For those of you who remember Watergate...

[hollywood926]

Do you remember how the whole thing unfolded? Was it something that crept out of the news slowly over a long period of time or was it a quick shock to the public, suggesting quiet behind-the-scenes investigations?

I'm just looking for some hope that my Democratic leaders are quietly figuring this stuff out.

[whalerider55]

1. as i remember...

they nailed the VP first, on something unrelated to the main event.

bribes, wasn't it?

whalerider55

[HamdenRice]

7. Agnew: Really penny ante bu**sh*t

I believe it was kickbacks for highway construction in his home state of Maryland.

[whalerider55]

10. yeah

that's the ticket...

my allusion was to the French Investigation into Halliburton... bribes... while the great Dick was CEO...

drips and drabs.
me, I was living in London when Agnew nolo contendre'd. di we get palstered that night. I might even have streaked past the Hammersmith Odeon...

whalerider55

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

9. Agnew had nothing to do with Watergate

The Nixon people detested Agnew, using him only as red meat to allay the racists and other pigs. He had close to zero influence in the White House or the '72 campaign.

[BayStateBoy]

25. First report was a paragraph on about page 23 WP

It went no where for months and months.

[merh]

40. nailed agnew on tax evasion

after he hit some poor sucker in the head with a golf ball while playing his usual round of 18.

[Maat]

2. As I recall ... the thing leaked out in bits, after ...

quiet behind the scenes investigations. No, it kind of started with an article, and then it snowballed quickly, after behind-the-scenes investigations.

[Catholic Sensation]

3. five "cubans" were arrested

and the media slowly found a pattern of similar obstructions being aimed at the Democratic Party by the Nixon White House for years upon years. In the end it took close to two years to pin Watergate and the other obstructions on Nixon.

[whalerider55]

13. and...

a deep throat. and a bi-partisan congress who thought the constitution meant more than toilet paper. and a deep distrust of the imperial presidency.

whalerider55

[NewJeffCT]

26. one big difference, though

Not just that even the Republicans thought the Constitution meant something back then - I think liberal Republican Lowell Weicker of CT was around back then - but, the Democrats held a majority in both houses so they could initiate investigations like that. When Republicans initiate investigations, we get Monica Lewinksy & the blue dress.

[ROC]

28. There were some giants in Congress then!

[Mizmoon]

4. I asked apolitical mother what it was like

She told me that at first no one even paid attenion. The charges were boring to the average person - some crap about bribery, other equally boring accusations.

She didn't even start paying attention until the uproar was so huge that Nixon's impeachment was imminent. Then even oblivious mom was sucked into this amazing event where the president who had won by a massive landslide was booted out of office and the government was in turmoil.

[Webster Green]

5. Both....It was a shock, then the after-shocks just kept coming....

Nixon had to resign when the tsunami hit the White House.

Big difference between then and now: There aren't many actual journalists in the mainstream media today, only bush-lickers.

[hollywood926]

8. Yes, where ARE they....

one would think that there would be some journalist out there who's thirsty for the TRUTH! If nothing else, he would be a hero to 55 million people!

and wanted dead or alive by the other half of America!

[whalerider55]

12. i take exception

to bush-lickers.
i prefer w-buffers.

whalerider55

[shraby]

6. I was pretty busy with little kids

4 pre-schoolers, but I remember being disgusted with Nixon about those damnable tapes he wouldn't turn over.

[Nay]

11. IIRC, an alert security guard saw flashlights and interrupted what

he thought was a petty burglary. For a while it was not even connected to Nixon, but the two or three burglars who were caught spilled the beans and admitted they were doing "dirty tricks" for Nixon. Then it was a matter of pinning it on Nixon, thus the Nixon tapes with 18 minutes missing, and all the rest.

[Slit Skirt]

14. I am fairly sure this is how it went.....

I was in 12th grade government class...my government teacher kept telling us about these articles in the Washington Post (woodward/bernstein) that no one else was covering...but for us to keep an eye on it...he thought there was something there....I will never forget that teacher...
NO ONE ELSE WAS COVERING IT....NO ONE

between incomplete investigations and prosecuters resigning, more and more of the story came out...

what eventually did Nixon in was of course the tapes...

two points to make

1. Bush has locked up all his records....one of the first things he did when he got into office

2. The Washington Post had Ben Bradlee..now they have wusses....although not too long ago Ben Bradlee called Bush a flat out liar and was wondering why the American press wasn't saying the same thing......

ben bradlee....those were the days....

[Ann Arbor Dem]

27. And Katherine Graham...

She stood behind Bradlee and gave him the support to continue with the investigations. Too bad we don't have honorable media owners like her today.

[Slit Skirt]

36. yes I apologize

how could I forget her...

