Wallowing Online

Those of us who were fascinated with the collection of government scandals that went under the general heading of "Watergate" have a treat. The Harry Ransom Center is the repository of most of the notes and papers of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and they've posted some choice ones online. Most folks will be interested, as am I, in Woodward's notes of his meetings, including a couple in the infamous parking garage, with Mark "Deep Throat" Felt. I'm also fascinated by his notes of a long interview with Barry Goldwater.

I know some like to view Watergate as a case where Democrats exploited some crimes by the Nixon Administration to drive Richard M. Nixon out of the presidency. I think it's more accurate that Democrats exploited the crimes to put him on and the Republican Party on the defensive…and it was the Republican Party that drove him out of office. Nixon planned to try and portray impeachment efforts as a partisan coup but he couldn't; not with guys like Goldwater planning to vote for impeachment.