Watergate: The sequel/Jane Chastain charges media bias against Gephardt foe

The media elite, that buries its head in the sand when it comes to the scandals involving William Jefferson Clinton, considers Watergate the biggest political scandal in United States history.

However, Watergate has a sequel and the same reporters who swoon at the very mention of the scandal that took down the Nixon presidency have shown no interest in the sequel, though it contains all of the elements of the original version.

If the charges are true, Watergate II, like the original, represents an attack on the chief feature of this democratic republic: free and fair elections. It involves a series of burglaries, wiretaps, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage and the attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents.

No, it does not involve a president, but it involves a man who could be the Democrat nominee in 2004, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Richard Gephardt.

Most Americans are unaware that Dick Gephardt had the biggest scare of his political life in the year 2000. In fact, his race to retain his congressional seat in Missouri’s third congressional district in St. Louis was the third most expensive race in America. Gephardt spent $6 million to defeat William J. Federer, a political novice and historian who is best known as the editor of "America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations."

However, what Gephardt allegedly did to retain his seat makes the original Watergate seem tame by comparison. Federer first ran against Gephardt in 1998 and made such an impressive showing that the Republican Party sent in the cavalry for the 2000 election. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Conference Chairman J.C. Watts made trips to St. Louis and campaigned beside him.

William H. T. Bush – brother of George H. Bush and uncle of George W. Bush – was co-chair of his campaign finance committee. Thirty-five thousand Americans contributed a total of $2.7 million to the Federer campaign and, for awhile, he had Gephardt on the ropes.

Then, in the spring of 2000, the break-ins began: The first occurred during the third week in May, at the law office of his bother Tom. A couple of days later, Federer’s campaign headquarters was burglarized. The following month, the Federer home was hit. A few days later, the Federer family real estate office had a break-in. The office of his brother Ted, who was acting as his campaign manager, had his office door broken open. On Sept. 23, his campaign headquarters was hit a second time.

The curious thing about all these burglaries is that the perpetrators took nothing of apparent value. However, the intruders left files scattered about the offices. In addition, on or about May 30, the phone lines to Federer’s campaign headquarters were tampered with and the telephone box on the third floor hallway, serving Mr. Federer’s campaign office, was pried open.

Shortly after these break-ins began, private information on Mr. Federer, his family and the family’s business began appearing in the press. Yet, local law enforcement didn’t consider this pattern of burglaries, conducted in low crime areas, the least bit suspicious, nor a plethora of other illegal acts committed against Federer supporters that could be considered political dirty tricks. St. Louis is a city run by Democrats, many of whom owe their political careers to Gephardt’s national political adviser, Joyce Aboussie. Police dutifully took reports but never cordoned-off any area or even dusted for prints.

The Gephardt campaign began using bits of Federer’s private information to manufacture spurious chargers against him. These charges dutifully were reported by Gephardt’s many friends in the media – the very same reporters who showed no interest in investigating the Federer break-ins. It appears the newspaper stories were planted to manipulate various state and federal agencies into launching investigations against him, including the Federal Election Commission and the FBI, which of course generated even more newspaper stories. All charges eventually were thrown out but the FEC didn’t have time to examine the charges until a year after the election had been decided and Gephardt had escaped with his political life.

One local charge remains, and on May 22, 2002, Judicial Watch stepped in to defend Federer. The public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Federer against Gephardt, Aboussie and congressional staffer James Larrew, but there has been no independent reporting or investigation by a major newspaper.

What happened to the type of stop-the-presses kind of reporting that exposed the Watergate plumbers? Anybody the least bit interested in a Pulitzer Prize? Apparently not, if the mastermind of these alleged crimes is a Democrat darling.

""Anybody the least bit interested in a Pulitzer Prize? Apparently not, if the mastermind of these alleged crimes is a Democrat darling.""

Yet, they went all out on Traficant.

I am stunned. I cannot understand why all those break-ins involving the same person, or persons related to him, was not suspicious. Being a former Deputy Sheriff, I can tell you - by the 3rd break-in, it should have been a major investigation. But ... since it's democrat territory and he's a repub, what can you expect.

THAT'S WHY WE NEED TO GET THESE ARROGANT, PATHETIC PEOPLE OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT. THEY ARE NOT FIT TO HOLD OFFICE.

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