"Deep Throat" reveals himself

[Alexander's Horse]

the wire fraud pushed them over the edge, the best watergate tapes concern when Nixon was told that it was 10 years for each offence and they had like dozens if not hundreds of potential offences (cover up related)

[Drake Tungsten]

And Nixon forgot one of the prime rules, which is if you have so many skeletons in so many closets you need to buy a vacation home to stuff 'em in, you can't afford to be ****ing over people close enough to see the dirt on you.

I guess he let his guard down once Hoover was out of the picture. Bad call...

[Timexwatch]

Just to chime in with a story my boss (who was a Nixon aide) told me today:

When all the Watergate stuff was about to come to a head, G. Gordon Liddy called over to one of the Watergate guys holed up in the Howard Johnson and told him to shred and dispose of $60,000 that they had stashed away to pay the guys who did the break-in. After a few days, Liddy told the guy that he was coming to his place and that he should leave his doors unlocked and his lights off. Liddy snuck through backyards with a .38 revolver and went to the guy's house to pick up sensative files. After doing it, he went to take a piss. It was then that he realized that he was screwed totally.

Why?

Because in the guy's bathroom there were piles and piles of little soaps and shampoo bottles from the Howard Johnson's across the street (which happens to be a dorm for my alma mater now). Liddy realized that any guy who is willing to keep all these free soap bars and shampoos was never going to shred $60,000.

The money was discovered when the guy's wife was in a freak plane crash soon after this incident. The plane failed to take off and crashed on the tarmac. This crash scattered $60,000 in $100 bills all over the tarmac. They feds traced the money and finally dropped the hammer on Liddy.

[Ned]

The core of the problem appears to have been John Dean. He was the White House lawyer and should have been advising Nixon on the legalities of obstructing justice etc. Instead, Dean was the author of it having suggested the idea to Haldeman in the first place. Dean was also the Whitehouse guy behind the breakin in the first place, and was seeking to protect his own ass by terminating the investigation.

BTW, I just learned this week that the target of the breakin was to discover information on a call girl ring being operated by the DNC to supply high level Dems with call girls. Apparently the plan was to later plant bugs on some of these girls to get info on the campaign.

As to Felt, he has many times himself stated that a DD of the FBI leaking investigation material to the press would be dishonorable and illegal. I assume this is one of the reasons he never himself revealed that he was Deep Throat.

Now, the real problem with Watergate is the attempted impeachment of Nixon. What he actually did was to obstruct justice by attempting to limit the FBI investigation that would have lead to Mitchell and others. This clearly was illegal, but was it an impeachable offense? Clinton did the same thing. The difference between Nixon and Clinton was that the object of the investigation in the one case was the Nixon campaign, and in the other, Clinton himself.

I admit that I would have like to see Clinton impeached. I assume the libs here would certainly have liked to see Nixon impeached. But if you want me to be consistent and to also agree that Nixon should have been impeached had he not first resigned, will you also be consistent as well?

[chequita guevara]

Felt should get the Congressional Medal of Honor.

[MichaeltheGreat]

He's a civilian, so he's not eligible, and this Congress wouldn't give him anything.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
BTW, I just learned this week that the target of the breakin was to discover information on a call girl ring being operated by the DNC to supply high level Dems with call girls.

Actually, Ned, it was to find out whether or not the Dems planned on making Nixon's treason a campaign issue, since he sabotaged the '68 Paris Peace Talks.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Ned
The core of the problem appears to have been John Dean. He was the White House lawyer and should have been advising Nixon on the legalities of obstructing justice etc. Instead, Dean was the author of it having suggested the idea to Haldeman in the first place. Dean was also the Whitehouse guy behind the breakin in the first place, and was seeking to protect his own ass by terminating the investigation.

BTW, I just learned this week that the target of the breakin was to discover information on a call girl ring being operated by the DNC to supply high level Dems with call girls. Apparently the plan was to later plant bugs on some of these girls to get info on the campaign.

As to Felt, he has many times himself stated that a DD of the FBI leaking investigation material to the press would be dishonorable and illegal. I assume this is one of the reasons he never himself revealed that he was Deep Throat.

Now, the real problem with Watergate is the attempted impeachment of Nixon. What he actually did was to obstruct justice by attempting to limit the FBI investigation that would have lead to Mitchell and others. This clearly was illegal, but was it an impeachable offense? Clinton did the same thing. The difference between Nixon and Clinton was that the object of the investigation in the one case was the Nixon campaign, and in the other, Clinton himself.

I admit that I would have like to see Clinton impeached. I assume the libs here would certainly have liked to see Nixon impeached. But if you want me to be consistent and to also agree that Nixon should have been impeached had he not first resigned, will you also be consistent as well?

Nixon's facility with breakins and other little details long predates Dean. Go back to his campaigns against Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gehagan Douglas.

wrt the comparison of Clinton and Nixon, Clinton's obstruction/whatever was related to getting blowjobs from an intern. Nixon's was in regard to one incident that was a culmination of a pattern of government employees and contractors engaging in multiple illegal acts in furtherance of Nixon's personal political agenda.

The underlying acts are about as comparable in scale as a crackhead and John Gotti.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Actually, Ned, it was to find out whether or not the Dems planned on making Nixon's treason a campaign issue, since he sabotaged the '68 Paris Peace Talks.

What treason? And the NV did plenty in that regard their own selves.

[chequita guevara]

Nixon told the SV not to sign the deal, cuz they'd get a better one with him as Prez. So we got five more years of war and another 24,000 dead. Read Hitchen's book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Nixon told the SV not to sign the deal, cuz they'd get a better one with him as Prez. So we got five more years of war and another 24,000 dead. Read Hitchen's book, The Trial of Henry Kissinger.

The RVN wasn't reguired to follow his advice, and advising an "ally" ain't treason. And I'm sure you can guess how big a fan of Nixon I am.

[chequita guevara]

They weren't required, but they had been about to do it. Johnson had told them this was the best deal they were gonna get. When SV balked, Humphy's numbers went down, and it happened just before the election, which was the intended effect.

Given that Hitchens is suffciently well known, the fact that Kissinger hasn't sued him for libel is particularly telling.

[Drake Tungsten]

My favorite part of the whole Deep Throat saga? Felt was convicted of authorizing illegal searches against members of the Weather Underground, but was pardoned by Reagan. Nixon was nice enough to testify on Felt's behalf at the trial...

[Ned]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Actually, Ned, it was to find out whether or not the Dems planned on making Nixon's treason a campaign issue, since he sabotaged the '68 Paris Peace Talks.

[Ned]

MTG, Che and the left assume that the NV would have offered a peace deal in January '69 that could have been accepted by the US had the shape of the table issue not intervened. In truth, the NV never offered any sort of reasonable deal until Nixon played the China card and then turned up the heat with the Christmas bombing.