I was politically active, aware, and THERE for Watergate... [View all]

[PCIntern]

I watched almost every minute of the Senate Select Committee hearings from Day 1, and I'm going to put to rest a myth which seems to be circulating everywhere: that the Republicans were righteous and searching for the Truth, no matter what it might be. The fact is that until the Smoking Gun appeared in the form of the taped conversations demonstrating once and for all that Nixon had obstructed justice, attempted to subvert the FBI, and other felonies, the Republicans with the lone exception of the "Maverick" Republican Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, defended Nixon wholeheartedly and unceasingly. Howard Baker and Edward Gurney were extremely solicitous of Haldeman and Ehrlichman, Mitchell and the crew, as was minority counsel Fred Thompson, later to become a third-rate actor and a worse Senator and Presidential Candidate.

The prevailing consideration by us "Liberals" when Howard Baker uttered his famous "What did the President know and when did he know it?" was that he was laying the groundwork to exonerate Nixon by saying that he had come late to the affair: that he was not privy to the conception or the planning or the execution of the burglary, the cover-up, the bribing, the undue influences. When that all blew up, it gave Baker cover to say that "See, I asked the great question." Both Houses were controlled by Democrats so when Goldwater, Scott, and Rhodes went it was because they knew they were outvoted and were going to be disgraced as a Party so they cut loose the aberrant Nixon and started this sanctimonious PR effort to make it seem that there was an anomaly in the WHite House. Ford of course, pardoned Nixon, part of the deal, in order that the REAL details would never be revealed of so many crimes and misdemeanors (outlined in the terrific expose Secret Agenda, which told the true story of the perfidy that went FAR beyond Watergate) and the nation "moved on".

Yeah...moved on eventually to Reagan (after Carter was torpedoed) the Bushes, and now this fascist. What a progression...