A Big Diff Between Watergate and the Bushgate Scandals...

[Blackhatjack]

... this scandal will break because of the activists in the streets and the inability of the Administration to tamp down and silence the Internet.

Watergate took the most important turn after years of work by Woodward and Bernstein, when the other MSM outlets began investigating and reporting the scandal.

The many Bushgate scandals will not take the same critical turn without exposing the MSM as being complicit in the scandals themselves. Big Difference.

Just like Little Timmy testifying at the Libby trial, they have been complicit in so many ways in helping this corrupt Administration stay in power and failing to act like journalists. THey have an interest in keeping quiet their role in this sorry affair.

Once the evidence begins to roll out of Congressional Investigatory Committees that implicates the MSM sources as being involved (or at the best mysteriously incurious and silent), then the critical tipping point will have been reached and finally the house of cards will fall. ANd not until then.

[helderheid]

1. excellent point and recommended

[LynnTheDem]

2. And far fewer people died from Watergate.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Sites like TPM are leading the way...

...even the LA Times thinks so! :)

[MLFerrell]

4. You wanna know what the "big diff" between the two is?

Nixon was impeached. Bush won't be. According to Pelosi, the Grand Empress Poohbah of Democrats (apparently), "Impeachment is off the table".

:mad:

[ContraBass Black]

5. Nixon was not impeached.

And Pelosi's title is "Speaker of the House."

[solara]

7. Hear, hear!

INVESTIGATE IMPEACH INDICT INCARCERATE :patriot:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974

I was a small child, but I was sat down in front of the television to watch the event. I'll never forget how angry my grandfather was at Nixon for what he had done. Before Watergate he was a Republican.

[troubleinwinter]

11. Kindly explain

your insulting description of the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Really... explain exactly, precisely what you mean.

Nixon was never impeached.

Now, what did you want to explain about the ugly name-calling of the Speaker of the House?

[MLFerrell]

12. I'll tell you PRECISELY what the slur is about...

Who the hell is Nancy Pelosi to "take impeachment off the table"? The Speaker of the House? Please. She is NOT doing her duty as an elected representative of the will of the American people. Impeachment is the duty of any conscientious legislator. By "taking it off the table", Pelosi virtually grants * Carte Blanche to do whatever the hell he wants with no fear of repercussions. Enough votes? What the hell difference does THAT make? You don't initiate impeachment proceedings just because you know that you'll "win", you initiate impeachment proceedings vecause IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Fuck politics at a time like this. AMERICA IS IN DEEP, DEEP TROUBLE, AND HAS BEEN FOR QUITE SOME TIME. Obviously, Madame Pelosi is more concerned with her '08 election prospects than doing what is best for these United States. WE NEED LEADERS, NOT POLITICIANS!!!

Oh, and you are right, and I was most certainly wrong... Nixon was never impeached. But had he not resigned, he most assuredly would have been. Convicted too. *? Not a chance in hell. He's the teflon moron, dontchaknow...

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. You do know that it was not on the table either

in 1972.

Plenty of hearings, absolutely, but it was NOT on the table either.

Perhaps you need to educate yourself as to how the game is played... after all until all the stuff we know are introduced as evidence in oh the hearings... it is hearsay counselor.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Nixon wasn't impeached

I hate to be stickler, but profesional hazard. He quit before the articles were introduced

[rman]

20. Nixon resigned because of the threat of impeachment

Indeed it doesn't look like that's going to happen with Bush.

[Robbien]

6. There will be no Watergate this time around

The media has already relegated to history Plame and the attorney purge. This Sunday they are already talking about anything but.

So Waxman etal will try to soldier on to the next scandel while the few of us in the know sit here twiddling our thumbs.

Bush may lose another of his incrowd, but he will just get another dirty dealing replacement. GOPers will still be able to funnel taxpayer money into GOP coffers with which they will take back the Senate/House.

All the while the Media will help the GOP make sure all this happens.

Yeah I am grouchy this morning. The media sucks.

[Blackhatjack]

9. There is a very good reason Bush has not yet been impeached ...LINK

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x440888

However, it may yet happen.

[napi21]

10. Yes the MSM was complicit, but IMO, the BIG diff. between ShrubCo's

scandals & Wateregate is that most of the people involved in Waterfate were COMPETENT! Yes, they were criminals, but they weren't STUPID! This entire crown is just plain STUPID! Hell, even the novice burglar knows you never leave a paper trail!

[EVDebs]

13. Woodward's intel connections...

"""I have told Woodward everything I know about the Watergate case, except the Mullen Company's tie to the CIA."--Robert F. Bennett, testifying before House Special Committee on Intelligence, July 2, 1974.

Robert Bennett was the head of Robert R. Mullen and Co., a CIA front headquartered in the very same building as the CIA's Domestic Operations Division. The Mullen Co. did legitimate PR work; it also did PR for other CIA fronts and provided cover abroad for CIA operations. Bennett's most notable employee was Howard Hunt, a former chief of covert actions for the Domestic Operations Division of the CIA. ""

http://metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/07.03.97/scoop-9727.html

An enlightening bio on Woodward
http://www.ctka.net/pr196-woodward.html

The WashPost supported the Vietnam war, as they have the Iraq war. Ben Bradlee's intel background is also of interest

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbradleeB.htm

Some in the uber-government get whatever they want...

and like Bluto Blutarski of Animal House fame, Robert F. Bennett is now a senator from UT (R). Life IS stranger than fiction ever could be !

