Inflategate (New England Patriots), Slapgate (Will Smith), Beachgate (Chris Christie), Filegate (Bill Clinton), Weinergate (Anthony Weiner).
The list goes on.
I picked up a post-it that had dropped to the floor. It read: Trust in the Institution. I don’t remember if it was a book title or just something I picked up on a CNN discussion. But my mind wandered back to Watergate.
The 50th anniversary of the break-in was last June. Watergate took place the summer before my sophomore year in college. Nixon resigned two years later, as my senior year began after dragging the country through his mud. I watched on television with my dearest college buds, who were celebrating his wave good bye from the top step of the airplane stairs. But I felt dejection, a complete lack of Trust in the Institution. Nixon’s low road spawned a sprawling culture of criminality in government. His abuse of presidential power had a long-lasting effect on our political life, creating cynicism and distrust, one that remains to present day. How many times in the last few years have I looked back and thought, man that was chump change compared to now. If I felt dejection then, what are college seniors feeling today?
In a nutshell: The Watergate scandal began in June, 1972. Several burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
They had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents. President Nixon took aggressive steps to cover up the crimes, but resigned in August, 1974, when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed his role in the conspiracy.
Writes journalist and historian Garrett M Graff, Watergate: A New History:
- “One of the things that is so hard to recreate and understand now looking back, is there was no sense that the president could lie to the American people.”
- “Richard Nixon woke up every morning angry.”
- “He is someone at every at every stage of his political career who chooses the low road.”
Graff insists that ultimately Watergate is a tale of checks and balances. “At the end of the day Watergate is a weirdly hopeful story because it shows what what it takes to protect American democracy. It takes a while and is not necessarily an easy process to get there but the system in Watergate worked.”
Hmmm. Will it work in 2022-23?
The Watergate scandal resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 convicted, many of them top Nixon administration officials—
Four Big Fish:
John N. Mitchell Attorney General of the United States: Convicted of perjury. Served 19 months of a one- to four-year sentence
H.R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff: Convicted of conspiracy to the burglary, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
John Ehrlichman, White House Domestic Affairs Advisor: Convicted of conspiracy to the burglary, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
G. Gordon Liddy, Special Investigations Group: Convicted of masterminding the burglary, original sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Served 4+1⁄2years in federal prison.
And then there is John Wesley Dean III (b 1938), now a news commentator. He is the former attorney who served as white House Counsel for President Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence. After his plea, he was disbarred. And now an honored CNN analyst.
The word Watergate came to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration, including bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious; ordering investigations of activist groups and political figures; and using the FBI, CIA, and IRS as political weapons. The use of the suffix -gate after an identifying term has since become synonymous with public scandal, especially political scandal.
What gate is next?
