Frank Easterbrook: Discussion of Robert Bork’s “Saving Justice” from Nixon
26 Dec 2016 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economic history, labour economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of constitutional law, Frank Easterbrook, Richard Nixon, Robert Bork, Watergate scandal
Film review: All the Presidents Men (1976)
28 Jul 2016 2 Comments
in movies, politics - USA Tags: Watergate scandal
This movie was on late-night TV. I have not seen it before so I thought I give it a look.
There are a number of big films from that era that I missed because I was too young when they are first released; later on I always ended up borrowing something else at the video shop. It helps to be an American political junkie because you understand much better who are number of the people are.
The reviews of the time describe it as spellbinding. For me, I found it rather chaotic where these two junior reporters splashing around in the dark, often relying on the fact that they knew someone who is the boyfriend or girlfriend of somebody junior in the organisation they are interested in. How a journalist of 9 months experience acquired Deep Throat as their source is not explained well. If it was, it was quick and I missed it.
The film starts with a simple report of the arrest of 5 burglars who broke into the Democratic National party headquarters in early 1972.
For all the CIA training of those involved, they never heard of hiding in plain sight. They immediately attracted suspicion because of the big end of town lawyers representing some burglars including one who gave his occupation as a retired CIA officer. The 5 burglars should have accepted court-appointed lawyers especially as their lawyers turned up despite their not making any phone calls to ask for an independent lawyer.
There is a tremendous amount of grunt work in the film. Countless cold phone calls and even going to the Library of Congress to check every book the White House asked for by going through thousands and thousands of paper request cards manually themselves.
Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) was highly competitive and a little more experienced than his partner Bob Woodward (Robert Redford), who was very ambitious and a dog for details.
The film is complicated with the step-by-step way in which they linked the burglars back to high people in the White House by the time in which the Republican bench and nominated Nixon. Most of the time they simply ask questions of people who answered even though they had no reason to do so.
Late in the movie one of the editors expressed scepticism about the whole conspirac theory because he could not work out why the Republicans would do it.
George McGovern, who was a far left candidate, was self-destructing before their eyes around the time of the burglary. 1/3rd of Democrats could not bring themselves to vote for him; Nixon won by a landslide. I believe it is on tape that Nixon first found out about the burglary, he asked who was the arsehole who authorise that.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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