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Ben Stein's Diary
Nixon and the Pharisees
Forty years after Watergate, Woodward and Bernstein issue new indictments against the Peacemaker.
(Page 2 of 2)
What a fabulous super movie that is. And yet it is was better in the original cut. The new version has lost some vital lines about Harrison Ford’s ex-wife calling him “…sushi…cold fish…” plus a currently non PC but very apt racist reference to the Replicants. That was cut, too. A policeman tells Harrison Ford to find and kill some errant “skin jobs” and Harrison Ford says that was a slang term for Replicants (human looking and acting robots) and was like calling black people a certain racial epithet. Politically incorrect but makes an excellent point.
Still, what a movie. They really don’t make them like that anymore. No modern movie has so much intelligence about the human condition along with so much action.
My wife went to sleep in front of the fire and I watched other made-for-cable movies on TV. It is almost unbelievable how much violence is on TV now. Just truly incredible how many people are killed each night on TV. Small wonder that young Americans are inured to killing. Small, small wonder. There is just too much violence on TV — and too much smoking.
The only show that gets it all right is Magic City. It has just enough killing… but too much smoking. I have gotten to totally love the character of Ben “The Butcher” Diamond. He is so amazingly good it scares me. This man is destined for very big things.
This morning I have to pay more bills. I really have too many bills. No sane human being should have as many bills as I have. I guess that tells me something.
I often think that I started to go insane about money when my father died and I no longer had anyone restraining me about money. Well, “….if a thing cannot go on forever, it will stop,” as my father said.
And as he also said, “If we only do what we can do forever, we won’t do very much.”
I think I am heading for a much more modest life as some shred of common sense sinks in.
I got up and made a lavish brunch for my wife and me. Then we lay out on the chaises on our deck and let the ocean breeze blow over us. The air smelled of pine as it had at Santa Cruz when I taught there forty years ago (was it really 40 years? Are those beautiful 21-year-old co-eds now 61? Can that be?). The smells of pine and of night blooming jasmine such as we had all around College V… those are my favorite smells. Except maybe for the smell of German short-haired Pointer fur… or maybe the smell of boxwood at colonial era houses in Annapolis and Middleburg.
Can it be that today I awakened feeling so sick about Watergate and now I am lying in the sun, dozing, opening my eyes to see a hawk above me on the thermals?
This is a better world than the world of resentment.
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
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Robbins Mitchell| 6.11.12 @ 6:23AM
So it only took Woodstein 40 years to 'discover' that Nixon was worse then they knew or imagined?...and of course the fact that they come out with this little tidbit now has nothing to do with the fact that the current "President" has more potentially politically fatal scandals brewing than any President since U.S. Grant has nothing to do with the timing of their findings...or wanting to protect their image as the nation's #1 all time DC scandal breakers.
Brooksifier | 6.11.12 @ 12:19PM
"Yet we never went to war with the Communists after RN."
Because of Reagan, not Nixon.
Brooksifier | 6.11.12 @ 12:27PM
Thiis is a strange paragraph, even for Ben Stein. He writes that what Carl Bernstein did was despicable, yet he doesn't blame him at all because he has gotr bills to pay and Ben likes Carl so much he practically gives him a journalistic wet kiss:
"Carl, a great guy and an extremely talented musician, had good reason to hate Nixon. He got to act on it, and that action made him well heeled and famous. Now, forty years have passed and in the spirit of what Irving Kristol (I think) called "intellectual entrepreneurship," Carl has to polish up his résumé by making Watergate even more dramatic than it was. I don't blame Carl at all. We all have bills to pay."
If the above is criticism, we should all be criticized like that.
TLP| 6.11.12 @ 3:51PM
And, yet he never had an opinion on THE RAPIST - Bill Clinton, his Serial Misogeny, his Waiver to Loral Space, in spite of Everyone in his Administrations' Intelligence Organizations, plus his own Attorney General, and his own Joint Cheifs' INSISTENCE that he NOT give them a Waiver, so that they could Sell Navigational Technologies to the Red Chinese, to help them Target their ICBMs AT US.
Who gives a Fck, what these two Scumb@gs has to say?
They're Progressive Liberal HACKS, looking for attention.
Nothing more.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 5:57PM
Your right they have nothing to do with each other. That is why Stein is trying to divert your attention away from the fact that Nixon was a crook.
Skippy| 6.11.12 @ 7:53PM
Who cares?
You're probably a bigger crook, and are only playing a diversionary game.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:03AM
uh huh...and name me one thing that Nixon did that was worse than what Slick Willy did? seriously, did Nixon ever rape anyone? did he launch pre-emptive military strikes in order to divert attention from his own impeachment? or how about another Liberal Saint...Teddy Kennedy-did Nixon ever leave a woman to die a slow agonizing death while he went home to sleep it off and work on an alibi? Or his older brother, JFK-did Nixon ever bungle things so badly that he took the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation? or leave nearly 5 dozen US citizens to rot for a year and a half in Iran, like Carter?
the whole world knows about Watergate...Nixon broke the law, and was chased out of office in disgrace for it
woodward and bernstein are trying to divert everyone's attention away from the fact that their Obamessiah is an utter failure and a disaster
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 8:56AM
Exactomundo.
