Author Topic: Trey Gowdy and the Real Lesson of Watergate - 1973 Democrats blocked investigation of LBJ  (Read 703 times)

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Offline DCPatriot

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Trey Gowdy and the Real Lesson of Watergate

Jeffrey Lord




Senator Mike Mansfiled (left)


It is the real lesson of Watergate.

As South Carolina’s Congressman Trey Gowdy, the new chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, begins his task, it is worth recalling a lesson from Watergate. Specifically a lesson about the creation of what became known as the Senate Watergate Committee — and how the Senate Republicans of 1973 lost a fight that literally changed the course of American history.

The date is November 17, 1972. The Democrats in the United States Senate are not happy with the results of the just concluded presidential election in which their nominee and Senate colleague, South Dakota’s Senator George McGovern, had lost 49 states — all but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia — to President Richard Nixon.

In the middle of the campaign — back in June — the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee had been burglarized. Among other things, the objective was to bug the phones to monitor the DNC Chairman, ex-JFK and LBJ White House aide Lawrence O’Brien. The story had been a detail of the campaign, but a small one. Not until October had the story gained any kind of traction, moving in a bigger way from print media and the hands of the Washington Post’s young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to television. Walter Cronkite at CBS had spent two nights in a row on the scandal, a big deal in a day where the three TV networks only had a single half-hour news show at the dinner hour. There were strands of a story — a connection between Nixon’s re-election committee, the story of an intelligence fund at the committee. And not much else. The news reports had no effect whatsoever on Nixon’s impending landslide victory.

During that campaign there had been a Senate election in Montana, a re-election campaign for the state’s junior senator Lee Metcalf, a Democrat. His senior colleague and fellow Democrat Mike Mansfield, out campaigning hard for Metcalf, had seen the news reports on the burglary. Understanding that McGovern was about to go under in a tidal wave, Mansfield told Montana voters that when the election was over he would go back to Washington and “pave the way” (his words) for an investigation not just of the Watergate break-in but the whole business of campaign financing.

The importance? Mike Mansfield was not just a run-of-the-mill U.S. Senator. He was the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate. The Harry Reid of his day.

Mansfield kept his vow. On November 17 he wrote two letters. One to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Eastland of Mississippi. The other to another Judiciary member and Democrat, North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin. Mansfield’s flat assertion? That Republicans had manipulated the presidential election of 1972 with a “cynical and dangerous intrusion into the integrity of the electoral processes by which the people of the nation choose the trustees of federal office…”

On February 5, 1973 Mansfield went out with his resolution to create what was formally titled the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. It would soon become known to history as the Senate Watergate Committee.

The Republican response?

If in fact the Democrats really believed that it was critical to investigate what Mansfield had called a “cynical and dangerous intrusion into the integrity of the electoral processes by which the people of the nation choose the trustees of federal office” then that was fine by them. Game on. Immediately they offered an amendment to include in the new Select Committee’s purview not just the 1972 election — but the 1968 and 1964 presidential elections as well.

Why? Specifically.

more at:   http://spectator.org/articles/59070/trey-gowdy-and-real-lesson-watergate

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Online Bigun

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Looks interesting!

I'll have a look tomorrow.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Online Bigun

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Quote
So the FBI, per the Director of the FBI, was directly ordered by President Lyndon Johnson to bug both the Goldwater campaign plane in 1964 and the Nixon campaign plane in 1968. And there was a regular “Anti-Campaign” dirty tricks operation operating out of the Johnson White House during the 1964 campaign. By the personal direction of LBJ — and meeting in a West Wing conference room right over the Oval Office itself.

If there was to be a Senate Select Committee investigating what Mike Mansfield, called the “cynical and dangerous intrusion into the integrity of the electoral processes by which the people of the nation choose the trustees of federal office…” then let’s do just that, said Senate Republicans. So GOP Senators proposed investigating not just the presidential campaign of 1972, but 1964 and 1968 as well.

