Countdown will be EXCELLENT tonight

[nadinbrzezinski]

we learn what Nixon wanted in the Watergate Hotel... wow

[BlooInBloo]

1. Dammit. Too bad there's a football game on.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Who's playing?

A pro game?

[BlooInBloo]

5. The rambling wreck vs the 'canes. Top 20 matchup. Pretty fun so far.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. Ah, good -

I find college ball a whole lot more fun these days than pro ball.

Thanks......................

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Ok whip count as of now, aparently we don't have votes

to get Baucus monstrosity out of Comittee

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Teddy JR on now.... I love this "kid."

he is good

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

7. KO said John Dean would spill the beans,,, interesting because

in his book "Secret Agenda - Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA" Jim Hougan says Dean wanted some info on his future wife "Mo" and her "profession" at the time.

[Gabi Hayes]

8. I have that book. according to Hougan, etal, CIA was who got Nixon out.

it was the basis for the ongoing legal struggle between Dean and GG Liddy

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. And I cannot wait to find out

has been the Mystery of the last few years

[Gabi Hayes]

10. from the following link, a section regarding the purpose of the breakin:

As physical evidence obtained at the scene of the crime, the key spoke volumes about the purpose of the break-in.
That subject---Why did they pick the DNC as a target?---has been debated for decades, though one might not know it by reading the Washington Post. Most accounts of the affair suppose that the break-ins (there were two successful efforts, one at the end of May, and another on June 17th) were mounted to obtain "political intelligence." James McCord, the former CIA officer who led "the Cubans" into the DNC, told the Senate that DNC Chairman Larry O'Brien was the target. Accordingly, McCord installed a room-bug in O'Brien's office. At least, that's what he said.
Howard Hunt and his Cuban cohort offered an entirely different reason for the break-in. According to them, they were sent into the DNC to find evidence of illegal campaign contributions from Fidel Castro.
In reality, neither explanation is supported by the evidence. If the burglars were looking for financial data, they certainly chose some strange places to search. DNC Treasurer Robert Strauss's office was untouched, as were the offices of the DNC's Comptroller. And as for the bug in Larry O'Brien's office, well, it was never found---despite repeated and rather desperate searches by the FBI and the telephone company.
Not that the bug would have worked, in any case. O'Brien's office was part of an interior suite at the DNC and, as such, it was shielded from McCord's "listening post" in the motel across the street. Moreover, and as Liddy himself pointed out, the subject of the surveillance wasn't even in Washington. Nor was he expected to return anytime soon. More than a month before the break-in, the DNC's chairman had moved to Florida, where the Democratic Convention was to be held.

............


scroll down to find the above; read on

http://jimhougan.com/WatergateInquisition.html

[Gabi Hayes]

11. btw, I'm guessing Dean's account will be very very different from

Hougan's, who, I believe, is aligned with Liddy on this.

again, from the above link:

The issue of the burglary's purpose was even raised in Blind Ambition, the John Dean memoir ghost-written by the well-regarded historian, Taylor Branch. In that book, we're told that Dean raised the issue with Charles Colson in 1974, when both of them were doing time in federal prison.

"'Chuck, why do you figure Liddy bugged the DNC instead of the Democratic candidates? It doesn't make much sense. I sat in (Atty. Gen. John) Mitchell's office when Liddy gave us his show, and he only mentioned Larry O'Brien in passing as a target...'

"'It looks suspicious to me,'" Dean continues. "'(I)t's incredible. Millions of dollars have been spent investigating Watergate. A President has been forced out of office. Dozens of lives have been ruined. We're sitting in the can. And still nobody can explain why they bugged the place to begin with.'" <5>




Though Dean subsequently repudiated his own memoir, <6> the anecdote makes a good point. The Watergate affair can only remain a mystery so long as its purpose remains hidden.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

15. Have you read

"Silent Coup - The Removal of a President by Len Colodny and Robert Getlin"?

from the back cover:

"It is my feeling that Colodny and Gettlin have put their fingers on the cause
of yours and others' problems."

John Mitchell, in an unpublished letter to Richard Nixon, spring 1987.


edit: this book is not flattering to john dean.

[Gabi Hayes]

17. those guys were the ones Liddy teamed up with to go after Dean, resulting in the

legal imbroglios.

I hadn't read that one, which, I'm pretty sure relies heavily on the Hougan book, but I superficially followed the Dean/Liddy battle in the media

I've read a whole bunch of Watergate books (from the opposite end of the spectrum), the Hougan book being one of the last, which pretty much ended my reading on that subject

I've never been able to reconcile the two versions of 'reality' presented by the opposing camps....somewhat along the lines of the lone gunman vs. the grassy knoll: hard to tell what to believe, for myriad reasons

one thing for sure, Nixon was a rotten, lying, crooked bastard, regardless of whether he was being set up or not

btw, I just saw a DVD of Hunter Thompson's life, whose work at the time got me interested in Nixon in the first place

http://www.amazon.com/Gonzo-Life-Work-Hunter-Thompson/dp/B001EDFSIQ

highest recommendation, presenting him warts and all, including reference to his prescient analysis of what would become of this country post-9/11, written either that day, or the day after

[Gabi Hayes]

12. here we go:

coming out in a new edition of his autobio, Blind Ambition

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Finantial materials....

not surprised

[Gabi Hayes]

14. according to Dean, Nixon wanted dirt on dems for financial kickbacks, in order to

take the heat off his dirty ITT money (remember Hunt and the wig?)

he says there are new tape revelations in which Nixon/Haldeman discuss this

also disses the 'revisionists' (Hougan), saying this new corroborative evidence shows that Nixon, while not directly ordering the breakin, knew what needed to be done (and where) to find the damaging info on the dems

he mentioned the eight or nine years of lawsuits, as well as his wife's having no knowledge at all of anything related to Watergate

this could heat things up again between him and Liddy

can't wait

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. We may still hit dirt, and bottom

:-)