How time flies! Forty-two years ago today, Nixon White House staffers John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman, plus then-Attorney General Richard Kleindienst resigned because of the mushrooming Watergate scandal.
Oh, and John Dean was fired.
Richard Nixon announced the resignations (and the firing) and pronounced (pompously, as always), "There can be no whitewash at the White House."
Well, of course we all know how things turned out, don't we? There was indeed a whitewash — otherwise known as a cover-up — and it went on for another year and a half, until Nixon himself resigned in August 1974.
Today, as the Republican smear machine gears up for 2016, we cats thought it might be useful to remember some GOP misdeeds of the past. Watergate sure was a biggie. For those of us who loathed Nixon and enjoyed seeing him get his comeuppance, it was satisfying — but at the same time we all knew how destructive it was to the country. After the Nixon scandals (and Vietnam, thanks a lot, LBJ), Americans would never trust their government again.
So let us take today's anniversary to recall that 69 Nixon officials were indicted for various crimes either directly or tangentially connected to Watergate, and 48 were convicted — including Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Kleindienst, and other Republican bright lights like John Mitchell, Jeb Magruder, the Watergate burglars and, of course, John Dean. Kinda more serious than a few, um, romantic encounters with a White House intern, no? We cats HISS.
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