Jack in Wi| 6.11.12 @ 6:56AM
Nixon's going to China was a brilliant strategic move. He split the Communist world and ended the Vietnam war. At the time I didn't like the way he did either. Now I wish we had him to go to Tehran and make peace with that country. We should do what Nixon did with China, open diplomatic contacts. Nixon did not have full relations with China. Carter did that. We should open an embassy, end sanctions, trade with them have tourists go there, and have education exchanges just like we did with the Shah. Margaret Thatcher once said it is. " Far bettter to jaw jaw then war war. " Iran has no nuclear weapons prgram and isn't build ing any. It is a peaceful country who hasn't invaded anyone in 300 years. The liars who want another world war should be kicked to the curb. Blessed are the peacemakers. I believe the great Republican presidents like, Hoover, Harding, Nixon, Reagan and Eisenhower all were trying to work for peace.
C. Vernon Crisler | 6.11.12 @ 10:28AM
The concept of "detente" was essentially where American foreign policy went wrong, at least until Reagan. Detente was a way of tossing out American exceptionalism and substituting in its place European balance-of-power politics (i.e., Machiavellian moral relativism in foreign affairs).
Nixon was a disaster for the United States and for Republicans. However, those on the far left who gloat over Nixon's fall don't understand, or don't care, how much they damaged America in order to "get" Nixon.
It's too bad that their punishment is reserved for eternity; much more satisfying if we had some kind of Nuremberg trials for the far left, where Communists and their fellow travelers could actually be punished like the Nazis.
TinaB| 6.11.12 @ 10:38AM
What a thought. No justice this side of heaven, C.
chuck| 6.11.12 @ 11:29AM
Plus Nixon left us with the EPA. Gee......thanks.
Not much of a legacy builder there.
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 2:27PM
The Cuyahoga River was on fire and Santa Barbara was soaked in spilt crude. The free market would have done what to avoid those issues?
Business has always stated their concern ends at their property line. Who is responsible when that line is breached? We are, under the EPA.
Describe a better scenario.
TLP| 6.11.12 @ 6:07PM
You, going back to Salon.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 6:35PM
Dennis Kucinich was mayor of Cleveland when the Cuyahoga caught on fire.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:00PM
This comment is so far upside down, it makes my head spin. Transfer much?
Stuart Koehl| 6.11.12 @ 11:29AM
Strategically, Nixon's outreach to China was a huge failure. China was never a counterpoise to the USSR; there is no evidence that the Soviets ever deployed even one division from its western military districts to the Chinese border. China could not project military power more than a few dozen miles from its borders, and China was terribly vulnerable to Soviet nuclear weapons.
China suddenly become anti-Soviet and pro-American on Nixon's account. The Sino-Soviet relationship had been cooling for some time before Nixon went to China, and it would grow chillier thereafter, because China always follows China's interests, and nobody else's.
The Vietnam War ended because we won. By January of 1973, North Vietnam was on the verge of economic and military collapse. There was nothing the USSR or China could do to forestall this. Nixon won because he did the thing liberals said couldn't be done--bomb our way to victory.
Detente was also an horrific strategic failure. It signaled a willingness to divide the world into permanent spheres of influence, and an unwillingness to contest at the peripheries. Detente, as initiated by Nixon, continued by Ford, and reenvisioned by Carter, simply encouraged the kind of Soviet adventurism that led us to the bring of war in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Stuart Koehl| 6.11.12 @ 11:29AM
As to why there was never another full-blown Arab-Israeli war after 1973, the answer was simple: having demonstrated that the U.S. would not allow Israel to perish, and having seen the ability of Israel to take on and defeat all Arab armies concurrently, no one Arab country was willing to take on Israel in a conventional war.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 1:55PM
Stuart---if you are still on---good one volume overview of American history for grammar school kids? Thanks SO much.
Al Adab| 6.11.12 @ 6:54PM
O/T:
Paul Johnson, A History of the American People
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 10:40PM
Grammar school? Really? I know it is awesome, but for 8 and 9 year olds?
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 10:47PM
But Al: Thank you for the recommendation. Very kind.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 1:54PM
And then the GREAT Ronaldus Magnus changed the game to "we win, they lose."
Brooksifier | 6.11.12 @ 12:21PM
Biggest traitors in American history were the Confederates. Jefferson Davis should have been drawn and quartered.
