Buchanan Speaks
Base10 has not been a fan of Pat Buchanan of late. His brand of conservatism preaches economic protectionaism and American isolationism. I think America is doomed if it follows that course, but sometimes, he is right (excuse the pun). He wrote an extensive piece in RCP about his take on the Deep Throat/Mark Felt affair--now thirty years after the fact.

On the Celebrity of Woodward and Bernstein:

But to Bob and Carl and Ben and Sally, Felt is a "hero," a real Medal of Freedom man. And to them, perhaps, he is. For in the 1970s, a hero was any turncoat who would sink teeth into a president who was ending with honor a war into which the Liberal Establishment had plunged this country, and then cut and run when the body bags started coming home and their Ivy League kids started calling them names.

On Felt and the press's double standard:

Why did Felt lie? Because Felt knew he had disgraced himself and dishonored everything an FBI agent should stand for. He didn't want his old comrades to know what a snake he had been. Linda Tripp, savaged by the same press lionizing Felt, at least had the moral courage to go public and take the heat when she blew the whistle on Bill Clinton.

On Nixon:

And so they [the Liberal Establishment] resolved to finish him. And by his failure to act decisively and ruthlessly to clean his campaign and White House of loyalists who had blundered and, yes, committed crimes, he became ensnared in a cover-up that would destroy his presidency. He gave them a sword, and they ran it right through him. And when he went down, Southeast Asia and everything 58,000 Americans had bled and died for went down with him.

While I think Mr. Buchanan is being a little charitable to the late President, he does have a point. The injustice is not that Nixon was forced to resign, but that Clinton got off without even a slap on the wrist (Ms. Lewinsky's slaps elsewhere, notwithstanding). Saying that everybody does it (and on this point I have not doubt that the Nixon administration was no worse than prior ones) does not justify illegal actions by the government. Long ago, I saw G. Gordon Liddy give a talk. While he was a very powerful speaker, his justification for his bits in the Watergate affair where basically good intentions, patriotism and the sincere belief that American society was in danger. In a classic example of unintended consequences, the legitimacy--and hence the stability--of American democracy for everyday people was probably shaken more by this event than by any prior war or national crisis.

I remember when Nixon resigned. I was ten years old. It was during the summer (August 8, 1974 according to Wikipedia) and my family was in our backyard watching a small black and white TV. I remember my parents and my aunt and uncle calling me over to watch and telling me that this was a very important moment in history. Being a ten year-old, I didn't understand what was going on, but I
- posted by Base10 @ 10:07 AM