HISTORY

‘They’ll Open Up for This’

Beyond the juicy tape excerpts, there are riches in the 90,000 newly released pages of Nixon papers.

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  • Posted By: NewsWkDickG @ 12/13/2008 3:37:34 PM

    Ultra-conservatism, like the ???trickle down??? concept, has much the same characteristics as found in illegal pyramid schemes. They are equal in that only a few people really benefit, that they are driven by self-interests, are infected with greed and dishonesty, are sold with attraction to people???s self-interests and greed, and depend on taking advantage of the majority. The fraud they can perpetrate results in the collapse of the infected systems (i.e., corporate corruption, Wall Street, mortgage industry, auto industry, religious extremism,,,) and can eventually even bring down the total economy (what we are close to today). Without the regulations, enforcement, controls, checks and balances needed to keep conservative methodology from being the run-away service of the powerful few, greed, dishonesty and self-indulgence naturally take over. As long as the focus is on total deregulation, completely open and fair-trade markets and on the unchecked pursuit of benefit for Special Interests and a select few, without real protection, consideration and concern for the majority, the natural result will be what we are experiencing today. This criticism is not liberal thinking advocating a large ???tax and spend??? government giving to a dependent population or advocating protectionism but rather is pragmatism, is simply reality demanding moderation and a centrist thinking that actually benefits everyone. The other choice is to continue down the road we have been on, with only very costly temporary delays.

  • Posted By: nickgr @ 12/13/2008 12:35:36 PM

    I think that we should view with compassion all documents containing actual dialogues between statesmen...

    If we record our own conversations with colleagues & listen to them,we may conclude...."that guy on tape is a real s.o.b "...

  • Posted By: Galasso @ 12/13/2008 8:51:56 AM

    It is still amazing how LBJ's disasterous record is diminished to insignificance in the shadow of the sensationalism of Watergate and the tapes. Nixon did end the war in Vietnam and established an unprecedented dialog with Communist China. Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy is still the standard in coordinating activities at the State level with other - sometimes hostile - countries. The legacy, unfortunately, will always be the tapes. LBJ would have destroyed all of them.

  • Posted By: Bee Jay-1979 @ 12/11/2008 8:22:30 AM

    Nixon's illness is still infecting our government. Rummy, Cheney, Pat B. are still twisting the truth. All of them children of Nixon ideas. Soon the Boomer generation will be gone. Only when we finally learn our use of force can not change hearts and minds will the horror of Vietnam end. The only good thing from the 60's was the music. No one has harmed our country more then Richard M. Nixon.

  • Posted By: nimodahooligan @ 12/10/2008 3:50:50 PM

    what do ya know...he IS a crook...


    duhhhhhhhherrruhhhhhh

  • Posted By: fgcouvares @ 12/10/2008 11:47:07 AM

    Mr. Pearlstein: By what definition or measure did conclude that George McGovern's comments after the election were "sanctimonious?"

  • Posted By: GEOPOLITICONIMIST @ 12/10/2008 7:02:48 AM

    Richard Nixon The thirty-seventh President of the United States. His historical foreign policy shifts such as new relationships with cold war adversaries China and the Soviet Union, an end to the war in Vietnam, an attempt to stop bloodshed in the middle east and the ending of the draft and plan for an all-volunteer army outraged the Joint Chiefs and the right-wing inflexible anti-communist establishment that ultimately put into motion the elaborate plot to remove him from office. GEN. ALEXANDER HAIG,Aide to Kissinger and later Nixon???s Chief of Staff. Bob Woodward???s regularly visit the basement of the White House to ???brief??? him. Along with his military colleagues at the Pentagon he actually believed that Kissinger and the President of the United States were out of control negotiating away everything for which American and South Vietnamese spilled their blood for. Nixon-Kissinger secret diplomacy was tantamount to treason.JOHN W. DEAN III White House counsel. Invoking the authority but without the knowledge of the Attorney General John Mitchell he ordered the Watergate break-in to find out about his girlfriend Maureen ???Clout??? Biner and her flat mate Erika ???Heidi??? Riken???s call-girl agency operating from right smack inside the offices of Spencer Oliver, the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen and Democratic State Governors Organization at the DNC headquarters on the sixth floor of the Watergate office building which overlooks Virginia Avenue and a short walk from the Columbia Plaza, the headquarters of Heidi & Clouts??? call-girl ring.Dean???s obsession with Maureen Elizabeth Kane Owen Biner (who became his wife) and the salacious political material had pointed him toward the Watergate. LIEUTENANT BOB WOODWARD Circuit Control Officer 1965 ??? 1967 on U.S.S. Wright, he operated the aircraft carrier turned-floating-command-post massive communication system. Directed air strikes in Vietnam on U.S.S. Fox 1967 ??? 1969, the twenty-six-year-old lieutenant took up prestigious post at the Pentagon in August of 1969. He was inserted into the Washington Post by Admiral Moorer???s Pentagon spy ring on September 14, 1971. He shielded General Alexander M. Haig, Jr. under the guise of ???deep throat??? and regularly visited the White House whilst ostensibly working as communication watch officer overseeing naval covert global spy unit task force 157.SR 1 where he would enter the offices of NSC to act as a ???briefer??? to Alexander Haig. As the shadowy figure ???deep throat???, Haig later leaked damaging misinformation to him at the Washington Post. That he wasn???t indicted along with Haig and Moorer was the ultimate Pentagon cover-up. Howard Hunt & the burglars admitted that the purpose of the target was unbeknownst to them The president was placed in the hands of those he trusted; Dean, Haig and Buzhardt, the very people who had set out to undermine his foreign policy and who conspired to have him remo

