Tag Archives: watergate

Unpacking The Writer ► Hits and Misses

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Something happened overnight. I don’t know what it was, but I’m delighted.

When I woke up early this morning Not Now Silly already had 230 hits since 8PM last night. Normally there is only some 30-50 hits overnight, with an average of 350-400 hits for an entire day. That’s why this morning’s number was such a surprise.

Nearly half of those hits (97) were for what I consider to be a very important post. “Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka?” actually breaks new news about Watergate, some 40 years after the fact. In this post I accuse Fox “News” Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen of using his revisionist John Mitchell biography “The Strong Man” to cover up Richard Nixon’s treason. This treason is one of the lesser-known crimes of Tricky Dicky’s, which actually took place before he became president. While I only posted it in March, it’s become so popular with my readers that it already appears on my All Time Top Ten list at Number 6, leapfrogging my previous post that made fun of James Rosen — Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News” — during the night.

The 2nd most popular post of the last 24 hours — but with only 1/3rd the number of hits as the Rosen post — is Another Magical Tee Vee Moment ► Barbara Walters ► Katherine Hepburn ► Trees, a small bit of silliness I posted exactly 1 year ago today. However, I promoted that archival post yesterday, so it garnering recent hits is not much of a surprise.

In 3rd place for the last 24 hours (as well 3rd for the entire week already) is my recent review of Howard Kaylan’s book SHELL SHOCKED; My Life With The Turtles, Flo & Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc. … Howard liked the review enough to have promoted it several times on facebook and Twitter. Thanks, Howie! [He wouldn’t have an ulterior motive, would he?]

Rounding out Today’s Top Ten:

Musical Interlude ► Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band
Day In History ► May 31, 1921 ► When Whites Went Crazy In Tulsa
Day In History ► Josephine Baker Born
Musical Appreciation ► Brian Jones [My All Time #1 blog post]
The Detroit Riots ► Unpacking My Detroit ► Part Five
The Sunrise to Canton Road Trip For Research
Fox “News” Spin Cycle ► Episode 34

Still with me, readers? If so, click on an advert over there in the right column. >>>=====> See them over there? It will cost you nothing to click on an advert, but I get a few pennies when you do. And, I do mean few. However, that’s the only remuneration I get for the many hours of work I put into crafting these posts for your enjoyment. Clicking on an advert is the least you can do.

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Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka?

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My remaindered copy of The Strong Man

Five years ago James Rosen, Fox “News” Chief Washington Correspondent, published a book on Watergate with a gigantic lie in it (surrounded by all kinds of smaller falsehoods). This lie continued the cover up of Richard Nixon’s treason during the 1968 presidential campaign.

Rosen is unjustifiably proud of his revisionist history called “The Strong Man,” which purports to tell the truth about John Mitchell, Richard Nixon’s Attorney General and, later, head of CREeP, the unfortunately accurate acronym for the Committee to ReElect the President.

Back in May I told the HIGH-LARRY-US story of my electronic bun fight with Rosen, but only hinted at The Big Lie. Even though I promised a full book review, I got bored with poking Rosen with a stick and let the topic die. However, it needs to be asked: Why did Rosen include this massive lie in his book when the truth was already known?

To understand this story one must go deeply into the Watergate Weeds. While most people use the term “Watergate” to refer only to the break-in at DNC headquarters that brought Nixon down, there was a whole litany of wrongdoing that falls under the rubric of Watergate, including this story. It goes back to the 1968 presidential election. President Johnson had already decided he would not run for office and Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic candidate. Meanwhile, LBJ had been pushing all parties involved to come to the Paris Peace talks in an effort to end the war in Vietnam.

An early picture of Anna Chennault,
nicknamed “The Dragon Lady”
by the Nixon White House.

Nixon didn’t get the nickname Tricky Dickie for nothing. Using a woman named Anna Chennault, a member of the so-called China Lobby, Nixon went around President Johnson to the South Vietnamese leader to scuttle the peace talks. She carried word from Nixon who said, in essence, if you don’t go to the Paris Peace Talks you’ll get a better deal from Nixon when he’s elected.

The broad outline of this treason has been known for decades (but more proof keeps coming to light). That’s why it was so puzzling that Rosen, in his laughable rewriting of history, would write:

James Rosen, historical revisionist

“A source close to the [Anna Chennault] affair–who demanded anonymity–strongly challenged the veracity of the prime witness.”

The demand for anonymity is backed up by end note 66 on page 514, which reads: “E-mails from [a confidential source] to the author, January 21, 2003, 6:16 p.m.; and Wednesday January 22, 2003, 3:25 p.m.”

Here’s the full quote from the book [Pages 61, 62]:

A source close to the affair — who demanded anonymity — strongly challenged the veracity of the prime witness. “Simply do not trust what Anna Chennault says about this incident,” said the source, a senior policy adviser to Nixon and other GOP politicians in later years. “She manufactured the incident, then magnified her self-importance.”

