Do you think the Washington Establishment was anywhere near as terrified during Watergate as they transparently are today?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
NO!!!! AND i FIN IT VERY FUNNY THAT THEY ARE LIKE A LITTLE LOST PPL. WHAT A SAD THING TO SEE…THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER SEE IT IN MY LIFETIME. THEY ARE JUST VERY SMALL IN IDEAS AND PERSONALITIES
I remember, I was in Washington DC in the summer of 1973 as the Ervin Committee deconstructed the whole thing. It was a completely different world.
The difference now is that Congress has abdicated its responsibility. The blogosphere and certain investigative reporters in different media outlets are now driving the story in a way that two people (Woodward and Bernstein) could not do.
speaking of Ervin, who is going to be in charge of folksy sayings this round?
If my geezer memory serves me, there was stonewalling and discipline to a point at which certain facts emerged. Then it was a CYA scramble, beginning with John Dean, or was it Alexander Butterfield.
I do believe we’re rapidly approaching the CYA scramble point. Lips will be unsealed, documents will appear.
And a “truth commission” with the power to grant immunity suddenly becomes less necessary.
And normal criminal investigations become more likely.
And a lot of these folks were terrified during Watergate and sought justification and revenge–and it is backfiring badly. They were incompetent then, and have been incompetent over the last eight years. They can see those chickens coming home to roost.
I think that’s part of what makes this different. Loads of other crimes are to be laid at their feet, Katrina, for example, watching our fellow citizens die before our eyes on teevee. I’m just surprised how quickly it is happening, I thought it would take a year or so to get to this point. I’m wondering what other surprises the avalanche of info will contain.
I hear there’s a big batch of detainee photos coming out soon. What I’d really like to see is a full accounting of all the people taken prisoner. Red Cross says many “disapeared.” How many died at the hands of interrogators? What were the causes of death? There must be some records.
I was wondering the very same thing. How can we find out these things unless some ppl’s minds start to have flashbacks or nightmares of such. Yup, just wondering too…
The 70’s were merely the prelude to economic necessity, carrying capacity, and all. Now we’re in the real space of carrying capacity. They understand that, at least viscerally. It’s hard to comprehend their actual stupidity or ignorance on such issues, but viscerally, they get it.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but In the Watergate 70’s the idea of a resource shortage was still pretty radical stuff, right? Well now it’s something lots of people
arehave to be in denial about because it’s so overwhelmingly obvious.Don’t underesimate the impact of the collapse of conservative financial ideology, either.
Today People are freaked out because some things they thought worked fairly mechanically are proving to be unsound. As Alan Greenspan said when confronted by someone (Charles Schumer?) about his market philosophy, “I have identified a flaw.”
Oops.
In Watergate it really was a few bad apples. Here they all fucked up, and fucked up monumentally.
I don’t know how to compare. In that long ago time, there were independently owned newspapers and networks. Newspaper publishers were serious players in the establishment. Network news was a prestige loss leader and there were hard-news documentaries aired on prime time broadcast tv. Sometimes without commercials.
Compare and contrast the environment then with now is left as an exercise.
What is similar is that the pundit movers were almost entirely in the print media (except for Cronkite and Huntley/Brinkely on tv – the only TV people that had any gravitas) and they then like now were seriously in the establishment ranks. The story was completely below their radars. Hell Jack Andersen was the muckraker extraordinaire.
Remember that Woodward and Bernstein were on the metro beat.
What the pundits then were afraid of was being wiretapped. For some reason today when it is even easier their successors seem to care not at all. I guess judging from the work they have done they have nothing to hide.
By the time of Watergate the complicity of the press in pressing for the war was waning. Big Labor, Pentagon teat-suckers (as always), Scoop Jackson and Republicans were still behind it. The country still solidly backing saw its consensus start to crack.
Like GW after him Nixon was getting caught in the squeeze of Guns and Butter tax policies. Only W had the fortune to pump the bubble to stave off the grim reaper like Nixon couldn’t. Nixon had to put on price controls.
I know most of this is off topic but it illustrates the difference in culture.
So were those of yesteryear more terrified as today’s establishment? No. They ultimately had the luxury of helping to pull the plug on Nixon themselves. Something today’s rank refused to do.
They are the ones who when the files are released will not be on anyone’s enemies list. At best where their names should be will be the silence of complicity. Then there are the cheerleaders.
A torture investigation that gets “out of hand” (meaning really investigated) will tar everyone in the establishment like Watergate never could. From the “oversight” committees to the press mavens once the stink begins to emanate there will lots of people who will wish they had stayed far away.
No. This time around, the fear is being generated because of the simple fact that the folks in dc know that the shite will hit the fan once the cork is truly removed from the bottle. This investigation will cross every line and will expose horror that might take generations to heal. I don’t believe for one second that once an investigation of this type is begun, what will be exposed will potenitally tear apart the world image of what the US has become.
It scares the hell out of me because I have two GRANDDAUGHTERS.