  • Posted By: GEOPOLITICONIMIST @ 12/10/2008 7:01:26 AM

    Richard Nixon The thirty-seventh President of the United States. His historical foreign policy shifts such as new relationships with cold war adversaries China and the Soviet Union, an end to the war in Vietnam, an attempt to stop bloodshed in the middle east and the ending of the draft and plan for an all-volunteer army outraged the Joint Chiefs and the right-wing inflexible anti-communist establishment that ultimately put into motion the elaborate plot to remove him from office. GEN. ALEXANDER HAIG,Aide to Kissinger and later Nixon???s Chief of Staff. Bob Woodward???s regularly visit the basement of the White House to ???brief??? him. Along with his military colleagues at the Pentagon he actually believed that Kissinger and the President of the United States were out of control negotiating away everything for which American and South Vietnamese spilled their blood for. Nixon-Kissinger secret diplomacy was tantamount to treason.JOHN W. DEAN III White House counsel. Invoking the authority but without the knowledge of the Attorney General John Mitchell he ordered the Watergate break-in to find out about his girlfriend Maureen ???Clout??? Biner and her flat mate Erika ???Heidi??? Riken???s call-girl agency operating from right smack inside the offices of Spencer Oliver, the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen and Democratic State Governors Organization at the DNC headquarters on the sixth floor of the Watergate office building which overlooks Virginia Avenue and a short walk from the Columbia Plaza, the headquarters of Heidi & Clouts??? call-girl ring.Dean???s obsession with Maureen Elizabeth Kane Owen Biner (who became his wife) and the salacious political material had pointed him toward the Watergate. LIEUTENANT BOB WOODWARD Circuit Control Officer 1965 ??? 1967 on U.S.S. Wright, he operated the aircraft carrier turned-floating-command-post massive communication system. Directed air strikes in Vietnam on U.S.S. Fox 1967 ??? 1969, the twenty-six-year-old lieutenant took up prestigious post at the Pentagon in August of 1969. He was inserted into the Washington Post by Admiral Moorer???s Pentagon spy ring on September 14, 1971. He shielded General Alexander M. Haig, Jr. under the guise of ???deep throat??? and regularly visited the White House whilst ostensibly working as communication watch officer overseeing naval covert global spy unit task force 157.SR 1 where he would enter the offices of NSC to act as a ???briefer??? to Alexander Haig. As the shadowy figure ???deep throat???, Haig later leaked damaging misinformation to him at the Washington Post. That he wasn???t indicted along with Haig and Moorer was the ultimate Pentagon cover-up. Howard Hunt & the burglars admitted that the purpose of the target was unbeknownst to them The president was placed in the hands of those he trusted; Dean, Haig and Buzhardt, the very people who had set out to undermine his foreign policy and who conspired to have him remo

  • Posted By: C. MacLean @ 12/09/2008 3:09:13 PM

    So we have evidence that in addition to being a crook, he was also a liar?

    That isn't news.