Stuart Koehl| 6.11.12 @ 12:40PM
There is a reason they weren't. A student of history would know this. Jefferson Davis was in Federal custody, and was going to be charged with treason. However, a brief by the Attorney General (a radical Republican with no love for the South) and various Amicae briefs all demonstrated beyond doubt the secession was not treason, hence no case could be brought against Davis. And public sentiment in 1865-66 was very much in favor of "hanging Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree".
So, Brooksifier, go pound sand.
Crassus| 6.11.12 @ 1:50PM
Davis should have been hung because he was such an incompetent leader of the Confederacy. Down there with Carter and Obama.
C. Vernon Crisler | 6.11.12 @ 2:02PM
Stuart, see:
http://gravitron5.wordpress.co.....son-davis/
It seems to me, from long experience, that when it comes to Confederate claims, always make sure to double check sources.
Brooksifier | 6.11.12 @ 2:20PM
"Davis should have been hung because he was such an incompetent leader of the Confederacy. Down there with Carter and Obama."
Either way he was bad, traitor or incompetent-- or both at the same time.
C. Vernon Crisler | 6.11.12 @ 2:41PM
My understanding is the Johnson eventually gave all of them amnesty.
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 9:00AM
Like our current Fearless Leader.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 1:52PM
Jack, I do hope the Iranians fry your house with their first nuke. By the way, I donated to AIPAC today, thinking of you.
Aristocat| 6.11.12 @ 7:21AM
The Demo-Media destroyed Nixon because he won re-election in a landslide and pulled US troops out of VietNam while leaving the South Vietnamese a chance to defend themselves. Dems & Media were so enraged about this that they had to lynch Nixon, leaving millions of people in SE Asia to be brutalized and murdered.
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 2:42PM
Nobody was paying attention to watergate before the dynamic duo convinced Bradley there was a there there.
The Demo-Media had no love for Goldwater, yet he slammed Nixon, and the house voted 410 to 4....much higher than Clinton's BJ impeachment.
The Demo-media had no influence on AG Richardson when Nixon ordered him to fire the SP.
The Demo-media had no influence on Fred Thompson when he asked about the tapes.
Nixon was the author of his own demise. I pity you if you believe otherwise.
I would prefer to focus on living people like Kissinger. It has been now alleged that Kissinger was in the room when the smoking gun tapes were recorded. He's probably our best known war criminal and now this narrative only deepens.
North and Poindexter took a bullet for their president, Henry, it appears, slithered away without a mark, like his pals Cheney and Rummy are doing now.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:08PM
A brief interlude of sanity in an otherwise bonkers sea of delusional apologia.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 6:36PM
You mean like Holder is taking a bullet for Obama, and Vince Foster took a real bullet for Bubba/Hillary.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:06PM
WTF How old are you.
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 9:02AM
And Saigon fell (as if they cared).
TLP| 6.11.12 @ 7:23AM
Ben.
Ben! Look over here!
BEEEEEEEEEEEEN!
Nixon.
If you're looking at the Shiny Object that's twirling in the Sunlight?
Then you've taken your eyes offa what's REALLY going on, now, in the present. Which is the only reason to write this drek. Which is why NOBODY reads the WAPO, anymore.
MACCACA.
anna| 6.11.12 @ 7:47AM
If those 2 has beens, Woodward and Bernstein were TRUE journalists and not political hacks they would investigate the national security leaks coming from the White House and all of the other anti-American activities that Obama and his administration is involved in with the same vigor that they went after Nixon. But.....sad to say hacks can't see past their political idolatry.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:10PM
They are villagers now. Why rocka da boat.
Cobalt| 6.11.12 @ 8:19AM
Where will the Pharisees be 10 years from now?
It will be the 50th anniversary of Watergate.
What will the main-stream media be like, and for that matter what will the United States be like? Will some people still be around, to try to hustle a buck off of Watergate by demonizing President Nixon?
Will anyone care about Watergate? Today, do the airheads who are intoxicated on popular culture even care about the 40th anniversary of Watergate, or what really happened then, or the truth about Richard Nixon's many accomplishments?
No.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:14PM
I certainly don't deny, nor do I embellish Nixon's accomplishments, but you're waxing a turd here gentlemen.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:07AM
in other words, 'stop waxing THAT turd, and get back to waxing the one currently circling the drain at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave'
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 9:04AM
Something you do magnificently, S.
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 9:05AM
That "S" was not for you Spike, I love your ideas.
R Martin| 6.11.12 @ 8:33AM
Bank robbers also have bills to pay, and I suspect are no more morally corrupt than your pal Bernstein. Nixon was a third rate criminal compared to the senior people now in the White House, yet Bernstein and Woodward choose to dwell in the past, driven by venality and ideology.
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 2:49PM
Nixon was a paranoid loner. His cynical view of the world gives us what we have today in his CV.
His Southern Strategy, the creepy relationship with the Kaiser family, and his willingness to use price controls make him more comfortable in Machiavellian Italy, or Tudor England than the US.
