Friday, June 03, 2005

Issues: I wasn't around for the whole Watergate ordeal when it was going down. But I'm learning that it has left a big emotional scar on the Right. Now it looks like this whole Deep Throat thing has touched quite a nerve with some of the wing-nut conservatives.

So many of the Rabid Right have come out of the woodwork to blame the whole affair on Mark Felt. Buchanan calls him a "traitor". Liddy questions his morals. Novak criticizes him for leaking government information (???).

Just a little advice here: You're not going to get any sympathy defending Richard Nixon. I'm sure he did some good things. Starting the Environmental Protection Agency? Yay! Gold star.

Now, about all the illegal surveillance, crooked cover-ups, and misuse of power. I'm sure other presidents have done it and have gotten away with it. But Nixon's abuse of power was over the top, and he got caught. Don't blame Mark Felt for that. And don't say this caused the problems in Cambodia. Things were messed up there before Deep Throat took an interest in Bob Woodward's flower arrangement.

I used to think that the Left was obsessed with Watergate, comparing every GOP president to Nixon. Now I see the Right's obsession is worse. This explains the unnecessary impeachment of Clinton. The Right just wanted to brand a Democratic president a criminal as well. But it didn't work, and it won't work. It just makes these conservatives seem all the more extreme.