Political observers such as David Gergen and Jeffrey Toobin have said that what we need now is another Howard Baker. For those who may not remember, or were too young to know, Howard Baker was the Republican Senator from Tennessee during the Watergate era. He was the ranking minority member of the Select Senate Committee on Watergate.

What made him special was that he was a Republican member of Congress who was just as interested in getting to the bottom of President Richard Nixon’s transgressions as the Democrats on the committee. We often hear about placing country above party, but it rarely happens. With Baker, it did.

His work stood as an example of a good deed which did indeed go unpunished, even by his party. His work on the Watergate Committee in 1970s was in part responsible for him become first the Minority Leader and then the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate in the 1980s.

It may be easy for us to call for a new Howard Baker now, but it is not as easy as it was at the time of Watergate.

First, the Republican Party has become more extreme. Those on the far right of the party have done an excellent job of “primarying out” moderate incumbents. It’s hard to believe, but even grumpy nasty Mitch McConnell warranted a strong primary opponent in Kentucky when he ran for reelection in 2014. The Republican party is become more evangelical and less contemplative. That combination does not produce Howard Bakers.

Second, legend has it that in years past there was more bi-partisanship. That is probably true, particularly in the Eisenhower and Reagan years. It even happened for LBJ with civil right legislation. Now it’s virtually impossible to get Congress to act in a bi-partisan manner, even when the issue is naming a post office.

Third, and perhaps most important, is that the Republicans are now in charge of both houses of Congress. They were in charge of neither at the time of Watergate. This means that they are not the opposition party. They have an agenda which is not negative in the sense that they want to oppose everything Democrats propose. Now it’s more of an insidious negativity. They want to tear down virtually everything positive that the federal government has done since the New Deal. Whether we are talking about health care, infrastructure, job training, school lunches, housing, education, support for the arts, Republicans want to take away from those in need so that the wealthy can become richer.

McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have long since come to accept Donald Trump as a “legitimate president” because he provides them cover and ensures a considerable base so they can try to advance their agenda. This means that any Republican, whether in the House or the Senate, wanting to assertively want to investigate Trump will run the risk of tearing down the cover that the extreme right has been seeking for years to undo the government safety net.

Who Donald Trump is and what he has done has been an “inconvenient truth” to the Party. He helped put them in power, but he is an endless source of embarrassment, unpredictability and fragility.

This is not to imply that there are no congressional districts or no states from which a sitting Republican could become a new “profile in courage.” It is just more difficult to do now than it was forty-five years ago. Of course, if any Republican is so bold as to step forward, he or she may ultimately be seen as a greater figure than even Howard Baker.

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It unfolded so differently. The first that we heard about it was the announcement of the arrests, not rumors. Watergate began with the weird story that five men had been arrested for an overnight break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Complex in the early hours of Saturday, June 17, 1972. It didn’t take the press long to be on top of the story. The Washington Post’s Robert Woodward was at the arraignment that very morning. He quickly learned enough to ask the high-priced attorney of the “street burglars” why one of them had an address book that included names from the White House.

From that point on, no sooner did new actors appear on the stage than they began to fall, one by one. No matter how fine a job Woodward and Bernstein and other investigative reporters had done (don’t forget Daniel Schorr from CBS), the story might have died quickly had it not quickly entered the judicial system. Even the Congressional hearings conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee might have discovered very little had it not had the benefit of the subpoena powers of the judiciary.

This is what’s missing in the story about Donald Trump, his candidacy, his presidency, his family, his advisors, and Russia. As former Watergate criminal (turned state’s best witness) John Dean recently said on Chris Hayes’ MSNBC program, all that we have now with Trump is circumstantial evidence. But that evidence can be pretty strong. Dean reminded us that if we go to bed at night with no snow on the ground but wake up in the morning with a snow-covered lawn, we can conclusively determine that it snowed overnight.

But circumstantial evidence rarely stands up in court alone. What’s missing in the Trump – Russia case is a “smoking gun.” As we learned from the anonymous source “Deep Throat” in Watergate, don’t aim too high at first. If you were ever a viewer of crime shows like “Law & Order,” you learned the same thing.

So, what we need is for someone who happened to be near Trump or anyone in his entourage to come forward and tell us about a factual, non-disputable connection. The sweetest justice would be if it would be a Russian who decided to spill his or her side of the beans. If someone could tell us that words to the effect that they heard retired General Michael Flynn telling someone in Russian intelligence that if Trump was elected, he would repeal the Obama political and economic sanctions on Russia. Or maybe it could be a scrap of paper that came out of Paul Manafort’s pocket that essentially said the same thing.

Then it becomes a matter of each person doing whatever is necessary to save his or her own skin. If that means pointing the finger at someone higher up the chain in order to get a reduced sentence, then the unraveling of the mystery and falsehood accelerates.

If you’re a Trump supporter, you want to believe that currently it’s all smoke, and there’s no fire. If you’re skeptical of Trump, you are convinced that there is a critical mass of coincidences which must be related by cause and effect.

