Dear kabar,
Once upon a time, I knew all this stuff by memory. I was a teenager when all this occurred, and I absorbed it all like a sponge. I stayed home from school, feigning illness, to watch the Senate Select Committee hearings, and later, I watched the House Judiciary Committee impeachement hearings. However, the passage of time has dimmed (my) memory (at least). I'd have to go research what I once knew by heart.
But I remember a few salient details. I remember that the plumbers started out after Mr. Nixon felt that the ordinary channels for finding leakers had failed. I remember that Mr. Nixon's folks ran a poll prior to the opening of the 1972 presidential election season which showed rather competitive races against most of the possible Democrat nominees.
I won't tell you that Mr. Nixon's folks successfully got Sen. McGovern nominated. I'm not sure the dirty tricks really had that much effect. That isn't to say the attempt wasn't made.
I also don't think that Mr. Nixon's minions did anything different than previous presidents.
But some of the stuff that occurred under his auspices, including third-rate burglaries, and some of the stuff that he countenanced, including the cover-up of third-rate burglaries, were felonies.
And Republicans don't think that presidents should be felons.
Remember, as well, when wage and price controls went on, there was a reason for that. A year and a half or so out from the election, the November landslide didn't look so certain.
sitetest
I wasn't a teenager at the time. I was an adult who had served in Vietnam and had just joined the Foreign Service and was in Washington at the time of the Watergate hearings. What was happening had some immediate relevancy to me. Thus, it remains fairly clear in my memory.
>But I remember a few salient details. I remember that the plumbers started out after Mr. Nixon felt that the ordinary channels for finding leakers had failed. I remember that Mr. Nixon's folks ran a poll prior to the opening of the 1972 presidential election season which showed rather competitive races against most of the possible Democrat nominees.
Every politician and his followers worry about reelection and develop an election strategy to win. I am sure the Dem candidates did the same thing. What potential Democrat candidates, other than McGovern are you talking about? At the Dem 1972 convention, McGovern received 1,865 votes, compared to his nearest rivals Henry Jackson (525), George Wallace (382), and Shirly Chisholm (152). I don't buy the premise that Nixon's reelection committee helped handpick the Dem nominee or had any influence in doing so. The Dems had lost touch with the American people through their excessive liberalism.
Nixon won in 1968 because of George Wallace's formation of a third party, which split the Sourthern Dems. Wallace won 46 electoral votes in 1968.
But some of the stuff that occurred under his auspices, including third-rate burglaries, and some of the stuff that he countenanced, including the cover-up of third-rate burglaries, were felonies. And Republicans don't think that presidents should be felons.
Nixon's crime was the cover-up. At the suggestion of LBJ, Nixon set up a taping system similar to LBJ. That was his downfall, e.g, releasing the tapes. If you think that Nixon and his reelection committee originated political dirty tricks, you are sadly mistaken. Even Kerry's brother was guilty of breaking into an opponent's political headquarters. Kennedy and Richard Daley helped steal the 1960 election, which Nixon did not challenge out of respect for the Presidency. What other stuff are you talking about?
Felt was also a felon. He condoned the secret break-in of private homes of the Weatherman Underground by government agents without a search warrant. Reagan pardoned him.
And Republicans don't think that presidents should be felons.
Richard Nixon was not a convicted felon.