Agnew Was Framed!
Once again we are fighting the culture war of the '60s and early '70s. This time the target of the right is one Mark Felt.
Expect the right to create Nixon Big House Vets for Deceit led by Chuck Colson and Gordon Liddy with Buchanan as the Communications Director and Gauleiter. Mark Felt will be deconstructed by the right just as John Kerry was the target of the Swift Boat Vets.
For the right, this fight is not just about defending Nixon, but once again smashing the legacy of the 60s. Buchanan continually makes the point that the downfall of Nixon led to the abandonment of Viet Nam. It is only a matter of time that the right transforms Felt from a Hoover man to a flower child who suffered from moral relativism.
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If there hadn't been a bunch of crookedness going on in the Nixon White House there would have been nothing and no one for Mr. Felts to tattle on. Those people involved in the illegal activities took their chances but they got caught...because somebody dimed them out. so be it. They knew there were risks
June 2, 2005 5:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
My memory of the time is somewhat vague, but I do recall having a sense that Agnew WAS framed. But framed by Nixon people in the hope that a sacrificial lamb might end the investigation into the Nixon White House. Also remember that a Vice President that would pardon Nixon was needed. Maybe there wasn't that sort of assurance through Agnew.
So these people screaming "framed" may well have intimate knowledge of the framing.
June 2, 2005 6:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the first post you've made here that I actually agree with. Congratulations are in order.
If you look at some of the right-wing blogs, they have ads for T-Shirts with a picture of Bush, pointing his finger and looking as menacing as a Connecticut Yankee can look, and with the caption "Take That, Hippie -- Four More Years."
Just the fact that they can seriously refer to some of us as "hippies" is kind of sad, but also kind of telling with regards to your point above.
June 2, 2005 6:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
I seem to vaguely recall that the Republicans held the White House at the time of the fall of Saigon.
Wasn't some guy named Henry something Secretary of State?
June 2, 2005 6:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
off the other night, listening to Buchanan one would think that Nixon did no wrong, it was just amazing.
The far right has gone beyond reason, they are so deep into their own lies they can't remember what the truth is.
Buchanan also said that the Liberals who unjustly attacked Nixon caused the genocide in Cambodia, which is the point I turned off the TV.
June 2, 2005 6:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
The culture wars won't be over till every last man who remembers the 60's is dead and gone.
Frankly, I think we on the left are losing the culture war.
June 2, 2005 7:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tom Toles pegs this in a recent cartoon.
June 2, 2005 7:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
the U.S didn't abandon vietnam, it invaded it. The refusal to look history in the eye continues and I suppose someday commentators will condem not the invasion of iraq but the inevitable "ababdonment".
June 2, 2005 7:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's a little misleading to refer to Nixon supporters en masse as being the "far right." Aside from that being a vague term anyway (who does the "far right" include?), Nixon isn't exactly the idol of conservatives. Liberals dislike his "amoral" foreign policy, but so do a lot of neoconservatives and he certainly wasn't the kind of tax cutter that conservatives today like. Nixon's base of support was never really with conservatives but with the middle class that resented liberalism. Maybe this is splitting hairs, but I see a tendency to conflate all conservatives with the "far right" and to assume that anyone that supports Nixon is a member of this "vast right-wing conspiracy."
June 2, 2005 7:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
After studying Nixon for a couple of months last summer I came to that conclusion myself. He would be insufficiently conservative in today's GOP.
Actually I also came to the conclusion that paranoia and possibly mental instability are what led him down him down the path to disaster. Sure he was a bastard, but I also pity the bastard.
June 2, 2005 7:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I remember, I was there. Agnew deserved what he got. He was a corrupt, pig-headed scumbag. I realize this is a rather emotional response, but that's how I remember him.
June 2, 2005 7:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
as opposed to
June 2, 2005 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the guy who authorized wire taps and illegal break ins on anti war folks. He probably had days where he was authorizing black bag jobs, while going to the parking garage at night and telling Woodward about Nixon's plummers doing the very same thing.
Felt was a devoted J. Edgar Hoover crony. Woodward was/(is?) a very right winger.
Yes, I am absolutely thrilled that Felt leaked. But in the reality based community, we must be honest and admit that this guy wasn't Snow White here. L. Patrick Gray and Henry Kissinger had more to do with Felt's motives than civic duty IMHO. Nixon was usurping the military and the FBI, and they fought back.
Woodward today acknowledge that his relationship with Felt started when Woodward was working in the Navy for Admiral Moorer, another right wing wahoo.
This was a right wing coup. As much as we (rightly) hate Nixon, there were right wingers, Felt included who hated him for China, the EPA, the NSC, Patrick Gray etc. They brought Nixon down for us, but they weren't doing it for us. We just reaped the good fortune.
