I can’t believe I am only just coming to this.
Slate has been running a series of in-depth podcasts on the people and discrete events of Watergate and it is delicious. It’s called “Slow Burn” and it’s fascinating enough that I coughed up the $35 for the Slate Plus Membership to get double the episodes.
I dig on stories about presidential transition teams (especially when the party switches), the events surrounding the transition of power after JFK was assassinated and Watergate. I love how the concepts of managed power transitions and slowly unfolding justice play out in these events.
In Episode One I learned about Martha Mitchell, who I only had a passing familiarity with and would have never named her a Watergate principal. Then I got a Dick Cavett (not dead?) interview, recounting the interviews he did during the unfolding of history. Delicious.
Takeaway #1: even then it was impossible to keep secrets…there are just too many peripheral people, from a chatty, attention hungry wife to a disgruntled Jr. Congressman. If you try to draw any parallels with today, you can believe any secret will eventually see the light of day.
Takeaway #2: the investigation could have died a half dozen times from malaise and lack of focused public interest.
Takeaway #3: Nixon and his boys operated with malice and forethought, not ineptitude
I can’t wait for the Saturday Night Massacre episode.
Delicious.