He was a slam dunk to win in 72 and yet he either knew about the dirty tricks, or actively looked the other way when his hand-picked team of pranksters went to work under some paranoid delusion that McGovern could have a secret plan.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:12AM
Nixon was a paranoid loner
====================
sure was...who can forget his website dedicated to reporting dissent...'attack watch'...or his refusal to appear on a particular network whose political leanings don't match his own...oooops, wrong paranoid
c. j. acworth| 6.11.12 @ 8:44AM
Thank you Ben, for reminding us of who it was who inflicted the EPA on us. For that alone I nominate old "Ski Nose" for posthumus impeachment.
Bill84728| 6.11.12 @ 8:51AM
Is there a conspiracy on the part of the members of the Obama Administration, a la CREEP, to get Obama re-elected using these leaks? It seems odd, but many things are odd in politics.
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 2:51PM
Possibly, but I bet you a penny there are no tapes and BHO will throw anyone under the bus if anything starts to stick.
Nixon has a legacy no president wants to marry.
TinaB| 6.11.12 @ 9:20AM
May I recommend, for those who are still curious about the WAPO reportage on Watergate,na book which I couldn't put down, "Leak:Why Robert Felt Became Deep Throat" by Max Holland.
The legends, W & B, were totally manipulated, as was Ben the pompous ass Bradlee, and most of the pooper scoopers connected, by this jealous jackal Mark Felt. The legends live on, but only because the full story hadn't been written yet. Well, now it has.
The current admin and the Clinton WH make Nixon and his nasty cronies look like puppy dogs, Marley and Me style, in comparison.
Where Tricky Dick was really trying to protect the US from Communism, albeit in a clumsy and careless series of keystone cop maneuvers, and mini black-ops, their motives were nationally pure.
But this crew of Alynskiites, nothing decent about them. Communists, Socialists, and Anti-American. And I too ask the great Woodward and Bernstein, what the F are you doing beating that dead horse, when the country is in such deep trouble? Phonies, that's what you are, money grubbing phonies. Just like Mark Felt. Power hungry, jealous and money grubbing phonies.
Read "Leak" for a nostalgic look at the "bad old days."
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 2:56PM
I pity you.
Nixon got in in 68 on a bogus peace plan and perpetuated the war even longer, killing more troops and forever staining the national psyche.
Kissinger's bombing of Cambodia is arguably the biggest untried war-crime since Nuremburg.
And calling the break-in of the Democratic party headquarters a "protection" from communism and purely motivated is sad and disappointing.
Nixon did himself in. Period. And the country suffered for it.
JP| 6.11.12 @ 3:41PM
Operation Buffalo was more than just bombing. We sent 20,000 troops into Cambodia and destroyed NVA sanctuaries. We couldn't very well leave Vietnam with 15000 NVA operating inside the Mekong Delta.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 6:41PM
So you think the US bombing of Cambodia is worse than 1) The commies killing over two million Cambodians after their victory in Vietnam in 1975, 2) Idi Amin killing over 500,000 Christians in Uganda, 3) the million or so in Ruanda, 4) the Sudan, and so on.
The problem with you professional Nixon haters is, besides stupidity, no sense of history.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 7:45PM
What are you talking about what do any of these things have to do with each other and why compare them?
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 8:17PM
Since you are too stupid to follow the thread, the comment is in response to your fellow lefty Canuck's idiotic statement that :
"Kissinger's bombing of Cambodia is arguably the biggest untried war-crime since Nuremburg."
Now do you understand? Comparing war crimes?
satan| 6.12.12 @ 12:07AM
Oh, yes I see now, I was just ignorant of the fact that our country was responsible for those atrocities.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:14AM
fopr them, history began with watergate
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 5:14PM
Tina, do you think the country is in worse or better shape NOW,than December 2008, just before Obama became President?
Skippy| 6.11.12 @ 8:17PM
I'll answer for Tina.
Infinitely worse.
Nixon was...Nixon.
BHO is a piece of crap.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 10:41PM
Much goshdarned worse, King. Much worse.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:15AM
the country is barely a country anymore; ObaMao and his stooges are rapidly turning us into the Third World
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 11:39AM
Far, far worse shape. Where GWB made serious errors in starting the bailouts and spending just like the Democrats before him, BHO is actively working to destroy what makes America great. He is taking away our liberty, undermining the free enterprise system and dividing the races like no one before him. Financially, defensively, culturally we appear to be going to hell in a hand basket as the most powerful and democratic nation on earth.
Furthermore, KOTN, if I didn't believe in a saving God, I'd be worried. But He tells me to "be anxious, therefore about nothing", and put my family and all my needs in prayer, with thanksgiving, and if I do that, His peace will be mine. I find that when I obey Phil. 4, I do find peace, whatever the circumstances. And you would too, if you only tried it.
Ciao.
