Posted on 05/09/2014 7:06:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
It is the real lesson of Watergate.
As South Carolinas Congressman Trey Gowdy, the new chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, begins his task, it is worth recalling a lesson from Watergate. Specifically a lesson about the creation of what became known as the Senate Watergate Committee and how the Senate Republicans of 1973 lost a fight that literally changed the course of American history.
The date is November 17, 1972. The Democrats in the United States Senate are not happy with the results of the just concluded presidential election in which their nominee and Senate colleague, South Dakotas Senator George McGovern, had lost 49 states all but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia to President Richard Nixon.
In the middle of the campaign back in June the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee had been burglarized. Among other things, the objective was to bug the phones to monitor the DNC Chairman, ex-JFK and LBJ White House aide Lawrence OBrien. The story had been a detail of the campaign, but a small one. Not until October had the story gained any kind of traction, moving in a bigger way from print media and the hands of the Washington Posts young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to television. Walter Cronkite at CBS had spent two nights in a row on the scandal, a big deal in a day where the three TV networks only had a single half-hour news show at the dinner hour. There were strands of a story a connection between Nixons re-election committee, the story of an intelligence fund at the committee. And not much else. The news reports had no effect whatsoever on Nixons impending landslide victory.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
All of us should be aware that the Democrats will adopt a total stonewall as their defense.
You are likely correct. Except for the press (newspapers were big then) Nixon would have gotten away with his stonewalling.
Well, what goes round, comes round . That is never more true than for dishonesty and lying and it will be so much fun watching the Hildebeast squirm under Gowdys cool gaze. Remember, that during Watergate, Clinton worked for Jerry Zeifman who fired her and said she was an unethical, dishonest lawyer, .. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.
My Texas born and bred parents were lifelong Republicans back in the days before we even had John Tower.
The reason was that my mother worked as a high level telephone operator manager in Austin in the days when LBJ set up Lady Bird to own and operate that city.
My mother said that there were only a handful operators who were allowed to connect calls from “certain parties”.
They were the ones who knew that their families would have goons show up with threats if they ever listened in on the conversations.
She retired to raise me and my siblings not long after, but the memories stayed.
She was also convinced that LBJ was in on the assassination. No proof, she just knew how his M.O.
this is why Republicans speaking glowingly of Compromise is ridiculous. Dems will never play nice. They’re ruthless at achieving their goals.
The best book I’ve read about Watergate, is the ‘Watergate Amendment’ by John Fitzgerald. It is a great read and a lot more than just Watergate!
1. Go to court. That's where disputes between the Legislative and the Executive are usually resolved. The 1st Circuit, however, is a mixed bag and it would be quite possible to end up with a judge who won't recognize an open and shut case of Administration lawlessness.
2. Assign the House Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest whoever refuses to respond to the Committee's subpoena and seize the evidence requested. It is unclear, however, whether the House actually retains this weaponry -- it hasn't been deployed for eighty years (not since 1934).
3. Take House action to defund something critical to the Administration, pending a satisfactory response. Such action, however, would require the Speaker to stand for the Committee and its investigatory objective. Not a certainty, in my mind.
Perhaps, there are more. And I would suggest that Chairman Gowdy is investigating them all.
Ping
I know I am splitting hairs, since the Media is made up of 99% Dems (or political parties further to the left), but I'll cast the mainstream Media members as the true enemies of America. The Democrats could never get away with their fraud, lies, and crimes if they did not have the entire Media wing running interference for them. That is why the Government-Media complex is trying constantly to control the Internet - one small corner of the Information world that is not completely owned by the Leftists.... (I suppose I should make a pitch at this point for the Freep donations ...).
Old book “It Didn’t Start With Watergate”, by Victor Lasky, shows how what Nixon was involved in was no worse than and in may ways just a continuation of what many of his predecessors including Kennedy and Johnson had been doing - but then as now the press looked the other way for what ‘rats were involved in while the likes of Rather, Brokaw, and Donaldson pursued Nixon with everything they had - and then as now Republicans were not a match for the ‘rats in relentlessness and ruthlessness......
bookmark
Yes, he was our teacher.
One sentence I remember from US v. Nixon, 1974:
“We are a nation of laws, not men.”
Barry “I Won” Soetero must have missed that one in his con law lesson plans.
Right out of the gate - a congenital liar -
excerpt: “Zeifman, a lifelong Democrat, called Clinton a liar and an unethical, dishonest lawyer.
He contends Clinton was collaborating with allies of the Kennedys to block revelation of Kennedy-administration activities that made Watergate look like a day at the beach.
http://www.wnd.com/2008/04/60962/
Bookmark
Whether they like it or not their only two options are to Impeach and refuse to authorize another dime of money.
It's the only power they have.
We got to get the Democrats out of power—we must vow to drive out each and every Democrat from power and replace them with GOP Conservatives—House, Senate and White House. ONLY then will we find out the truth.
Bookmark
He is a Democratic political operative, elevated by the Clinton's in the ‘90’s from bureaucratic mediocrity to an influential position in the Secretary of State's office. They embedded Donilon in Fannie Mae as a lawyer and lobbyist from 1999 to 2005—a period marked by mismanagement, corruption and insolvency in an institution blamed for the 2008 financial meltdown. Donilon is the prime suspect in a series of leaks of classified information in 2012 aimed at making President Obama appear competent in national security policy. These included the Stuxnet cyberworm, a U.S. informant inside al Qaeda in Yemen, a claim that Obama has a “kill list” he uses to okay drone attacks on terrorists, and more.
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.