Once a firm connection is made that involves clear illegality, then Democrats (and the few inquisitive Republicans) in Congress have ammunition with which to work. The media that Trump re-invigorated from its post-Watergate doldrums will be all over the story.

It’s frustrating to have to wait this out; it will be even more frustrating if you’re not a Trump fan if the story never reaches our criminal justice system. But logic dictates that it will happen. Let’s just hope that too much damage to innocent American people and global citizens is not done while we wait.

The post Arrests: What’s missing from Trumpgate appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Please take a moment to remember that 42 years ago today [June 17], a security guard named Frank Wills called the police when he found tape over a door lock. What unraveled after that was surely the most incredible series of events in American governmental history.

“Interviewed by The Washington Star-News on the day Nixon resigned, Mr. Wills said, ‘We treat the president like a king, when he should be a man for all the people.’

“He complained that in Nixon’s resignation speech the night before, the president failed to describe his role in the cover-up. ‘I think he should have been a little more specific,’ Mr. Wills said.”

Mr. Wills, who played himself in the movie, “All the President’s Men,” died broke and largely forgotten, of a brain tumor at the age of 52 in South Carolina, where he had moved to take care of his mother. They lived off of her social security, and he couldn’t afford to bury his mother when she died. At the time he passed away, his house had no electricity because he couldn’t afford the bill.

Said the New York Times, “Representative James Mann of South Carolina, a Democrat casting a difficult vote for impeachment on the House Judiciary Committee, said on July 29, 1974: ”If there is no accountability, another president will feel free to do as he chooses. But the next time there may be no watchman in the night.’ ”

The post Frank Wills: Watergate watchman appeared first on Occasional Planet.

June 17 will mark the 39th anniversary of the infamous Watergate break-in by robbers and schemers sympathetic to President Richard Nixon. A security guard named Frank Wills was essential to foiling the plot. His judgment and techniques were far superior to those of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood guard who killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Wills saw and heard suspicious activity in the Watergate Tower, which  housed the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters 1972. Doors were unexpectedly, repeatedly opening and closing. Lights that should have been off were suddenly being turned on, and then off; only to be followed by the glow of flashlights.

What grabbed Wills’ attention was the tape that was used to attempt to keep the locks on the door pried open. Back in May, there had been two other break-ins. They had been successful, if not particularly productive, because the black electrical tape was placed vertically over the locks. For that reason, there was no hint of the tape stretching around the lock and being visible to an observer. This time, the four Cuban robbers, along with former CIA employee James McCord, put the tape horizontally around the locks.

Wills noticed this. He did not try to be a hero by taking on a band of robbers. He didn’t even try to corner any of them. Instead, he called the Washington, DC police, as were his instructions, and informed them of the peculiar behavior. The DC police immediately sent an unmarked

car with undercover police officers to the Watergate. Wills, who had gone to the lobby, let them in and the officers went to the 5th floor, the site of the unusual behavior. They called for reinforcements and arrested the five burglars. Shortly thereafter, it became known that Nixon “black bag” tricksters Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy were across the street in the Howard Johnson’s Hotel, guiding the break-in through their walkie-talkies. They knew trouble when they saw it.

Like the DC police, the Sanford, FL police instructed the security guard, in this case George Zimmerman, to back off of his suspect, in this case Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman failed to follow the orders. While it’s not entirely clear what took place initially between Zimmerman and Martin, we do know that Zimmerman took out a gun and shot Martin in the chest, almost point blank. It instantly killed him.

Zimmerman was looking for trouble; Wills was looking to avoid it. Wills was a trained guardsman; Zimmerman was a loose cannon. The upshots of both incidents were rather predictable. Wills became a hero, although not very well known. But his conscientiousness led to the resignation of a corrupt president. Zimmerman became a reckless individual on the fringe of law enforcement. His actions led to a cold-blooded murder and himself being charged with second-degree murder. Too bad that neither Zimmerman nor the Sanford police didn’t know the story of Frank Wills. Trayvon Martin would probably be alive, and Zimmerman would be a solid citizen living a semi-peaceful life.

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NOTE: Today, June 17, 2010, is the thirty-eighth anniversary of the Watergate break-in.

We have to give Richard Nixon some credit; his disregard for the Constitution and outrageous behavior during the Watergate era opened the door to fame for some rather remarkable Americans.  The list runs the gamut from a key source of information with an intense penchant for secrecy and anonymity (Mark Felt – aka Deep Throat) to a 6’6″ Republican senator who loved the limelight and showed that he was no lackey for the leaders of his party.  Lowell Weicker of Connecticut had little patience for dishonesty and duplicity; he did not let the ‘R’ to the right of his name inhibit him from turning  up the heat on the leader of his own party.