She caused untold problems with her perpetual self-promotion and, actually, self-aggrandizement, because she was only interested in the money. I do not put it in the realm of fantasy that she was paid by the SVs [South Vietnamese]; she had them bamboozled, believing she was an authentic and important “channel” to the campaign. John Mitchell . . . did not have the bullocks to kiss her off, a tough and persistent woman who could grind you down. . . . . Anna thought of herself as a puppet master. She had no assignment, no tasks, and was an over-the-transom type that can never be suppressed in a campaign.

Yet the Chennault affair continued to haunt Nixon’s presidency. His infamous orders to burglarize the Brookings Institution, issued in the summer of 1971 following publication of the Pentagon Papers and never carried out, stemmed from the president’s concern that the Washington think tank possessed documents related to “the bombing halt” — a euphemism for Nixon’s and Mitchell’s own back-channel machinations to counter it.

Keep in mind that James Rosen challenged me to read his book for myself and not “let @JohnWDean (x-felon) bully” me about it being revisionist history. Rosen’s mistake is that I know almost as much about Watergate as I do about Beatles trivia. The minute I came to that passage on Page 61 I knew that he was hoodwinking his readers. The broad outline of the Anna Chennault story has been known for decades, but the actual proof has only come in drips and drabs over the years. However, by the time Rosen wrote “The Strong Man” it was generally acknowledged that Chennault was telling the truth and Rosen’s secret source was lying through his teeth.

Corpulent liar Roger Ailes [right]
with his evil overlord Rupert Murdock

As soon as I read that passage I started to think, “Who the hell is still around that would still want to cover up Nixon’s treason? Who’s left? The only people who would want to cover it up are all dead.”

Then suddenly it struck me. There is still one person who needs to cover it up. Just to confirm my hypothesis I jumped to the index to look for “Ailes, Roger.” Well, whaddaya know about that? Roger Ailes, Nixon’s media man and John Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes right-hand media man in the ’72 reelection campaign, is NOT mentioned anywhere in the index. Nor does his name ever come up in the 498 pages of the book.

There is no doubt in my mind that Roger Ailes is the “senior policy adviser to Nixon and other GOP politicians in later years” who Rosen so blithely quotes calling Anna Chennault a liar. And, if I knew that the passage was a lie when I was reading it, why didn’t James Rosen know it was a lie when he was writing it? Did James Rosen help cover up his boss’ treason? Because, make no mistake, covering up treason is a treasonous act in and of itself. Therfore, James Rosen, if he knew the truth — but printed the lie — has also commited treason.

When I started asking Rosen uncomfortable questions on Twitter as I was reading his book, he very quickly blocked me. He claimed he did it because I wrote negatively about him for NewsHounds, which, if true, just shows he’s as thin-skinned as Bully Boy Bolling. However, I have always believed it was because he knew I wasn’t buying the bullshit he was selling in his book. Over the last 10 months, since I first wrote about my bun fight with Rosen, I have left many phone messages at Fox “News” for him. All I want to do is clear up the mystery of who is his secret source on Page 61 of The Strong Man. Rosen never returns my calls.

There’s only one conclusion I can come to: James Rosen is a treasonous coward who is covering up for his treasonous boss Roger Ailes. Now, go ahead and sue me. I double-dog dare you.

A Watergate Interlude ► The Saturday Night Massacre

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Watergate complex

DATELINE October 20, 1973 – President Richard Nixon fires Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelhaus resign rather than have to carry out the job. The press immediately dubbed this The Saturday Night Massacre.

Archibald Cox

Cox and Nixon seemed destined to come to loggerheads. Archibald Cox had been the U.S. Solicitor General under President Kennedy, who was a sworn enemy of Nixon, long before he defeated him in the 1960 presidential election. After serving in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations Cox returned to private life and Harvard Law School in 1965, where he had been before serving in government. When, in May of 1973 the government was looking for someone squeaky clean to look into the growing Watergate Scandal, Cox was tapped for the job. However, it wasn’t as smooth as that makes it sound.

Richard Kleindienst had been Nixon’s Attorney General, but resigned on April 30, 1973, the same day that John W. Dean was fired and H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman were allowed to quit. When Elliot Richardson was nominated to become the new Attorney General the Senate made Cox’s appointment a condition before confirming Richardson.

Special Prosecutor Cox learned of the extensive White House taping system at the same time the rest of ‘Merka did, at the Watergate Hearings. He knew the tapes might settle some of the questions of who knew what when. That’s when a 4 way power struggle began; with Nixon on one side, and the Senate Watergate Committee, Judge John Sirica — who had issued a Grand Jury subpoena for the tapes — and Cox on the other. All wanted the White House tapes and President Nixon stalled for months rather than turn them over.

President Nixon posing with the rejected transcripts

At first Nixon claimed Executive Privilege. Finally Judge Sirica ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. Nixon stalled again by offering a compromise. He’s have Democratic Senator John Stennis listen to the tapes and prepare a summary of the tapes, based on transcripts prepared by the White House. This was rejected by Special Prosecutor Cox on October 19, who held a press conference the following day to outline his reasoning.

