Watergare II--Disregard of Law

 Nearing the end of the Watergate book, which now recounts the briefing of the House Judiciary Committee by the special prosecutor and his staff, some 7500 pages of evidence.  

According to Graff, two things particularly struck the memebers:

• the misuse of national security to excuse and cover up misdeeds not related to national security (i.e., the attempts to have the CIA convince DOJ to limit its investigation, etc.)
• the lack of regard for the law and constitution.  Nixon never was concerned about what was legal, just what was practical and offered a way to get out of the mess.

I'm particularly struck by the second--it sounds exactly like TFG.  Or maybe not, in his egotism TFG claims superior knowledge of the constitution and the law, which Nixon didn't do. Afterwards Nixon would claim, IIRC, what TFG believes: "when the president does it it's legal".

I'm also struck by Chairman Rodino's concern for bipartisan votes in his committee, much more concern than the Democrats showed in their two impeachments.

October Is Coming: the 50th Anniversary

 The Watergate book I'm reading starts one chapter with the observation: "October 1973 would prove to be perhaps the most historic month in the history of the American presidency..."

A reminder--the month saw the resignation of the vice president minutes before he was charged with crimes, and agreed to one, the Yom Kippur war which included a confrontation with the Soviet Union, and the Saturday Night Massacre, with the resignation of the Attorney General and deputy AG after Nixon fired the special prosecutor for Watergate.

Watergate

 In the process of reading Garrett Graff's Watergate. It's a reminder of how we simplify our history--many reporters involved other than Woodward and Bernstein.

Will, Ford, and Pardons

 George Will's newest column is a review of a new biography of Gerald Ford.  I don't know what Will thought of Nixon and Ford in the 1970s, but today he likes Ford and likes his pardon of Nixon.

Comments on the column don't. IIRC when it happened, I understood the logic and was pleased that Ford's approval rating crashed--I wanted the Democrats to resume their rightful place in the presidency, not realizing Carter's one term would be followed by 3 Republican dinosaurs.

I still don't know what to think now.  Would seeing Nixon on trial have been helpful to the nation? Or would it have further entrenched partisanship? I don't know.

I do know that while Ford seemed a good person, by 1974 I still harbored resentment over his role in getting Justice Fortas to resign.

Trump's Parades and Nixon's Uniforms

Post had an article saying President Trump has told DOD to come up with plans for a military parade in D.C.  The idea is getting a fair amount of mockery among liberals.

Because it's such a serious topic :-) I want to offer a historical parallel, President Nixon's new uniforms for the White House police.  Nixon supposedly found the old uniforms to lack class, whereas uniforms on honor guards he saw overseas were classy.  The new uniforms didn't last long, because he was mocked for having a palace guard.   See Megan McArdle some years ago.  And the NYTimes on the unveiling