[Ann Arbor Dem]

42. Don't apologize....I didn't mean you forgot her....

It was a rhetorical "don't forget"... ;-)

What was it that John Mitchell said about her after he read of the multitude of article the WaPo published? "This time she's got her tit in a wringer," or something like that.

[Slit Skirt]

49. yaep!!!

are you an Ann Arbor, MI Dem

just askin' cause I am from Deeeetroit.....motown!

[Ann Arbor Dem]

51. I am, I am....

Just down the road from you. I'm in Detroit as often as I can be....I love that city!!

[Slit Skirt]

52. i haven't been there for a very long time

...but I have very fond memories of Little Stevie wonder, four tops, smokey, temptations...all performing locally on a little unknown show called Robin Seymour's swinging time.....


"everybody say yeah..............yeah!"

saw Stevie twice
Bob Seeger lived next door to my sister.....

those were the days...

[ROC]

29. Check the record

I think you will find W/B were racing with Seymore Hersh.

[Slit Skirt]

35. interesting...

who was he writing for...

[Dover]

15. I think the news of the break-in, and the following investigation led

to the bigger story, though I don't remember the order in which things unfolded.

[Sapphocrat]

16. It leaked out...

...in unrelated news items that didn't seem to be very important; i.e., seemingly "isolated" incidents, like, what's the big deal about a lousy burglary at a hotel nobody outside D.C. had ever heard of? And what's the Ellsburg person complaining about, and why should we care about his psychiatrist?

When the Pentagon Papers finally hit the Washington Post, we were all FLOORED -- most of the "dots" had been out there in plain sight, but nobody (at least among the general public) had connected them before.

That's how I remember it. I was about 12 years old when the mud hit the fan, but I remember the details of the whole scandal after Woodward & Bernstein laid out their case, because my teacher at the time was a failed lawyer-wannabe who was positively obsessed with Watergate, and turned his obsession into a daily civics lesson. Some days, math, English, and every other subject (except catechism!) were thrown out the window in order to spend four or five hours discussing Watergate, in excruciatingly detail.

I hated that teacher, but I am eternally grateful to him for truning me into a political junkie at such a young age.

But I digress. As usual. :)

[ecoalex]

17. Yes it was very gradual , but toppled another megalomainic

Spiro Agnew , the v.p. went the way of a bribe, having to do with a racetrack if I remember rightly, the previous govenor of Md. A smarmy slimy shill of crime, a real grease ball. Mnay like now ( repugs0 loved his in yo face commentsagainst the anti war protestors. I was 19, not going to Vietnam by hook or crook. The Watergate burgerly happened just after Nixon's reelection . The news seemed innoculous enough , 3rd rate burgerly of the Dem Headquaters at the Watergate Hotel in Wash. D.C.Notorieties like christian chuch colson, and g.liddy, both still around spewing their B.S., how they all forget that the same cadre of criminals thats erved Nixon, served boosh 2 . Such a moral man that boosh.The news dribbled out with articles by Bob Woodard , who wrote the biography of boosh in the pre Iraq war. Such a pile of crap, depicting the idiot king as some thoughtful leader, he wasn't as we know.

As noone learns from the past apparantly, I hope the press, who toppled Nixon , wakes up, and puts the election of 20004, along with many other otrosities by boosh together a serious indictment of crimes and misdomeanors against the citizens of this great country. We can shine again, it will take the exposure of the illegitimate king george and his brain : rove who gets it done, no matter at what cost to people , or this great country. His kind needs jail time.

[Jersey Devil]

18. It took 2 years and started with a small drip, drip, drip

Get the movie, it's worth it.

[kayell]

19. Amazingly long, frustrating creep. It seemed that the truth would never

catch hold in the publics mind.

Knowing how that played out gives me hope for this.

[kayell]

20. Here's a timeline:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/chronology.htm

[Hamlette]

21. It took forever. The original burglary was seen as a prank at worst.

Read or watch All the President's Men. There is talk in both the book and the movie about how the Washington Post was freaking out because they were publishing stories about Watergate and other Nixon misdeeds and nothing else was being said by other news outlets.

But, much to the credit of Katharine Graham, they kept it up. Took over a year before it became accepted something was wrong.

It was the coverup that finally got him. Remember that.

[Desperadoe]

22. It all started

When one of the guests in the Watergate Hotel saw men with flashlights in one of the adjoining offices and immediately called Security. I think the guest's name was Forrest Gump. You can rent the DVD.

[Pastiche423]

23. From the time Nixon

was re-elected in 1972, I read the papers every day in hopes he would be caught doing something prosecutable. lol

When the 1st drips appeared, I was estatic, but very impatient. At that time, I rented a room from an elderly couple who watched every minute of the trial. We would sit at the dinner table after I got home from work and they would regale me w/the goings on.

For me it was way too slow.

I have since learned patience, but my patience is wearing thin.