  • Posted By: NewsWkDickG @ 12/09/2008 12:43:46 PM

    The Republican ???conservative??? philosophy has proven to be empty for the majority. And it is simply hard to understand how giving money to companies or tax cuts to the wealthy will ever help our economy. When you think about how our economy actually works it becomes apparent that businesses succeed and grow and the wealthy gain more wealth simply because people spend, because the general population has and spends money and thereby stimulates the entire economy, allows business to grow and even provides profits for the wealthy. Just giving money directly to those at the top, whether businesses or the wealthy, has clearly proven to do little for the over all economy or for the majority of Americans. The objective that makes more sense is to get more money into the hands of the average person who can then participate to spend and stimulate the total economy. Saving businesses, which have proven to be irresponsibly and poorly run, by injecting tax payers??? money, may have some short term effect but it is simply asking to have to throw more money at it again later. And giving tax breaks to the wealthy tends to only make the wealthy wealthier. If the desire is sincerely to stimulate the entire economy, to benefit everyone, then the goal needs to be to make the average American more secure, free from exploitation by greed / dishonesty, and with more spendable income and just more confident that their status will remain stable. Any rationalizations that say otherwise, for instance the ???trickle down??? theory, are fraudulent and offer only deceptive solutions that benefit just the few. Our economy is literally more of a ???bubble up??? function and what is needed now is more stable consumer spending with higher employment, better security and without giving tax dollars to those at the top while just hoping somehow they will do something to make benefit then ???trickle down???. Anything our government does now should be focused on accomplishing those goals and on rejecting any rationalizations to justify otherwise, which are focused on benefiting the few. They have clearly and repeatedly shown us exactly what doesn???t work and to continue to do the same things, expecting different results, is totally stupid. Voters need to recognize and reject those who advocate / rationalize continuing with more of the same thinking. When the focus is on the wealthy, only the wealthy get real benefit; when the focus is truly on the average American, everyone wins! And that isn???t ???liberal???, it is truly pragmatic!

  • Posted By: midnight05 @ 12/07/2008 5:28:40 PM

    We have a President in office now that makes me nostalgic for the Nixon administration. I didn't think, then, that it could ever be worse. It is.

  • Posted By: NewsWkDickG @ 12/07/2008 12:46:11 PM

    It is simply hard to understand how giving money to companies or tax cuts to the wealthy will ever help our economy. When you think about how our economy actually works it becomes apparent that businesses succeed and grow and the wealthy gain more wealth simply because people spend, because the general population has and spends money and thereby stimulates the entire economy, allows business to grow and even provides profits for the wealthy. Just giving money directly to those at the top, whether businesses or the wealthy, has clearly proven to do little for the over all economy or for the majority of Americans. The objective that makes more sense is to get more money into the hands of the average person who can then participate to spend and stimulate the total economy. Saving businesses, which have proven to be irresponsibly and poorly run, by injecting tax payers??? money, may have some short term effect but it is simply asking to have to throw more money at it again later. And giving tax breaks to the wealthy tends to only make the wealthy wealthier. If the desire is sincerely to stimulate the entire economy, to benefit everyone, then the goal needs to be to make the average American more secure, free from exploitation by greed / dishonesty, and with more spendable income and just more confident that their status will remain stable. Any rationalizations that say otherwise, for instance the ???trickle down??? theory, are fraudulent and offer only deceptive solutions that benefit just the few. Our economy is more of a ???bubble up??? function and what is needed now is more stable consumer spending with higher employment, better security and without giving tax dollars to those at the top while just hoping somehow they will do something to make benefit then ???trickle down???. Anything our government does now should be focused on accomplishing that and on rejecting any rationalizations to justify otherwise, which are focused on benefiting the few. They have clearly and repeatedly shown us exactly what doesn???t work and to continue to do the same things, expecting different results, is totally stupid. Voters need to recognize and reject those who advocate / rationalize continuing with more of the same thinking. When the focus is on the wealthy, only the wealthy get real benefit; when the focus is truly on the average American, everyone wins!

  • Posted By: Repubssuck @ 12/07/2008 12:44:34 PM

    edburns123, Not may people lay blame on Nixon. Neo-Cons only speak of the Nixon that ended the Viet Nam War and of Kennedy and LBJ who sent 500,000 plus troops to fight and die there. Nixon was sworn it January of 1969 and didn't sign the Peace Pact until January of 1973. Nixon deserves his full share for the useless slaughter of our best and bravest young women and men. Iraq is of course a much smaller war but the blame is just as applicable to Bush/Cheney as to the afore mentioned three. Sending someone to their deaths while knowing the cause was not just or honest is the most dispicable act one can commit. Those that continue to suppot Bush have also earned a share of the blame. Is it any wonder that the world has contempt for us. I trust that President-Elect Obama can repair the damage that the Republican Party of Hate has inflicted upon our Country.

  • Posted By: edburns123 @ 12/07/2008 12:09:00 PM

    I don't know Rick Perlstein personally, but I do know the Vietnam war personally as I was there and Richard Nixon was my commander in Chief. I'm guessing Rick is a younger man and has obtained his enlightenment through books he's read. However Ricks ephinany about Nixon was well known by most of us who lived through the Nixon era. Yes he "was a crook"! even though he claimed not to be. The man was not only crooked but inherently evil and the world will never forget the young men he is is responsible for murdering.
    EMB Vietnam 1972-1973

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