Friday, December 19, 2008

[mark felt dies] an era passes

Most people know the facts of the Watergate Scandal but here's  a refresher to mark the occasion of Deep Throat's passing today:

Nixon

He became president n 1968, for four years.

Ellsberg

This whistleblower leaked papers to the NYT, in 1971,  about America's real reasons for being in Vietnam and the paper duly published them until the White House got an injunction to prevent any more being published.  Ellsberg then sent copies to other papers, making it clear that Nixon would have to get an injunction against each and every one of them to stop him.  He went into hiding.

The Plumbers

The White House set up this covert group to plug leaks, under the auspices of John Ehrlichman.  One of the junior honchos, G. Gordon Liddy, wanted to burgle Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office for dirt on him.  Ehrlichman approved, it went ahead, they found nothing, Ellsberg surrendered and went for trial in 1973; during the trial,the break-in and other naughtiness were exposed.

CREEP

Actually called CRP by the GOP, the campaign to re-elect the president was mainly to raise funds but also indulged in dirty tricks on the Democrats, effectively harassing their campaign.  

Watergate

The plumbers decided to hit the DCH, in mid 1972, to see if they could dig up any dirt by planting bugs and the next errors were made - the team included people connected to CRP, they had bugging equipment, they were caught but there was one other factor.

The Dahlberg cheque

Wealthy supporters of the GOP were in the habit of contributing to campaign funds, often by cheque made out to CRP.  Liddy got the idea that if he paid the burglars directly using benefactors' cheques, then if something went wrong, it couldn't be sheeted home to CRP.  So he thought.  One shuch cheque, from Kenneth Dahlberg, was found in the pocket of one of the burglars.

Silence

The astounding thing is that, like Obama's non-citizenship, no one seemed interested and Nixon was returned in a landslide.  However, the FBI had the goods and had been digging deep.  For complicated reasons, they and the White House had an uneasy truce but when a Nixon appointee took over the agency, passing over the N2, Mark Felt, this also turned out to be an error.

Woodstein

Bob Woodward had a source and it was Felt.  When the Watergate burglary occurred, the two talked and it was Felt who put him onto the connection with CRP.  Felt had his own internal issues and probably thought the Woodstein way was the better chance to stymie Nixon.  Nixon was worried about him as he had all the dirt he needed, should he have chosen to use it.

Deep Throat

Woodward and Bernstein began their investigation and were met with the cold shoulder at every turn.  Felt was meeting Woodward at 2 a.m. in a garage and trying to set him on the right path without actually revealing specific information.  The film claims Felt told Woodward: "Follow the money,"  a good piece of advice, as this is largely what unravelled CRP in the end.  Deep Throat was a joke name based on a porno film of the time.

Senate hearings

As it became apparent that the White House was involved, at least to some extent, the question became: "How much did the President know and when did he know it?"  The war of attrition began, with the White House not cooperating in the least. 

The tapes

It came out that Nixon had recorded, on audio tape, all Oval Office conversations and now the investigation demanded those tapes.  Nixon refused.  He tried sending edited transcripts, he tried everything, including the Saturday Night Massacre when he interfered with the judiciary.

The Smoking Gun Tape

Even after all this [and I can't help thinking that it will occur this way with Obama too] many people resolutely stuck by the President's innocence, even when he announced to reporters that he "was not a crook".  What did for him amid the rumblings for an impeachment, was one particular tape which showed that he'd known about Watergate all along and had approved a course of action which covered it up.

Resignation and pardon

Nixon resigned, Ford took over and immediately pardoned Nixon of all crimes.  That did for Gerry Ford.

Felt outs himself

In 2005, Mark Felt came out and admitted he was Deep Throat.  On December 18th, 2008, he died, aged 95.

Vale, Mark Felt.

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