Now Watergate Does Not Bother Me. Does Your Conscience Bother You?

Watergate has always intrigued me. Not so much why it was planned and almost executed to perfection, but why this caper has remained such a watershed moment in our nation's political history.

To me, Watergate is the premiere example of political naivete and hypocrisy. The party that expresses shock and horror that political espionage occurred in a presidential race quickly develops a short-term memory when it comes to similar maneuvers from their own party.

About ten years ago, I undertook a sophomoric attempt at unmasking the identity of Deep Throat. My copy of All The President's Men became dog-eared several times over and now has notes down the sides of pages. I wanted my own Pelican Brief of sorts to show the world that I knew all along.

My case was logical, pragmatic, and completely reasonable; it was also completely and entirely wrong.

As such, 31 May 2005 was the best and worst day of my life.

I bring all of this up for two reasons:

First, E. Howard Hunt passed away yesterday.

Second, C-SPAN. It's the only channel on which I'll view the State of the Union address. It also got a brief mention from the president last night.

Transparency in government and its facilitator, C-SPAN, is a by-product of the Watergate era. And in a quasi-ironic twist of events, no party has benefited more from C-SPAN than the Republican party. And no one individual has benefited from C-SPAN more than Newt Gingrich.

Now that's Nixonian.