How atypical of a Republican was Weicker?  Enough to cause him to bolt the party in 1990 and become one of the few independents to be elected governor of his state in modern times.  Enough to support Democratic New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley for president in 2000.  Enough to support fellow New Englander Howard Dean for president in 2004.  Enough to endorse Barack Obama for president in 2008.

But Weicker is most often associated with Watergate.  Perhaps the ranking minority member on the committee, Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, uttered the most lasting question of the hearings, “What did the president know and when did he know it?”  This phrase almost became a mantra for all senators with all witnesses.  But Weicker was the steam that turned the turbine of Republican intensity to get to the bottom of the story, even if the culprits were members of his own party.

Richard J. McGowan reported in an article entitled “Watergate Revisited” in The Barnes Review.org the following about Weicker and the committee:

“Miraculously, the Senate Watergate Committee did play a pivotal role and ironically, the select committee would have collapsed from inertia and internal bloodletting had not the least likely junior senator from Connecticut, Lowell P. Weicker Jr., personally taken charge. This is the untold story of how the leftist oaf Weicker became the White Knight of Watergate, however briefly. It was his shining moment in a checkered career in politics. Here is an insider’s account of his and the committee’s performance in that political soap opera about national betrayal.

If one had searched for the most incompetent group of politicians—politically biased in every way—you might have come up with the cast for the Senate Watergate Committee, more formally known as the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities.

And then there was Weicker—all 6’ 6” of him—the bull in the china shop, the Jolly Green Maverick who had no love for Nixon and Chuck Colson in particular. Weicker’s father, who was then with the tariff-concerned Textile Conference, had been contacted at some point by Colson. The White House underling told the senior Weicker that the administration would appreciate junior’s pro-vote on the controversial anti-ballistic missile system. It was not exactly a bribe offer, but when Weicker heard about it from his father he rushed down to the White House and blasted the ears off Colson.

Colson never seemed to learn. He approached Weicker in his office during the hearings to plead his case. Before he opened his mouth, Weicker went ballistic, and a shaken Colson fled the office. The run-in made headlines.

Like no other member of the committee, Weicker was prepared. Before the panel was even formally announced, Weicker had formed his own investigative unit that interviewed scores of former and current White House employees and campaign officials. Weicker was astutely aware that there were bigger culprits out there than G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord. He zeroed in on Nixon’s chief-of-staff Bob Haldeman.

So make your list of “stars of Watergate.”  Besides Deep Throat, you naturally have Woodward and Bernstein, who tenaciously followed the story in spite of repeated and largely hollow challenges to their work.  Ben Bradlee and other editors from the Post provided backing to the reporters that would seem impossible today (e.g., CBS and Dan Rather).  White House Counsel John Dean may have demonstrated the most remarkable memory of any witness to testify before Congress in recent years.  Judge John Sirica of the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia would not be bullied.  Rather, along with Leslie Stahl and Daniel Schorr, carried on the best tradition of Edward R. Murrow at CBS

news.  Nixon aide Alexander Butterfield told of the presence of a White House taping system, perhaps the most important revelation of the Watergate hearings.  But don’t forget the “little guys” like minority counsel Donald Sanders who asked Butterfield the question about the taping system.  And then there’s the man without whose vigilance the break-in might have succeeded, Frank Wills the security guard at the Watergate on the fateful evening of June 17, 1973.

But Weicker’s role was crucial.  The Senate hearings were the only part of the process of unraveling the Watergate mysteries that were public and in “real time.”  While there were other Republicans on the committee who tried to defend Nixon at all costs, Weicker brought credibility to himself, his party, and the committee by being relentless in his pursuit of the truth.  He didn’t shy away from attacking other members of his own party.  Contrast this with the way in which Arlen Specter, when a Republican senator, interrogated an innocent Anita Hill without mercy during the Clarence Thomas hearings.

Weicker is from Connecticut, and few states match it in producing household names for political junkies.  Just look at those who preceded and succeeded Weicker in office as well at those against whom he ran.  Prior to Weicker’s election to the Senate in 1970, the seat was held by one Thomas Dodd.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, then perhaps his son, Chris Dodd – a current Senator from Connecticut, will.  And when Weicker lost his bid for a fourth term in 1988, who ousted him?  None other than Joe Lieberman, the other current senator.  And if we’re looking for parallels, Lieberman now considers himself an Independent (an act of expediency after he lost the 2006 Democratic primary to Ned LaMont).   This race would have been even more interesting had Weicker done more than flirt with the possibility of running against Lieberman again.  Wicker strongly opposed Lieberman’s support of the war in Iraq.

And if you’re looking for another connection between Weicker and another political independent, travel west to Minnesota.  What does former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura have in common with Weicker?  Wrestling.  Ventura did it and Weicker keeps it going as a member of the Board of directors for World Wrestling Entertainment since 1999.

With the Republican party being so lock-step in nature, it is indeed refreshing to remind ourselves that there have been and even are Republicans who have let conviction supersede loyalty.  If it has meant bolting the party, so be it; we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude.

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