough time to plow through the whole story

There is no need to read the entire book to discover the real reason for the Watergate break-in. Just read the center section titled "Golden Boy".

[LS]

Colodny argues that John Dean, not Nixon, ordered the break-in. Liddy indirectly confirms, but wasn't at the meeting, but says that his boss told him that was the case. Dean sent the burglars in looking for something personal, not political: an address book of a known D.C. madam that he got wind was in the hands of a low-level DNC official (NOT O'Brien). Dean's soon-to-be wife, Maureen, was in that book---though probably not as a prosti, but as an acquaintance of the madam. Still, it was hugely embarrassing for Dean.

The burglars were at the desk of this low level official, NOT at the more strategic desks, indicating they were there for Dean, not for larger political information.

Liddy has testified in two trials against the Deans, and they have never convicted him or won a suit. He is careful to avoid saying what he thinks, which is that Dean was behind it all. But he has said that Dean is a "serial perjurer," and has not been convicted of slander.