A Memory of Watergate

Former Attorney General Richard Kleindienst

Yes, when I was about 17, my friend David’s father took us to one of the Watergate hearings in New York.  He was a real serious lawyer.  As a young man, he had worked for the government at the Japanese War Crimes trials.  He worked at that time for Metromedia, TV channel 9 in New York I believe.  He was so excited about the trials, he was almost gleeful.  We went in on the train and met him at what I assume was the Federal courthouse.  He had some kind of passes, but we still had to wait in line to jockey our way in past the reporters.  The name Whitney North Seymour pops out of my memory.  Dave’s Dad was a great admirer of the man with the million dollar name; perhaps the story was he had worked for him or with him in the old days.  I remember it was the trial of Richard Kleindienst and was a turning point because he was one in a long line of successive Attorney Generals and he was the first honest guy who was willing to talk.   Former Attorney General John MitchellInfamous John Mitchell testified that day which was the real highlight of the proceedings.  He was the very definition of the word “staunch” in the way that Dick Cheney might define the word “snarling.”  His even more notorious wife Martha was there and at the time she was more watched by the tabloids than her doomed husband.  Doesn’t Nixon seem almost innocent compared to the creepy liars we have in office now?  His deceptions were almost quaint in their “I shall take over the world and do away with my enemies” simplicity.  I think so.

Rock ‘n Roll


Okay, this is the guy who dressed like a lady and made our live miserable for decades.  Yes, he did catch some bad guys, so we know he did something good.  But he created endless misery as well.