The Back Alley Archives

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-081218-obit-felt-story,0,6452767.story?deep

What's really fascinating about the whole Watergate affair is that just about every President since Nixon has had some kind of scandal and cover-up, sometimes worse than Nixon's. And yet he's the villain of history.

Iran-Contra, Whitewater, the Valerie Plame affair, etc., were all arguably worse than a botched burglary, but Nixon - for whatever reason - will always be remembered for Watergate.

I highly recommend G. Gordon Liddy's book, Will, which details some of the zanier ideas that Liddy and his compatriots came up with. They were going to break the air conditioning at the Democratic Convention, held in Miami, to drive them crazy. Another plan was to buy a boat and hire hookers to lure prominent Democrats out to the boat so they could tape it.

Liddy is a no BS dood.

Yeah, I like Liddy's style even if he did some less-than-honorable things during that era.

What's really fascinating about the whole Watergate affair is that just about every President since Nixon has had some kind of scandal and cover-up, sometimes worse than Nixon's. And yet he's the villain of history.

Because Nixon has the fucking patent on LOOKING guilty. Both Clinton and Bush, you could catch them strangling their mothers and they'd have the same blank happy look. Nixon looked troubled on the best day of his life.

That and Nixon really thought he was above the law. He's a great character though and was actually not a horrible president, all things considered.

Nixon = underrated. Kennedy = overrated.