[omega minimo]

14. Watergate hearings were on (pre-cable) networks in entirety, gavel to gavel, for the nation to see

Big "diff"

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Yep and they are digging their grave

this is coming out and one thing an angry public will demand is the break up of the monopolies... the weather is changing and FAST

[KharmaTrain]

15. Sadly The Haven't Hit That Point Yet

Russert still plays as Chief Political Correpsondant on NBC, Andrea Mitchell still spews her tripe as a "senior correspondant", Tweety still will gladly take a call from Rove or DeLay or Rudy. The corporate media can't even say that boooosh LIED...he didn't "mis-speak" or "mis-lead"...he LIED LIED LIED. When I hear the corporate media start using that term as freely about boooshie as they did about Clinton's "is is", then I'll believe things have changed.

[maine_raptor]

19. Ok. a couple of things here.

First, Woodward and Bernstein did not work for years; the break-in occurred on June 17, 1972. That was when they started their investigation. Scant attention was paid by others in the MSM at that time until the following spring.

The Senate Committee hearings in the summer of that year (73) was what brought it to the forefront of the publics attention.

Second, Nixon was never impeached, as others have pointed out, but Articles of Impeachment were voted out of the House Judiciary Committee in the summer of 74. That was the first time since 1866 that such had been done to a President.

Third, "Watergate" was not just the break-in at Democratic Headquarters; it was a whole passel of scandals - Enemies lists, the use of the FBI and IRS for political purposes, payments of hush money, etc.

Fourth, Nixon himself was not a well loved figure. He had a reputation that proceeded him: Tricky Dick. That contributed to a willingness by the populace to believe that he was not a nice man. (Contrast that with Bush's down home, good ol'boy, have a beer with, demeanor.)

Fifth, Back then, as stated above, impeachment of a president was novel; it had not been done in quite a while. Now we have a public that has lived through an impeachment before (Clinton) and seen just how partisan it can be. Impeachment fatigue is a factor now. It did not exist back then.

Finally, to the poster above that ranted against our Madame Speaker: Remember that when the "off the table" comment was made it was during a campaign season in which we Democrats were trying to gain a majority in Congress.

I say wait a spell, warm up the popcorn, because IMHO we will have an impeachment again. Very likely within the next 9 months.

[Blackhatjack]

21. Pelosi's 'off the table' comment was not for anything and everything Bush did or does...

Pelosi knew that the issues facing the country were dire and continue to be, and instituting an impeachment action would prevent the House from addressing those issues right away.

For example, Republicans left town without taking up appropriations bills for most of the government. IF Pelosi had jumped right in with impeachment proceedings, the appropriations bills would have remained unaddressed and the government would have shut down for lack of money. Can you imagine what Republicans would have said about that? Not that it was our fault, but that under the Democrats the government shut down because they are pursuing politics against Bush.

You put out the biggest fires first, but that does not mean you do not pay attention to others.

I have every confidence that Pelosi could and would change her view about instituting impeachment proceedings against Bush if evidence is revealed through Congressional Investigation that Bush was directly involved in high crimes and misdemeanors.

It is very important that the people see the process of investigation and exposure of evidence of wrongdoing by this Administration. So far the House and Senate are doing a great job. Just as Alberto Gonzales is being exposed with each passing day, Rove/Cheney/Bush are sure to get the same treatment.

[TheBaldyMan]

22. I don't think it's up to Pelosi, pretty soon everybody will be baying for impeachment

Consider the past week, Walter Reed is a horrific scandal that shows how indifferent the WH is to the plight of the returning wounded and maimed. Not just bad PR, an example of incompetence reaching up to Rumsfeld at least.

the Plame hearing publicly aired testimony that gave at least two instances of grave incompetence or deliberate dishonesty. First blowing the cover of a covert CIA case officer, this includes the intel network she ran. Secondly the revelation that the Dir. of the Office of Security had not conducted as much as an internal audit. This was not an oversight but a deliberate dereliction of care at the highest levels.

Then there is the US Atty scandal. Politically motivated de-selection of government officials is bad enough but on top of this there was a deliberate attempt to bypass the Presidential Records Act. Running a email service intentionally to circumvent proper administrative channels and so escape congressional scrutiny.

I won't discount the conditions at Walter Reed as immaterial to my argument as IMO they are all equally deserving of charges of impeachment being brought. Walter Reed is a symptom of the way this administration has planned and conducted the current conflict from the outset. Adding to this blowing the cover of a covert CIA case officer, not holding an administrative review of the leak along with politically motivated dismissals and attempts to circumvent congressional scrutiny. Any one of these would warrant removal from office, these are the most serious of the offences brought into the light so far. I am not counting any charges of perjury or contempt. The future will expose more examples every bit as staggering in their brazen disregard for the US system. Those responsible will be called to account.

Chief among those responsible are Karl Rove, VP Cheney and George W Bush. There is no way you could remove any one of the three from office without toppling the other two.

Speaker Pelosi may find calls for impeachment impossible to ignore when even more evidence comes to light.

edited for clarity