[Marymarg]

24. John Dean

As I recall, Watergate was in the news (a lot) but it seemed to be just another political thing--until the hearings and specifically, until John Dean took our collective breath away with his compelling testimony ("...cancer on the Presidency...", etc.) John Dean was questioned long and hard by the Watergate Committee and so much stuff came out that it was like toothpaste out of a tube. He definitely got our attention. And then bring on Alexander Butterfield. When he testified, one of the questioners raised the question of recording equipment in the White House, to which Butterfield acknowledged as fact. The rest is history.

But yes, it started out slow and trickle, trickle, trickle. Then the dam burst.

[Zensea]

31. I still remember watching Butterfield that day

All the reporters and commentary people were saying stuff like "well we don't know why this guy has been called to testify." The committee had kept it under wraps.
& then the second he started talking about taping you could almost here the reporters' jaws dropping off camera and the scramble to call their editors.:evilgrin:

[theboss]

30. Read "All The President's Men"

And then read "The Final Days."

And then read that Dan Rather book...what the hell was it called...little help?

[theboss]

43. Was it "Royal Guard?"

I'm answering my own question.

[H2O Man]

32. It took a LONG time! In fact,

the scandals today are NOT unfolding particularly slow .... as John dean points out in his recent book, the news "cycle" spins much quicker today .... and as in almost every area of "modern" life, people want instant results.

Watergate was a slow and difficult scandal that started in the first term of Nixon's presidency, and ended his second term. Likewise, the Iran-Contra scandal(s) were stretched over many years.

We need to learn patience. We are the only society on earth that thinks in terms of instant gratification.

"Go real slow ... you'll like it more and more ..." -JDM

[Slit Skirt]

38. when your trying to investigate a conspiracy....

you have to go slow and build one step at a time
follow the money....

paraphrase from All the President's Men

[H2O Man]

41. That's right.

Better to be careful than to hurry.

[Ann Arbor Dem]

33. The Watergate Hearings were amazing.

My mom made us watch them every morning (I think I was just going into high school). We complained at first because summer vacation was obviously more important to us, but as time went on we were riveted to the television. She told us that we were witnessing something historic, and we would ultimately see justice served. She was right.

We *knew* when Erlichman was lying - or at least we were conviced we did - when one of his eyebrows would arch when he answered certain questions. We thought Sam Irwin was star with a gavel. We felt sorry for Mo Dean. We knew Nixon's days were numbered. What a summer it was.

And the next summer, Nixon was gone. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.

[snippy]

34. Watergate break in was in June 1972 and Nixon resigned in August 1974.

He won reelection in a landslide in between.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

37. Trouble is, Nixon feared the press in those days. The press fears Bushco,

or are his lapdogs, or both, now.

[Pepperbelly]

39. drip ... drip ... drip-drip ... drip ... nt

[geek tragedy]

44. Dems controlled Congress back in those days.

Bush is safe.

[Emboldened Chimp]

45. I just read All the Presidents men...

Watergate was reported vigorously by the Washington Post all throughout the summer of '72. Some of their stories got front page treatment. From what I could gather, it was reported on consistently by other newspapers, and eventually television, before the election. However, the Post got nailed in October with a story that said Hugh Sloan identified the names of the pay masters in a grand jury. The WP was summarily smeared for trying to help McGovern. It wasn't until after the election (about six months) that things really fell apart for Nixon. The Post was vindicated and the story came out full force and stayed at the forefront for over a year. Nixon even pleaded in his '74 SOTU address, "Please, no more Watergates." It would be another six months until he resigned. It was a slow leaker, but everyone knew about it.

[ecoalex]

46. Nixon was after John Kerry

Nixon wanted to make an example of Kerry's anti war movement, he swore many times in the tape I heard of Nixon discussing Kerry , and how to get rid of him, he had Nixon going, kinda like Kerry did in the debates. Funny how the characters are the same , except Nixon isn't there, but his others rummy, and the others are there , as well as a caustic presidency that is self consumed in consolidated power , and reelection.

[West Coast Democrat]

47. Watch "All the Presidents Men", then "Nixon", then last but not least....

"Dick" (for comic relief).

There is also a Discovery Channel several-part documentary about Watergate that is actually available through my local library. I watched it last year, and it's very interesting.

[kostya]

48. It took forever and then it really only spilled over the dam

when the Nixon tapes were revealed. You had both houses of Congress in Dem control also, so don't get your hopes up that ANYTHING is going to happen to the Bush administration in the next four years. They have apparently unlimited capability to muzzle all the crap they do, assisted by the complicit media. - K

[West Coast Democrat]

50. Yes, one thing's for sure...Repubs never make tape recording of meetings

any longer.

We'll have to catch them some other way. Some how there's got to be a trail of evil doing somewhere.