...Does you conscience bother you?
Watergate, and Deep Throat...
I'm of two minds on this one. First, the number two guy at the FBI, with a political axe to grind releases "I've got a secret" bullshit.. Well that shit just pisses me off. Hell even today he could be prosecuted for that.
As G. Gordon Liddy says, he had a duty as a senior law enforcement official to convene an investigative grand jury with the justice department. He did not, because either he believed there was no way one would come back with anything useful, or because he was protecting someone (according to the G-Man the knowledge of a prostitution blackmail ring being run out of DNC hedquarters, but I don't know how much credence I give to that). It has been show he was a heavy campaign donor, democratric supporter, and Nixon Opponent for personal reasons.
That said, what if we had a deep throat to come forward about Clinton and the Chinese (I'm SURE that full story hasnt come out yet), or Web Hubbell, or Ruby Ridge, or Waco...
What if (god forbid) Hilary manages to get elected (please god no I'm begging you)...
Sometimes it IS necessary to violate security, procedures, policies, to ensure the right thing is done. Do I think the right thing WAS done? Honestly I don't know.
If it werent for Watergate I think Nixon would have gone down as a very successful president. He could have handled Viet Nam a HELL of a lot better, he was a paranoid, he did the whole price and wage thing.. all in all he was actuallly a liberal republican, and Ford wasworse; so maybe the country was better off with Nixon and Ford not running it.
If Nixon hadnt been forced out, I'm SURE we wouldnt have had a Jimmy carter presidency, though that would have meant that Ronald Reagan prolly never would have been elected (the Reagan Ford infighting was NASTY, and it would have torn the party to pieces in '80 if Ford had been re-elected).
Two incredibly negative things came out of watergate: The presidency, and our government were greatly diminished in respect, and in trust (double edged sword for a libertarian like me); and the media became unabashed political crusaders, without even pretending to no be anti-republican.
Our Country was greatly damaged; in ways that we still feel today, and probably will, til everyone who was between 12 and 30 in '72 dies.