June 2, 2005 8:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was there, and recall his sleazyness most of all. As for being framed, wasn't it more of a caught-on-camera deal, with envelopes stuffed with cash?
June 2, 2005 8:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, it goes without saying that MW would support them in those efforts--he agrees with them on the substance of the points--but for the fact that they insulted him. He's a bit of a David Horowitz type, unfortunately.
June 2, 2005 8:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's worth noting that the hate-Nixon crowd had little to do with his being brought down -- he was brought down by a press that felt he had gone beyond acceptable limits, and ultimately by a great body of moderates who agreed. In the end, Nixon was brought down by his own misdeeds and hubris.
But without the press, you've basically got W -- misdeeds and hubris, but no consequences.
June 2, 2005 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Felt was heir to Hoovers' blackmail files, and he took minimal risk as he punished Nixon for trying to show who's boss.
Nixon's resignation was either the triumph of open government or the ascendence of a criminal network in the Republican Party.
Wishful thinking has made the past three decades eery but liveable for liberals while misdirected anger has hooked conservatives on rationalization. It is time for both sides to face the truth.
June 2, 2005 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Does anybody think that Mark Felt handed J. Edgar's files over to Nixon crony L. Patrick Gray when Gray was made acting boss?
When you think of Felt, consider that J. Edgar Hoover promoted him higher than anybody other than his alleged lover Clyde Tolson.
Felt had to be extremely close to the boss in attitude, and thinking to get so high up the food chain at the FBI. Felt himself in his autobiography talks about how much he thought Hoover was dreamy.
Felt is/was the most logical custodian of all of Hoover's illegal files on celebrities, politicians, and activists. Yet, all of a sudden, L. Patrick Gray comes in from the cold as his boss. Felt was untouchable really.
June 2, 2005 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nixon had to acquiese to certain things that the Democratic Congress initiated. The modern far right would adore his shady dealings, cronyism, and arrogance, even if they disagreed on certain policy matters. His tactics would fit in perfectly with Abrhramoff, Norquist, and Reed.
June 2, 2005 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't Buchanan for "abandoning" IRAQ!!!
He is quoted calling Felt a snake in the NYT. Well, Pat, when you engage in acts like the Nixon White House did, you are bound to find yourself lying in the grass with some snakes and rats, and I'm not even talking about Felt here.
By staying anonymous, Felt prevented them from having someone to attack, a wise approach for any/all future leakers (obviously FBI rules probably also played a large role).
(That said, I hope he finds some way to run again in '08!)
June 2, 2005 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess this depends on who you are most loyal to. Country or Ideology.
My understand is that Felt didn't just authorize wire taps against anti-war folks, but particularly the Weather Underground.
It's important to note that the Weatherman were not just anti-war, they were advocating overthrowing the government, i.e. Revolution. They were no different than Timothy McVeigh or any of the right-wing fringe militia that have grown up over the years and were particularly virulent during the 1990s.
Felt was loyal to his country, not any particularly political ideology, and I think most Americans would stand up for that and call him a Hero.
June 2, 2005 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I was just thinking this morning as a I read these stories that in fact most of the Nixon conspirators actually have been pretty contrite to the point of being socially proudctive human beings -- with the exception of course of Liddy and Colson as questionable. Most just kept to themselves (like Tricky Dick himself, although he sought to salvage his rep didn't do so by becoming a partisan hatchet-man/ martyr like, say, Bob Dole is trying to be. Or seeking personal enrichment through crass endorsements, like say Bob Dole is doing.)
Some folks like Dean, Buchanon and Ziegler have become upstanding (if self-deluded) citizens.
I was thinking this in contrast to how the Bush folks can't even wait to start burnishing their reps or cashing in on their connections while in office. Or check that, who sought public office to enhance their rep and cash in on connections.
I'd say that any administration that has Feith and Bolton in it is more corrupt than the Nixon White House, no matter what Mark Felt thinks.
PS. My view on the Swift Boating of Felt is to let the animals eat their own. I'd be delighted to see Felt's reputation destroyed and him indicted; Woodward would sell him out in a second since it would help his book sales.
June 2, 2005 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
...all the RIGHT-wing attacks against him all the more incomprehensible -- especially considering the political affectations of those doing the criticizing.
It seems even in its own victory the right wing must somehow denigrate the left. I suppose it's simply to maintain the ruse.
June 2, 2005 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
...are "Secret Bombing of Cambodia." Yeah, that Nixon. He prevented a whole lot of death, alright.
June 2, 2005 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink