And this is why they say that Nixon "only lied"

[question everything]

From a conservative blog:

Buchanan on Felt

From Pat Buchanan, one of the best lead paragraphs I recall reading: "And so it turns out that the two most famous investigative reporters of all time were a pair of stenographers for an FBI hack who was ratting out President Nixon for passing him over as director." Wow. I love how he calls them Great Stenographers. Ben Stein is pretty good, too: "Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? ... Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied."
Posted by Steven Greenhut -- [e-mail] at 2:12 PM

http://www.ocregister.com/blog/commentary/

First, it is not as if the reporters of Greenhut's rag - the Orange County Register - are anymore than stenographers. But besides, as Bradlee and other confirm: Felt just told them whether a certain direction was right or wrong. And as Dean says - he left the FBI in the middle of 1973 while the Post reports continued. And they certainly found the connection between the burglars and the CRP almost immediately, before they went to Felt, before they even realized that they needed an inside line.

As for Ben Stein - no, Nixon resigned because he subverted the Constitution, because he used federal agencies like the IRS and the FBI to spy on private citizens.

The other day I watched a rerun of a PBS program on Watergate from two years ago - 30 years anniversary. And what struck me was the quality of the Republican senators: Howard Baker and Lowell Weicker - individuals with integrity and honesty, as opposed to todays' baboons and crude Frist and Santorum. And at some point Weicker said: whatever happened to one's opponents? since when are your opponents now your enemies?

And Sam Dash was talking about the White House counsels - Constitutional scholars who argued in front of the Supreme Court to keep the tapes private and they said that a President is an absolute ruler, like Louis the 14, except for only four years.

And all they claim is that Nixon "lied?" Sure they do, because then they can keep the comparison to Clinton. Or they probably agree with Dean's final conclusion: that some say that Nixon's only mistake was that he got caught.

[Warpy]

1. Nixon did just a little more than lie.

He knew about the breakin before hand, and he approved it.

The impeachment wouldn't have been only about burglary and obstruction of justice. It would likely have touched on illegally using all of the country's military and espionage and even the IRS against its own citizens.

Nixon was bad news. His paranoia took over and make this country a very dangerous place for those of us who disagreed with him on the war.

[damntexdem]

3. It is only from the retrospective view from the Dubya era ...

that Nixon doesn't seem so bad. Back then, we just didn't know how low we COULD go.

[damntexdem]

2. And he should have been impeached for ...

the illegal bombing of Cambodia!

[marmar]

4. To lie...

about wars that kill thousands and illegal spy acts, no problem. But lying about felatio in the White House - impeachable offense!

[SteppingRazor]

5. Like Hunter Thompson said,

Nixon was so crooked he had to have aides screw his pants on in the morning ... his body should have been burned in a trash bin.

The rest is just window dressing.

[question everything]

6. Good one. Never heard that one n/t