Trish Trotter| 6.11.12 @ 10:27AM
Ben,
You say, " . . . as I lay in bed listening to Mozart . . ." Was your German short-haired pointer Julie Good Girl lieing on the bed with you? I surely would like to see a photo of Julie Good Girl.
How often do you wash her? Do you use any type of powder afterwards to make her smell good? I'll bet she's a cute pooch.
Write us a piece on Julie Good Girl, and please include a photo. I am just crazy about dogs! Crazy!
Trish Trotter| 6.11.12 @ 12:19PM
And I would also like to see a picture of Julie Good Girl's bed. I'll bet it's a nice one--you living in Beverly Hills and all over the place.
Did you buy it on Rodeo Drive? If so, name the doggie boutique. I might want to order from the store.
Thanks a lot,
Trish
Trish Trotter| 6.11.12 @ 3:11PM
Ben,
I just took a look at your photo again, and you have a really kind face, so I know you are good to your doggie.
I do hope you will consider doing a piece on Julie Good Girl. I want to know more about her.
Does she like MilkBone dog biscuits? Does she like to swim in the surf at Malibu? Do you ever take her to a dog park to play with other dogs? Does she like to chase squirrels. Etc. and Etc.
Give Julie Good Girl a pat on the head for me . . .
Trish (I took a little nap about an hour ago, and I dreamed about Julie Good Girl. Can you believe it!)
Bob K| 6.11.12 @ 10:48AM
Woodward and Bernstein are defined by Watergate. They are nothing without Watergate and Richard Nixon! They do not exist without them! They were entombed in the Watergate myth 40 years ago like flies in amber and they must continue it to give meaning to their lives.
They cannot lie out in the Sun and watch a Hawk circling in the thermals of America's heavens and enjoy life like Ben can and like I will do shortly when I go outside on my modest deck!
Al Adab| 6.11.12 @ 5:53PM
Yes, Bob:
And here they are attempting to reprise their "glory days" rather like OWS wants to recreate the glory days of protest from "the sixties". None of this is relevant since the Ford pardon which was BTW, fully justified. Old has beens justifying their malevolent existence.
Nothing Nixon did, or may have done, comes close to what Lincoln did yet Nixon faced the greatest national crisis since the civil war. We stood but a hairbreadth from insurrection, mutiny and coups in our streets. Defeating the advocates and adherents of such civil violence was paramount to the future of the country.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:22PM
Your completely delusional, Al Adab. I was in the streets fomenting mutiny and insurrection, and I was virtually alone and powerless. You have no clue what your talking about.
Al Adab| 6.11.12 @ 6:50PM
Appropriate moniker BTW:
...and I was in Miami in '68 and '72. The air was heavy with tear gas, the hotel windows were broken, cars were bruned and vandalized in the streets. A waitress in a coffee shop watched the action with tears in her eyes and said, "It reminds me of when Castro came". She had escaped from Cuba.
You and your ilk (then, I don't know if you have repented or not) came within a whisker of having national guard troops join your side and storm the pentagon on that one occasion. It took a Kent State to get your people to realize it wasn't a game after all.
Have a good evening now that you've ruined mine.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 7:48PM
Yes reality is a bitch for right wing loonies isn't it?
satan| 6.11.12 @ 7:51PM
Storming the Pentagon in Miami. Hmm. very interesting geographical anomaly. Ya, right you were there. And, what is an ilk, BTW
Skippy| 6.11.12 @ 8:26PM
Oh, Mr. Satan?
The kids at Kent State got off easy with only 4 dead.
They started the riot; set of either firecrackers or fired guns(doesn't matter which)and the NG troops did what I hope they will do to the OWS mobs this upcoming summer: they shot to kill.
Kent State ended the romantic revolution that was so popular then.
The Beach Boys had it right:
The pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for a gun.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 10:42PM
I care not how many OWS bodies line the street. I do care about the cops and NG guys very much.
satan| 6.12.12 @ 12:12AM
Blaming the victims is your strong suit. Do you also blame the Boston massacre on the colonists?
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 11:42AM
Too true, Bob K, like flies in amber. good analogy.
Kwan| 6.11.12 @ 11:05AM
No doubt the psychos in Iran are happy with the good-work done by Bernstein and Woodward for it helped elect the doofus Jimmy Carter who failed to support the Shah which led to Khomeini, the implementation of an authoritarian Islamic State, and the rise of Islamic terrorism. Thanks Carl, Bob, and Jimmy you dopes each deserve a "Hero of the Islamic Revolution" gold medal.
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 3:22PM
More revisionist crap.
The Shah had blown it long before Carter showed up. And Saint Ronny actively dealt with the Jihadi Iranians. Check the list of "small" arms that were traded in the arms for hostages deals.
This was underwritten by the Israelis as well.
