Well, there is that inconvenient fact that the Democrats, after Nixons fall and their gains in Congress in the 1974 elections, cut off all military aid to South Vietnam and Cambodia. A Communist victory and subsequent bloodbath in both countries was thus assured, and facilitated by Nixon’s political weakness and later resignation.
What was it you said about timelines?
Never said I forgot that, but Pat did, and that was the point.
Maybe I should say now that some conservative posters do. 
But, I am on the record on saying that by staying that long in Vietnam it caused America to be so sick of indochina that when a trully apalling situation appeared, there was no political will to intervene, that is a lesson to never forget the longer we stay in Iraq.
Your post suggests that a witness to wrongdoing – majorly serious abuse of the Constitution wrongdoing – has a legal duty not to reveal said wrongdoing other than to his superiors – who are implicated in said wrongdoing – or when asked by a grand jury.
As a legal matter, cite? As a public interest matter, bollocks.
Just read the Washington Post story, and Woodward claims that he met Felt “by chance”. Your characterization of them as friends is false.
I just read the above piece by Ben Stein.
Yeah… that’s all he did. He never had the IRS audit every journalist, politician- even comedians who spoke against him, never refused to turn over tapes to Jaworski (and then when he did unders SCOTUS order they’d been tampered with), never ordered the FBI to halt its investigation of the break-in, never had psychotic breaks with reality while talking to presidential portraits, never had a near psychotic paranoid break (“Pray with me Henry!”), etc… He also never ordered the invasion of Cambodia, the saturation bombing of North Vietnam, never led to the death of Allende, etc… Puh-leez. (Of course I remember Stein on Larry King live in 2000 when he said people should vote for Bush “because he’s a nice guy”.)
How is such compartmentalization possible? (And if Carter or Johnson had ordered the break in of GOP hq, it’d still be making front-page news and prime airtime, or if Carter had been in Dallas the morning JFK was assassinated like Nixon was Buchanan would still see it as proof positive of involvement in murder. God, I hate “all is black or white” ideologues (on whichever side, but it so happens that Stein, Buchanan, Novak, Liddy, etc., who are calling a 92 year old man everything but a war criminal are all on the right).
*In fairness, though he hates Hillary with a passion Stein was one of the few ultra-conservative commentators to speak out against the impeachment of Clinton.)
Look… it’s Ben Stein. He wrote speeches for Nixon (and Ford). I’ve seen him speak, and it’s pretty clear to me that he has an explanation for eveything Nixon ever did that you thought was wrong. :rolleyes:
There is definitely some attempted historical revisionism going on from some Republicans where Nixon is concerned.
Woodward referred to Felt as “my friend,” so that’s probably in part responsible for the idea that they were friends. But I don’t think they were just acquaintances. The New York Times says today that
My irony meter broke when I read that G. Gordon Liddy was bothered about the ethics of what Deep throat did. :rolleyes:
I’ve read both Kissinger’s and Nixon’s accounts of the “Pray with me, Henry” incident. Just how is that a “near psychotic paranoid break”? I suppose to a non-religious person, it may seem “near psychotic.” Most religious people would not consider asking someone to pray with you to be psychotic.
How far Ben Stein has fallen…
I tell you, right now even I would win his money…
A big IIRC moment:
Recent recordings showed that Nixon really hated jews, I do think it was very likely Henry did find about it and I do think his remark before praying with him was “well, this better not come out” IMO it was an out loud warning to Nixon that this insult to him was going to come out indeed.
Actually it was supposed to have this URL but I forgot to go back and add it.
Pat Buchanan says Mark Felt was a traitor. Apparently, if your bosses are criminals, and your immediate supervisor is concealing evidence, you’re supposed to keep your mouth shut.
If Felt had gone to a grand jury, he would have been fired. His reputation would have been savaged, in the grand J. Edgar Hoover tradition. The story would have been swept under the rug. Would there have been anyone else at the FBI with courage enough to tell the truth?
He did suggest to “his men” that they should break into the Brookings Institute. He also said that they should break into Republican Headquarters to frame the Democrats.
There were three or four things that exposed what was going on in the Nixon Administration. Felt, Woodward and Bernstein deserve much credit for their parts. It was certainly the Washington Post articles that kept the nation informed. (That and Martha Mitchell!)
Maybe Buchanan is pouting because he can’t pretend that he might be Deep Throat anymore. He really seemed angry when the news broke.
I hate to see Nixon’s downfall become a partisan issue again. By the time that he resigned, there didn’t seem to be much question about his corruption. At the time, many Republicans were afraid that he had destroyed the Republican Party.
In order to listen to the actual Oval Office tapes at the National Archives, you had to go early to stand in line to get a ticket which would have a time stamped on it for later in the day. You could come and listen for an hour with a transcript. Absolutely chilling at the time.
