Word: hapless
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...most defiant and least contrite of all the Watergate witnesses thus far, Ehrlichman's mastery of the situation was impressive, his debating skill sharp, his language fascinating, his face an all-too-expressive reflection of his inner disdain and contempt for his questioners. When the nomination of the hapless L. Patrick Gray as FBI director was doomed, Ehrlichman did not urge its withdrawal, but suggested coldly: "We ought to let him hang there. Let him twist slowly, slowly in the wind...
Typical of how widespread are European suspicions was a proposal made by Rumania's President Nicolae Ceausescu in May that lesser countries on both sides might have to band together to avoid becoming the hapless victims of the two superpowers. Though the idea struck Italians as overly suspicious then, TIME Correspondent Jordan Bonfante now reports that "since the summit and Helsinki there seems to be a new wave, or at least a sizable ripple, of comparable misgivings among the Italians...
...which was packed with the cars of commuters who were trapped downtown by the coup attempt. The crew that usually raises the Chilean flag in front of the Moneda in the morning defiantly draped Chile's national flag out a first-floor window of the palace. Somehow that hapless scene seemed to symbolize the country's present state...
Dean did not accuse Ziegler of conscious participation in the coverup. In stead, his portrait of the press secretary's hapless entanglement in deception bordered on the farcical. As Dean told it, Ziegler's trusted colleagues and superiors regularly sent him into the cockpit of the White House briefing room armed with bogus information or none at all about Watergate. "Mr. Ziegler, on countless occasions," Dean testified, "asked me to brief him. I on several occasions asked Mr. [John] Ehrlichman if I could brief Ziegler. I was given very specific instructions that I was not to brief Ziegler...
...Oval Office must be asking himself similar questions these days. John W. Dean III told the Ervin Committee that some of Nixon's top aides, himself included, amused themselves by making lists of the White House's "political enemies" with an eye toward "screwing" the hapless listees. Dean released the lists, accompanied in some cases with brief annotations describing the sinister characteristics of the persons listed -- 'a real enemy', 'ties with the Muskie camp...