Word: nixon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...popular memory, the press brought down Richard Nixon. This isn't true, though the press in a moment of hubris once thought so and later paid for its arrogance in public disapproval. In Watergate's early days the story was kept alive mainly by the valiant reporting of the Washington Post. But Nixon was finally toppled by two institutions more powerful than the press -- Judge John Sirica's federal court and Senator Sam Ervin's Senate committee...
...Nixon elaborated on his views about the Iran-contra affair in public last week, during a speech to Republican Governors gathered in Parsippany, N.J. He chided those sniping at the President, declaring, "His critics should get off his back so that the President does not lose two precious years in his quest for peace. Don't, don't weaken...
...does Watergate compare with the current White House scandal? "Watergate was handled abysmally," Nixon said. "This is being handled expeditiously." In Nixon's view, it is easy to see how the Iran affair evolved. Reagan, he said, is a "big-picture man" whose underlings attempted to achieve his goals through wrongheaded means. Added Nixon: "It became an arms-for-hostages deal, and that was wrong." The diversion of funds to the contras was "illegal, apparently," Nixon said. "But President Reagan didn't know about that. He has told me so. I believe...
...Nixon also had advice for the President in one of his other areas of expertise. Two Saturdays ago, he phoned Reagan, urging him to root for the New York Giants against the Washington Redskins. But Nixon, no longer a fan of things Washingtonian, was unable to shake Reagan's loyalty to the home team, which got clobbered by the Giants...
...first he kept an uncharacteristically low profile, quietly seething over / the press and congressional reaction to Iranscam. But eventually and probably inevitably, Patrick Buchanan, the White House's bombastic director of communications, could contain himself no longer. Having served Nixon during the dark days of Watergate, he feels he knows how best to handle the current scandal. "These crises have a certain rhythm," says the old pro. "First it's a news story, then a policy controversy, then an investigation -- and then it turns into a political war. When it goes political, you've got to go into it full...