When the CIA installed the Shah in 1953, ALL claims we had to moral high ground in the entire region were vaporized. Their lackey, the Shah, even pushed for the OPEC embargoes after the 73 war.
To blame Carter for the blowback is laughable.
Chalk up another American folly in the chase for oil and your departure from reason.
Kwan| 6.11.12 @ 7:17PM
Nice try moron but trying to disconnect Jimmy Carter from the Iran disaster is a fool's errand. Just like Obama and the screw-up in Egypt the brain-muddled fool Carter and his naive foreign p0licy gave us the Ayatollah and the terrorist Islamic State of Iran that wants to convert us all to Islam.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 7:54PM
Moron? Now that is some industrial strength transference there.
Kwan| 6.12.12 @ 12:55AM
Lookee lookee here. The same jerkoffagus that Alinsky dedicated his book to now appears on TAS makes a few dumb comments and then disappears into the dank, maliferous nether regions of Democrat Party Supreme Command Headquarters.
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 11:45AM
Point Kwan.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 8:22PM
We installed the Shah to replace a crazy commie, and it was one of the best moves we made. The Shah attempted to modernize Iran to move it away from the fundamentalists. Iran was a strong ally of ours, and now is the center of terrorrism thanks to Khomeni. Had Carter any brains he would have assisted the Shah to remain in power, or else he should have bombed Iran when they took our citizens as hostages.
Whose side are you on, the terrorrists?
Skippy| 6.11.12 @ 8:28PM
You won't like his answer.
satan| 6.12.12 @ 12:15AM
Unlike you the word terrorist does not reduce me to a cowardly babbling idiot. I am on the side of reason.
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 11:46AM
Treason?
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 11:44AM
Correct. They do the work of the Evil
One. They are his heroes.
J.C.Eaton| 6.11.12 @ 12:03PM
Ben, please, some surcease. It is disturbing to watch you blow smoke up Bernstein's butt like a circus balloon.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 12:48PM
Carl Bernstein is a "great guy" and "has bills to pay" so it is OK for "Carl" to continue his 40 year exagerration about a small time breakin of the Dems office? Why don't "Carl" and "Bob" report about the Obama leaks or Fast and Furious where people actually died including an American?
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 5:03PM
Because F&F was an Agency issue, NOT something directed by temp. Politicians, but by the long term regular staff.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 8:19PM
Please explain, your comment is confusing.
Skippy| 6.11.12 @ 8:51PM
He means it to be.
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 8:52PM
Federal Agencies do raids, stings all sorts of operations all the time, some come down as directives from Politicians of the day, most are just done as 'standard ops' those aren't being managed or directed by any politician or political appointee.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 10:40PM
You believe then that Holder did not know about this program? And that Obama did no t know? If so, then Holder should not be stonewalling and refusing to provide documents. If there is nothing to hide then comply, remember Watergate? It was the coverup, supposedly, not the nickel and dime break in.
This is worse than Watergate because this Administration supplied guns to Mexican gangsters that resulted in the deaths of many Mexicans and some Americans. Nobody died in Watergate.
I do believe Obama did not know. He is too busy playing golf and doing fundraisers with the proletartiat like George Cloony, Stepen Spielberg, Bono, Jon Bongiovi, Ellen Degeners...you know the working folks.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:25AM
i call BS...an operation like 'fast and furious' had to have been approved at the TOP of the food chain at DOJ, unless the top of the food chain at DOJ is utterly derelict in his duties to run his department...tell Brian Terry's widow that it's 'an Agency issue'...tell the families of the dozens (hundreds, maybe?) Mexican victims that their deaths are not worth investigating
Obadiah Plainman| 6.11.12 @ 1:02PM
It's actaully sad to read Woodward and Bernstein still yakking about Watergate. Living in the past is a perfect job for those who can't thrive in the present nor look to the future.
Seek| 6.11.12 @ 2:48PM
Bob Woodward has written more than a half-dozen books on national security policymaking since Watergate that have nothing to do with that subject -- hardly "living in the past." Carl Bernstein likewise has published extensively. It is their envious critics who seemingly are the underachievers.
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 3:27PM
They were invited to speak on it by reporters that realized they missed the story by being too close to the power structure.
Same thing continues today.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 10:41PM
In one of his books, Woodward interviewed CIA chief Bill Casey when Casey was near death, if not dead, or in a coma.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:21AM
...because any one of us should have had the foresight to 'interview' a man in a coma...just think about the wonderful yarns we could have spun!
sorry, but even with the aid of a HUGE helping of BS, woodward's stuff is utterly deserving a spot in the remainder bin at B&N
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 11:53AM
I have a couple of teacher friends who write prolifically and get published. It's drivel they produce and nothing else. Anyone can write and these days anyone can get published. It says nothing about the quality of work produced. These two bozos are like dowager queens or has been pop stars, singing the same sad tunes but nobody cares.
