Cuban-born Watergate burglar dies in Florida at 92

Yahoo - AP ^ | Fri Jun 5 | DAVID FISCHER

[Borges]

MIAMI – Bernard Leon Barker, one of the five Watergate burglars whose break-in led to America's biggest political scandal, died Friday in suburban Miami. He was 92.

The Cuban-born former CIA operative who also participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion died at his home after being taken to the Veteran's Administration Medical Center the night before, said his stepdaughter, Kelly Andrad. He appeared to have died from complications of lung cancer, and he had also suffered from heart problems.

Barker was one of five men who broke into the Watergate building in Washington on June 17, 1972. A piece of tape used by the burglars to cover the lock to a stairwell door was noticed by a security guard, setting in motion events that would topple Richard M. Nixon's presidency.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I wonder what Sandy Berger thought of this fellow.

[LiberConservative]

... America's biggest political scandal ...

Baloney. A compelling case could be made that Clinton and Lewinsky was the biggest. It was certainly the sleaziest and most tawdry.

[bgill]

As the years go by people are not so uptight about these things after all

Unfortunately, today, anything goes.

[danamco]

America's biggest political scandal is NOT Watergate!

It is the appearance of Barry Soetoro in the W.H.!!

An illegal alien and usurper that duped 52% of gullible Americans like Jim Jones did to all his kool-aid drinker followers!!!

[Larry Lucido]

setting in motion events that would topple Richard M. Nixon's presidency...

...which led to Nixon's succession by Jerry Ford, which led to the pardon of Nixon, which led to the election of Jimmy Carter, which led to the election of Ronald Reagan. See, it wasn't all bad.

[laconic]

Nobody drowned at Watergate.

[OldCorps]

This guy is a hero in my book.

[gusopol3]

I wonder if we’ll ever find out why the plane with Mrs. Hunt and all that money in the suitcase just happened to crash.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Jedidah]

Burglary, obstruction of justice, the President’s personal lawyer raising hush money to pay off witnesses . . .

The Clinton/Lewinsky was indeed tawdry, disgusting, morally reprehensible, and scandalous, but the Nixon White House was full of all-out lawbreakers. I wish it weren’t so, and wished so at the time, but what they did is indefensible.

As for potential as “biggest” scandal, I think Post #5 nails it, but I don’t know if we’ll ever know the truth.

[MattinNJ]

IMHO, more like 47%. ACORN got hi at least 5%.

[TBP]

People forget that the reason the bug was put there in the first place was because there were indications that the McGovern campaign may have been getting money from Cuba, or at least that was one of teh stated reasons.

The night that the Plumbers were caught, they were actually removing the bug.

[STONEWALLS]

I remember Watergate well and the guy is right...with time this stuff fades...the main thing wrong with Nixon was the the Washington Post hated him and was looking for an excuse to get him....they hated him because he was strongly anti-communist and the Post was a big fan of Stalin...conveniently forgetting the millions of deaths that ole Joe was responsible for.

[LiberConservative]

The Lewinsky scandal was the worst because of not only what we know, but what we don't know. And we don't know because of the cowardly Republican “leadership” that refused to pursue the case more than they could have. All the scandals the preceded Bill Clinton led up to Monica Lewinsky. May historians have more courage than our Senate at the time.