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With the 50th anniversary of Watergate, Woodward and Bernstein have been doing the talk-circuit (and they're kind of sweet together) in connection with a new re-issue of All the President's Men. (I wonder if they'll re-issue the movie.)
And there was a special on CBS, which was overall very good. Even for people who remember it from the time, there was more context and additional stories.
And I thought this was a pertinent reminder of how Republicans had been wiling to face the truth about the problem with the Republican president, in connection with Garrett Graff's new book on Watergate.
The Watergate Hearings Gripped a Nation. Can the Jan. 6 Hearings Do the Same?
Even the ranking Republican, Senator Howard Baker, found his opinion changing as the evidence of wrongdoing amassed through the summer. He said, years after the hearings, that at first he believed that they were “a political ploy of the Democrats, that it would come to nothing,” but as they proceeded, “it began to dawn on me that there was more to it than I thought, and more to it than I liked.”
Baker’s Republican committee colleague, Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, was horrified by what he heard from John Dean’s testimony. He toldthe Ervin committee: “Republicans do not cover up. Republicans do not go ahead and threaten. Republicans do not go ahead and commit illegal acts. And, God knows, Republicans don’t view their fellow Americans as enemies to be harassed.” https://dir.md/2022/06/10/opinion/wa...ww.nytimes.com
The only real Watergate scandal was the Obama Administration using campaigns and the federal govt to spy on Trump. This story is hundreds times the size of Watergate and swept under the rug by the msm.
During Watergate, the Republicans initially refused to believe the reports about misdeeds in the Nixon White House. The repeated phrase was that "I'm going to wait until all the evidence is in." Then when the tapes, John Dean and all the rest became known, Republicans started saying that the investigation was taking too much time and legislators should go back to legislating!
What we can translate to today is that investigations take some time to be completed but can be very thorough. Also, presidential stature can make underlings blindly follow directions, even as to tasks they fully know they should not perform.
During Watergate, the Republicans initially refused to believe the reports about misdeeds in the Nixon White House. The repeated phrase was that "I'm going to wait until all the evidence is in." Then when the tapes, John Dean and all the rest became known, Republicans started saying that the investigation was taking too much time and legislators should go back to legislating!
What we can translate to today is that investigations take some time to be completed but can be very thorough. Also, presidential stature can make underlings blindly follow directions, even as to tasks they fully know they should not perform.
Watergate was a 3rd degree burglary. What the government should have gone after was the Vietnam war and how multiple administrations were lying and misleading the nation that many people died. This is why I don't take any of the selective outrage serious. For the real crimes it's crickets but for lame things it's a national crisis.
That's like ignoring that a person killed 10,000 people while robbing banks but his sin is that he ran a red light and tried to cover it up by buying the traffic judge. This is how stupid this county is.
With the 50th anniversary of Watergate, Woodward and Bernstein have been doing the talk-circuit (and they're kind of sweet together) in connection with a new re-issue of All the President's Men. (I wonder if they'll re-issue the movie.)
Will The Final Days be reissued eventually? I couldn't get into AtPM (though I saw the movie on TV around 1983 and liked it). I found TFD a more gripping read.
Major difference, Nixon knew he screwed up, accepted it and resigned because he knew American mortality would not accept his actions.
Trump knows he was screwing up, didn't care, did it again and again and America had lost its morality so a large part didn't care and even encouraged him.
I definitely see similarities, but not in the way leftists see them.
I’m now convinced that Watergate was a leftist led coup against Nixon not unlike what the leftists tried against Trump with Russia Gate, the Ukrainian Call, and now Jan 6th.
The so called deep state gave the President the rope to hang himself and Nixon was stupid enough to take the bait. Trump isn’t the smartest either, but probably due to our current climate of hyperpartisanship, Trump was not ousted like Nixon was.
But even though it was mainly a leftist plot, neither Watergate or any of the 3 tried against Trump could’ve gained any traction at all were it not for the fact that a sizable portion of Republicans were in on it too.
I believe Nixon’s insistence on detente with the Soviets is what did him in and angered many of the right wing enough to help the leftists in their plot.
Trump also angered many establishment Republicans and they also worked with Democrats to oust him.
Major difference, Nixon knew he screwed up, accepted it and resigned because he knew American mortality would not accept his actions.
Trump knows he was screwing up, didn't care, did it again and again and America had lost its morality so a large part didn't care and even encouraged him.
Trump does seem to be the Energizer Bunny of screw ups. He keeps going and going. Even creating scams and charities that people just cant wait to give him their money. His Election Defense Fund seems to be his best one yet. Money he uses as he pleases. LOL.
I never thought Watergate was a big deal, just dirty politics. The Republicans could have just as easily has a "Democrat" decoy infiltrate the Democratic office and acquired any information they desired. Nixon only resigned because he was an honest man, not because the Watergate break-in was particularly heinous. The political parties are constantly spying on each other. That's one reason why they should be done away with and each politician should run as an individual, not a party member. As pointed out by DannyHobkins in post #2, even Obama did it and no one cared.
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