The parts of me that still wallow occasionally in Watergate are intrigued by this news that files have been released about the late and colorful owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner was convicted in 1974 of making illegal contributions to Richard Nixon, many of which were filtered through his many employees.
It was a pretty blatant case of bribery and extortion. Steinbrenner was in deep trouble with the law for a wide array of shady business deals. He was sent to see a man named Herbert Kalmbach, who was Nixon's personal attorney. Steinbrenner had long been a major Democratic donor and fund-raiser. Kalmbach told him that the Nixon administration could help him or they could see that he went to prison. To avoid the latter, Steinbrenner would have to forget all that nonsense about electing Democrats, become a regional head of "Democrats for Nixon" and give them a lot of money in not-exactly-legal ways. Steinbrenner complied but wound up getting nailed for the donations. Kalmbach pretty much avoided responsibility for his actions but did go briefly to prison and had his law license suspended for a time because of other things he did for his client.
I guess people don't care about this now. They barely cared about it then because, after all, there were so many juicier Nixon-related scandals around but it was a story that intrigued me. I remember I used to spot Steinbrenner almost every time I went to New York, back at a time when I used to frequent Ben Benson's Steakhouse on W. 52nd. Every time I went there, there was Steinbrenner, entertaining guests and being a loud and congenial host. He was one of those people who walks into restaurant and everyone in the place knows who he is and that he's there and it almost feels like he's at your table.
Even total strangers felt it was okay to say anything at all to him about the Yankees and he'd stop and engage them in conversation on the topic. Once while waiting for my date to arrive, I eavesdropped on about a five minute chat in which he defended his decision to fire Billy Martin as manager for what must have been about the ninety-eighth time. I didn't care about that stuff. I wanted to ask him about Herbert Kalmbach but I never got up the nerve. Somehow, I don't think he would have been as friendly about it.