Wake up W&B, it's a new day, and the shit is really hitting the fan now. Maybe you should take off those Ray-Bans, your future's not so bright anymore.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 6:25PM
Considering the level of delusion associated with the relevant history on this site alone, perhaps more factual yakking is in order.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 1:50PM
Dear G-d Ben, Blade Runner was a superficial POS compared to the Dick novel. And I am talking about The Director's Cut. But most modern movies are POS. Hell, The Mole People with John Agar had more useful comments about the human condition, and I'm including the MST3K Hugh Beaumont fart jokes.
I think your taxes need raising. You can still afford firewood.
straight| 6.11.12 @ 2:24PM
Take your blinders off, Ben. Nixon's peacemaking does not absolve him for sending a band of thugs to subvert the election process.
Marie| 6.11.12 @ 2:27PM
All the things you site as good things that Nixon did can just as easily be considered bad things. The EPA can be a good thing, but when you have crazy people in charge of any government agency, it can be a really bad thing. We only need one law in this country. It should go something like this. If you harm somebody and the harmed person wants legal remedy, you as the harmer, must pay for it. If you intentionally harm somebody, regardless of the harmed persons wishes, you, the harmer must pay for it. That way, nobody slips through the cracks due to intimidation, etc. It seems to me that recently there are a lot of people trying to let Nixon slip through the cracks.
Mistral| 6.11.12 @ 2:33PM
Investigative journalism is fine but when it stoops to hacking into people's computers and mobile calls then it is time to lay down the law firmly. Frankly, it is time some courageous journalists got to the bottom off the Hussein Obama birth certificate affair and the ACORN vote rigging and how the POTUS could be connected. What about Bush Jnr (and Tony Blair's) involvement in a cover up to drag us all into a useless war in the Middle East? The Nixon affair is no longer relevant and so who really cares about its meaningless anniversary?
Nina in MA| 6.11.12 @ 2:58PM
I'm confused...releasing top secret info is making Obama look "good"?
canuckistani| 6.11.12 @ 3:38PM
No leaker ever thinks about the law of unintended consequences.
I bet Ike never saw the Jihadi's deposing his handpicked Shah. I bet Saint Ron never saw the blowback from trading anti-tank missiles with Jihadis, doing business actively with Saddam and abandoning the Mujahudin just when we could have had an impact. I bet Slick Willie did not see the Bin Laden threat as anything more than a local jihad "star" making his name like Arafat once did.
And I bet Junior never really imagined the neocons would manipulate his daddy complex into a faux war that killed thousands and cost trillions.
BHO has shown a level of distrust of foreign players not seen since Churchill came to his senses about Hitler.
The Nixon affair is as relevant today as it was in 73/74. Power left unchecked leads to disaster. Nixon got pardoned, so did Cap Weinberger and Abrams by Daddy Bush. We suffered as a result.
Junior showed balls when he refused to pardon Scooter Libby. That conviction stands, but it was too late to save his legacy.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 7:57PM
The U.S. today is a good example of the results of power unchecked.
DRCzar| 6.11.12 @ 4:33PM
You have left out Nixon's biggest sin (in the eyes of our friends on the left) and that was his prosecution of the infamous Algier Hiss.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 8:01PM
I am as far left as they come (60 years and counting) and I couldn't care less about the fate of Alger Hiss.
Skippy| 6.11.12 @ 8:54PM
If you were relevant, you would know Hiss.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 10:46PM
No surprise that devils are lefties.
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 4:50PM
It's not the act itself that hurts you, it's the coverup.It makes you look a lot more involved than you might have been. Let your criminal subordinates swing, don't try and shield them because doing that makes it YOUR crime.
Al Adab| 6.11.12 @ 5:24PM
Isn't there anyone else here who lived through the era? Nixon inherited the most critical time in our national life since the civil war. The creation of detante and the China overture were both part and parcel of holding the world together and this nation together long enough that some future President could take advantage of the system Nixon and Kissinger put in place. Reagan finally did.
As to Wo and B their actions along with Sam Ervin were dispicable. Imagine if the Senate held daily hearing, live on broadcast TV every day for months to revile the actions of this President and his cabinet. How long would he last? Finally, read Silent Coup to understand what it was all about. Nothing Nixon did, or may have done, comes close to the extra-legal actions Lincoln took.
Great men have their flaws and Nixon was a great man. His stewardship of the country is worth remembering. Do some reading and have a wonderful evening.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 8:25PM
Al Adab
Before there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, there was Nixon Derangement Syndrome. The left always hated Nixon starting with his outing of their hero Alger Hiss as a commie spy, and because he was the attack guy for Ike during the two campaigns.
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 8:54PM
Is that like Obama Derangement Syndrome, because that IS severe in NeoCons today, President Obama could personally raise the dead and people would complain it wasn't their uncle.
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 10:44PM
He does not have to raise the dead but raise the dead economy, which he killed.