I would like to say that I fully support the past and present actions of W. Mark Felt, and believe that this is a brave, brave man who should be thanked and acknowledged as having had a role in saving the U.S. of A. from becoming a drastically different kind of government and society.
I was particularly perturbed by Mr. Stein’s article, for it’s callous disregard of the wrongs which Nixon committed. I thought I would share the letter I wrote to the editor of The American Spectator.
"Dear Sir,
Please remind your columnist, Ben Stein, that Richard M. Nixon was guilty of subverting the Constitution of the United States of America, a document he was sworn to uphold and protect.
W. Mark Felt is a true hero, for exposing the corruptions which threatened to alter our society irrevocably.
Richard M. Nixon, on the other hand, was a deranged lunatic with a thirst, a hunger, for power and control.
As Ben Stein notes, what he did was lie. And he lied about his involvement in crimes. For Bill Clinton, the proper course was to impeach him. Yet Mr. Stein would have us not just forgive, but FORGET that Nixon comitted his crime.
Lies, distortions, and fabrications aren’t winning this reader over. Your site was linked in a forum or I doubt I would have ever stumbled across this. Rest assured, however, that I will now go out of my way not only to avoid you, but to advise others to avoid your publication.
I will also be contacting advertisers on your site to advise that they withdraw their ads not only from your website, but from any print media or video which your company is involved in. Not everyone will sit silently while people like Mr. Stein attempt to rewrite the facts of history.
Have a nice day.
Bo"
Thanks for listening, y’all.
You know I never understood what a colossal jerk Ben Stein is, and to think I really liked his game show. I guess the signs were there, as when he would swear in a barley concealed rage when he answered a question wrong. His true colors are shown when defending Nixon.
Icerigger - to give Stein a little credit, he’s a smart man and he’s pretty funny. I really did like his game show. He could be obnoxious as a contestant, but he had the guts to put his own money on the line, and if he was arrogant, hey, at least he really did know the answers most of the time. (Sorry Alex Trebek, I love ya, but…)
But as a Nixon apologist he knows no shame. I say most of what I’m saying about him based on seeing him speak in public a few years ago. He was nice enough at the meet-and-greet afterward, too.
When asked about Nixon’s anti-Semitism, he said that Nixon was never mean to him personally, and that he felt a lot of Nixon’s comments were made just to impress H. R. Haldeman. Now, the first half of the comment could be totally true, but the second half is kind of ridiculous. It seems more in keeping with Stein not knowing what the big deal was about Watergate. And he really is too intelligent to get away with commentary like this.
For good or bad reasons, Felt chose not to use the appropriate channel(s). Any means to an end? Right.
It is indeed sad when so many are so quick to believe that we do not have millions of honest, intelligent, and determined individuals in our government that would, and do, make attempts to right wrongs – and do so using the proper channels. Rather, too many are so quick to believe that without The Press to uncover and expose, all would be swept under rugs. As if those who serve in our government are somehow pre-programmed to cover up, should something unsavory surface, and no investigations would be initiated and justice would not be served if it were not for The Press.
Likely, the people at Justice and elsewhere conducted the necessary and fruitful investigation with little, if any, help from the likes of Felt, Woodward, and/or Bernstein. One way to look at it; Felt was an ‘insider’ with access to ‘insider information’ – for whatever reason(s) and to their benefit, these reporters were selected to scoop the story. Credit for keeping the public abreast of events and keeping mum about the identity of Deep Throat for so long? Yes. Credit for uncovering the break-in and subsequent investigations, prosecutions, etc.? No.
Nixon did wrong and Felt is neither a hero nor a traitor.
It’s rather hard to put your faith in the system when they subject is Watergate.
You’re accusing people of blanket generalizations, but this is only about the people relevant to this case. The head of the FBI at this time was L. Patrick Gray. It made sense for Felt not to completely trust Gray to investigate a break-in connected to the man who appointed him. I think that was part of his reason for going to Woodward. It’s true that Felt knew what he knew because of FBI’s work on the case. On the other hand, he was right if he didn’t trust Gray: Gray was cooperating with the White House. He kept them informed of the case against them and destroyed evidence. So if you ask me Felt was correct in not trusting the system to do its job. We can’t know how the story would have turned out if the public pressure that Woodward, Bernstein brought about with Felt’s help hadn’t been a factor. I think the White House’s attempts to suppress the truth would have been more successful, if not totally successful.
Now I’m confused… since you were the one comparing the Bush Administration’s croneyism with Felt’s tips to W&B, and you admit that Felt was not entirely selfish in his motives, are you trying to argue the converse – that Haliburton’s lucrative no-bid contracts in Iraq are merely the results of a selfless sacrificial endeavor to serve the greater good?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.”
–Edmund Burke