Free Republic

It has been fifty years since that momentous break-in at the Watergate office complex, and it seems a good time to revisit that episode, especially in light of the current abuses of power that seem so ubiquitous. Geoff Shepard's book, The Real Watergate Scandal and the just published book by Garrett Graff, Watergate, a New History, offer different perspectives. Shepard is more interested in the legal process and its abuse, while Graff's book relies more on the infamous White House tapes. It is the more comprehensive of the two. Here are some of observations based on these histories. *** Most...

This June 17 will mark 50 years since five burglars were caught red-handed in the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee. We will be regaled once again with laudatory tales of the two intrepid cub reporters, whose dogged investigative work thwarted a determined cover-up by President Richard Nixon and his henchmen. *** The truth behind a separate troubling event did not emerge until Jeff Himmelman’s book Yours in Truth: A Personal Portrait of Ben Bradlee was published in 2012. He tells the story of his discovery of a seven-page Bernstein memo in Bradlee’s files, detailing Bernstein’s highly improper interview...