Answer from Democrats? Democrats had the votes in the Senate — so when the GOP proposed investigating LBJ and not just Nixon — the answer was: Hell, no. The GOP proposal was voted down.

To this day Americans know about the Senate Watergate Committee and the results it eventually produced — the resignation of Richard Nixon. For months in 1973 the Senate Watergate Committee patiently, day by day, exposed the activities of the Nixon White House — while deliberately covering up for the Johnson White House and the Democrats. What is not generally known is that LBJ and the Democrats were let off the off hook by Senate Democrats. The fix was in and it was simple. This was an attempt — a successful attempt — to nail Nixon for something his immediate predecessor had in fact done not in one presidential campaign but two. To paint Republicans of the day as corrupt. Period. It worked.

THIS ladies in gentlemen is the kind of thing that drives me CRAZY!  THIS is what we, as conservatives, are up against and it is NOT new! It's time for us to fight back and fight back HARD!
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline Howie66

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THIS ladies in gentlemen is the kind of thing that drives me CRAZY!  THIS is what we, as conservatives, are up against and it is NOT new! It's time for us to fight back and fight back HARD!
:thumbsup3:
I come in peace, I didn't bring artillery.  But I am pleading with you with tears in my eyes:  If you bleep with me, I'll kill you all.

Marine General James Mattis, to Iraqi tribal leaders (Note: Mattis did NOT say "BLEEP". He threw the F Bomb)

I didn't enlist in the Corps just to watch my country become a Third World Communist Shit-hole. Don't know anyone who did.

Offline truth_seeker

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THIS ladies in gentlemen is the kind of thing that drives me CRAZY!  THIS is what we, as conservatives, are up against and it is NOT new! It's time for us to fight back and fight back HARD!
How do you suggest fighting back hard?

I suggest a list of the 3 articles of impeachment against Nixon, and how Obama has done the much worse.

And finally the best way to block him the last 2 years is with a Republican Congress.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/rnimparticles.htm

ARTICLE I, OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE (Approved 27-11)

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice, in that:

On June 17, 1972, and prior thereto, agents of the Committee for the Re-election of the President:

Committed unlawful entry of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, District of Columbia, for the purpose of securing political intelligence. Subsequent thereto, Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his subordinates and agents in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation of such unlawful entry; to cover up, conceal and protect those responsible; and to conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities. ...

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

ARTICLE II, ABUSE OF POWER. (Approved 28-10)

Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice in the conduct of lawful inquiries, of contravening the law of governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposes of these agencies. ...

ARTICLE III, DEFIANCE OF SUBPOENAS. (Approved 21-17)

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, contrary to his oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on April 11, 1974, May 15, 1974, May 30, 1974, and June 24, 1974, and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. ...

KEEP THE LIST SHORT AND SIMPLE FOR OBAMA, using the same headings
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline Formerly Once-Ler

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And finally the best way to block him the last 2 years is with a Republican Congress.

Agreed.

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“The president already has a Nobel Prize for peace. I think he’s shooting for one in fiction.” - Congressman Trey Gowdy

I like Congressman Gowdy, like I like Ann Coulter.  He's funny.  He's sharp. He's quick.  He's a firebrand.

This committee needs to be sober and respectful because the public suspects it will be a witch hunt.  Anyone who wants to know the truth about Benghazi knows what happened.  A bunch of protests lit up the muslim world.  Because of this, when Benghazi was attacked by terrorists, the administration was afraid to respond and they let 4 Americans die.  The administration then tried to blame the attack on a film because they were in the middle of an election.  The public, if they want to know what happened in Benghazi, doesn't really care that much about this.  And those who don't know what happened won't care even if we spit it straight into their face.

I think the public believes that somebody should pay for Benghazi but it ain't Obama.  I don't think the net effect of the select committee is going to be positive for the GOP or likely to lead to much.