Reply #23: Hey, I was a law student when

[OldLeftieLawyer]

the Senate Watergate hearings began - we were taking our first-year finals. Can you imagine what the lounge was like at the U of Chicago law school that Spring? It's amazing any of us ever studied - or passed.

But it was the most brilliant education on the Constitution at work that any student could have received.

His motive was personal gain, and that's all. He was a supercilious, rude, arrogant, mean man, full of obvious disdain for those who didn't support his rightwingnut beliefs, and proud with a capital "P'. He had white hair back then, too, thick white hair that he wore in a HUGE pompadour, which always brought a kind of titter from the ladies at Watergate at Landmark, where we all dwelled.

He wanted to be head of the FBI, but he had alienated far too many people along the way and had lacked the skills to cultivate any kind of poitical rabbi. He was, in fact, a high-level drone, and far too caught up in his image as "G-Man" (check his photo on the cover of his book - which, if there is a god, will tank). In short, he lacked the interpersonal skills needed to be the kind of brilliant blackmailer that Hoover was - Felt just would have crushed people instead of slowly taking over their lives and souls, as JEdgar did so well, may he continue to rot in unending pain, by the way.

Watergate was my life for a long time because we moved to Washington that summer, and I finished law school there. I was at the Federal courthouse every chance I got to watch John Sirica preside over the Plumbers' trial, such as it was, and if he can see Antonin Scalia today, Maximum John, as he was known (tough sentencing history) would come back and beat the crap out of him for dishonoring our Courts, our Constitution, and our (me, too) heritage as Italian-Americans.

It was an amazing time. I was at the Old Executive Office Building with a friend who happened to be one of Nixon's economic advisors, on Kissinger's staff, on the night of the Saturday Night Massacre. We saw everyone walking in and going out, looking down from Gus's office onto the driveway. We didn't know for sure what was going on until later. It was amazing.

Gus, by the way, was Gus Weiss, and if you google his name, you'll see that he "committed suicide" a few years ago, just as he - a lifelong loyal Republican - was preparing to speak out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I'd known Gus for a lot of years, and no one will ever convince me that he was anything but murdered by the fucking thugs who seized our country in 2000 and who are now hell-bent on sending us all into Fuckface's personal version of Armageddon. That's what Gus thought, too. He was a genius, a lovely man, a good friend, and I loved him.

I'm wallowing, and this is over morning coffee. Sorry for going on so long. The subject still lives on inside me, and, while I'll never get over how close we came to allowing Nixon to rape the Constitution and make a mockery of what our country is about, there were brave men in the House and Senate - of both parties, but mostly Republican - who stood up and did the right thing. We had Woodward and Bernstein, before Woodward became a professional Presidential fellatrix, who did their job the way it was supposed to be done, and we had Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham and Daniel Ellsberg, people who were willing to stand up to bullies and tyrants and put what they had and who they were on the line in order to do their jobs and tell the American people the truth. It was a heady time, a right time, a dangerous time, and an exciting time.

Now, we have - what? - who? - no one with a spine, and I am so frightened for my America, for our lives, for the continuation of this planet.

Thank you for giving me the chance to ramble along on a subject that still - obviously - matters a great deal. I hope I was able to give you just a bit of something you might find interesting.