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:27AM
the only thing that ObaNao can raise is his nose in disdain for the 'bitter clingers' who make up most of this nation
Sabba Hillel | 6.11.12 @ 5:31PM
I must object to your using the term "Pharisee" as a synonym for "hypocrite". The Pharisees were the sages of their day and were more like the Tea Party patriots of modern times than the liberal Democrats (though that is a tautology). In fact, it was the Pharisees that saved the Jewish people and stood up against the Hellenist collaborators and the Sadducees as well as the various cultish sects that sprang up during the rule of the Romans.
Had the political extremists listened to them, the temple would not have been destroyed and the Jewish State would have remained intact. They actually were able to deal with the Romans on a peacful basis and did not want the revolt which destroyed the temple and the state. Their peacful actions also kept the Jews alive after the revolt was put down and enabled us to survive to this day.
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 10:45PM
Yup---the Pharisees were the Rabbinical fathers. But, remember, Ben went to Yale Law and wouldn't have been able to make it through Med School, perfect SAT or not. Lawyers do not tend to be sharp knives, you know.
satan| 6.11.12 @ 5:54PM
Was this article lifted from the onion? Unfortunately for Ben Stein I was in my thirties and a very aware political operative at the time of Watergate and it is not possible to lie to me and get away with it. Do the editors at AS really believe this absurd twisting of historical fact will boost their journalistic chops among people with an I.Q over 80?
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 8:58PM
It has been said of Mainstream Publications that take on NeoCon Conservative opinion writers, that they have to lower their Journalistic Standards because the NeoCons have such a shaky grasp on Truth and Reality in what they print....true story
CJW| 6.11.12 @ 10:44PM
Who said that?
Occam's Tool| 6.11.12 @ 10:46PM
Yeah...and Krugman thinks increasing Public Sector Worker's share of the GDP will improve the economy---truer story.
Oh, King---I just renewed my AIPAC membership. For you.
Kingofthenet| 6.11.12 @ 10:52PM
Wouldn't just be easier to move there, you can steal some land, maybe shoot a few Palestinians it could be real fun!
spike59| 6.12.12 @ 7:28AM
congratulations, Queenofthenuts, you've submitted the DUMBEST post of the day!
Intelligent Design| 6.12.12 @ 8:20AM
Members of the world's oldest profession have more integrity than journalists.
obadiah| 6.12.12 @ 2:37PM
ha ha ha, such silliness that is written here. obviously ben stein never heard of g. gordon liddy. g. gordon didn't go to china, he went to the watergate. and it was all so pissant compared to the intentional murder of the republic by reagan, bush, clinton, bush and obama. such silliness is written here.
TinaB| 6.12.12 @ 3:47PM
I don't know who you think you are señor Obadiah, but you remind me of Post American in lower case letters and run-on sentences.
owend| 6.14.12 @ 6:21PM
Woodward and Bernstein must be missing the spotlight. Nothing like a new "discovery" to fan the old flames, eh fellas. Problem is; its not 1974 any more. There are more pressing issues at hand.
Modern Day Keats| 6.18.12 @ 9:40AM
I know we all have our hang-ups, but smoking Ben? Really? In this short but potentially powerful article you peter out ... stumbling overwhelmed into the sunset while whining about smoking on TV?
The anti-smoking campaign has made children hate their parents and grandparents, and I mean for life. Dissolved relationships. All the while, the idiot neighbors pour chemicals all over their lawns and we're flushing mass amounts of anti-depressants into the drinking water. Not sure if you're concerned about cancer or just are irritated by smoke, or lost a smoker. Doesn't really matter. You sound stupid.
Nixon is still a joke the very people who should be revering him, the young people of the generations that followed. The children of the originally brainwashed. You could have done better.
gene| 7.2.12 @ 10:56AM
Does ANYONE remember just who the Watergate burglers were? A few names bear repeating:
E Howard Hunt, Frank Stugis, etc. Why? Because these are the same people who were involved in the ""Bay of Pigs" Invasion, and also were implicated in an event that took place in Dallas, Tx on November 22nd, 1963. Mr. Hunt even confessed to his involvement before he died.
During the burlary, a security guard found a door that had been taped so that it would stay unlocked. He just assumed someone did this because they wanted to go out to their car and come back without being locked out. He removed the tape and went about his business. Later he finds the SAME DOOR taped again and low and behold, the burglers are apprehended. The tape, both times, was not put on VERTICALLY, so that it would not be easily noticed. It was put on HORIZONTALLY, so that the tape stuck out like a gigantic billboard saying, "HEY LOOK AT ME, there are people here breaking in, come and get us!!!!!!!". From the time I first read details on this break-in AND on this tape nonsense, I have always realized that these men
( some AFFILIATED with the CIA), wanted to get caught. Nixon went down like the Titanic. Of course, he faired better than JFK. He at least got to enjoy more years on this planet.