Revisiting the Watergate Tape Controversy

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

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From World Book '99 Multimedia Encyclopedia:

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Watergate: The Tape Controversy 1973

...They (The Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities) asked Nixon to provide them with certain tapes, but he refused to do so. Nixon argued that, as President, he had the constitutional right to keep the tapes confidential. In August, Archibald Cox (The Special Prosecutor) and the committee sued Nixon to obtain the tapes. U.S. District Court Judge John J. Sirica decided to review the tapes himself and ordered Nixon to give them to him. Nixon appealed the order, but a U.S. court of appeals supported Sirica.

In October, Nixon offered to provide summaries of the tapes. But Cox declared that summaries would be unacceptable as evidence in court and rejected the offer. Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot L Richardson to fire Cox, but Richardson refused to do so and resigned. Deputy attorney General D. Ruckelshaus also resigned after being ordered to dismiss Cox. Nixon then named Solicitor General Robert H. Bork acting attorney general, and Bork fired Cox. Leon Jaworski, a noted Texas attorney, later succeeded Cox.

The President's actions angered many Americans. In October, a number of members of the House of representatives began steps to impeach him...

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From truthout.org

White House 'Discovers' 250 Emails Related to Plame Leak
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Friday 24 February 2006

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022406Y.shtml

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"...Sources close to the case said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales withheld numerous emails from Fitzgerald’s probe citing “executive privilege” and “national security” concerns. These sources said that as of Friday there are still some emails that have not been turned over to Fitzgerald because they contain classified information in addition to references about the Wilsons."

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Nixon couldn't bully Congress and our judiciary in 1973 to get away with obstruction because the American public wouldn't permit it. He couldn't keep the American public from holding him to account because he couldn't control mainstream media, and therein lies the crux of our problem today. Little or no serious, widely seen, investigative reporting means an uninformed, or more often misinformed, public remaining oblivious to the truth. If we don't find some way to recapture some meaningful, widely seen slice of media by which to get the truth out, we will lose the Republic.

[Wordie]

1. I certainly hope that the Bush admin won't succeed where Nixon failed. nt