That evening Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson resigned rather than do so. That left it to Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus to carry out Nixon’s order. Ruckelshaus resigned as well. During the Watergate scandal there were not many acts of integrity from the Nixon administration. That is why these stood out in sharp contrast.

In the end it was left to Solicitor General Robert Bork, who was now acting head of the Justice Department, to fire Archibald Cox. And the shit hit the fan. There was far more at stake than just the tapes and Nixon’s presidency. As the Washington Post of the following day noted:

The action raised new questions as to whether Congress would proceed to confirm House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to be Vice President or leave Speaker of the House Carl Albert (D-Okla.) next in line of succession to the highest office in the land.

It was all downhill for Nixon from here on in. As the WikiWackyWoo reports:

On Nov. 14, 1973, Federal District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell ruled that the dismissal of Mr. Cox was illegal, in the absence of a prior finding of extraordinary impropriety as specified in the regulation establishing the special prosecutor’s office.

Congress was infuriated by the act [of the Saturday Night Massacre], which was seen as a gross abuse of presidential power. The public sent in an unusually large number of telegrams to both the White House and Congress. And following the Saturday Night Massacre, as opposed to August of the same year, an Oliver Quayle poll for NBC News showed that a plurality of American citizens now supported impeachment, with 44% in favor, 43% opposed, and 13% undecided, although with a sampling error of 2 to 3 percent. In the days that followed, numerous resolutions of impeachment against the president were introduced in Congress.

Nixon was forced to allow Robert Bork to appoint a new Special Prosecutor, Leon Jaworski. If the White House thought Jaworski would be more amenable to pressure, it was sorely mistaken. Jaworski continued to press for the release of the tapes, as well as the expansion of the investigation beyond the original Watergate burglaries.  Later Nixon released transcripts of the tapes, which satisfied no one and made “expletive deleted” a national punchline. It still took another 10 months until Nixon finally resigned to avoid impeachment and possible conviction.

Some of my books on President Nixon and
Watergate. Behind those books are more books.

Richard Nixon has long been a fascination of mine. For further reading try my other posts on Watergate:

Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”

Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► Part New 

Watergate ► The Beginning of the End

Watergate ► The End of the End 

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► Happy Birthday Martha Mitchell

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► Vice Presidents We Have Known

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► Vice Presidents We Have Known

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It seems only fitting this morning, after last night’s Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congresschild Lyin’ Ryan, to remind people that on this day in 1973 President Richard Nixon nominated Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as VP. Agnew was forced to resign ahead of pleading nolo contendere (no contest) to charges that he accepted bribes as governor of Maryland and tax evasion before becoming Nixon’s one-breath-away-from-the-presidency pick as Veep.

After Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford, who had been a Congressman, was elevated to the office of the presidency, despite having not been elected to either office.

“Some people say” that Ford’s massive gaffe during the Presidential Debate against Jimmy Carter doomed his reelection. There are others that say it was his own clumsiness, or perception thereof, that doomed his reelection. Then there’s a whole passel of people who blame Chevy Chase’s portrayals of Ford on Saturday Night Live as the reason Ford wasn’t reelected. I’ve never listened to those “nattering nabobs of negativity” because I’ve always believed Ford lost reelection because he pardoned Richard Nixon.

This turn of events made Gerald R. Ford the only appointed President of the United States, until George W. Bush in 2000.

Another Magical Tee Vee Moment ► Richard Nixon’s Checkers Speech

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Jackie Gleason keeping Richard Nixon from falling in the
drink in Inverrary, Florida, a few miles from where I live.

Dateline September 23, 1952 – Under fire for taking money from his private backers to pay expenses, Richard Nixon went on national tee vee and delivered what has come to be known as The Checkers Speech.

At the time he was Senator Richard Nixon, having won over Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950 after accusing her of being a Communist, who was “pink right down to her underpants.” Tapped to be General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice presidential running mate, Nixon ran into trouble two months later when the press learned of a fund that ‘topped off’ Nixon’s salary of $12,500 (which was about $150,000 in 2009 dollars, according to the WikiWackyWoo). As demands grew for Nixon to resign from the ticket and his senate seat, Eisenhower started to distance himself from the party’s GOP pick. To save his position on the GOP ticket, not to mention his seat in the Senate, Nixon convinced Ike to allow him to go on tee vee and make his case directly to the ‘Merkin people. However, Nixon wanted Eisenhower to make a decision on whether to keep him on the ticket immediately after the broadcast. Eisenhower wouldn’t agree to that, so Nixon famously said to the General who saved Europe for democracy, “[G]eneral, there comes a time in matters like this when you’ve either got to shit or get off the pot.” Even at that, Eisenhower said it would take a few days to determine which way the wind was blowing.

At 9:30 PM EST Nixon gave the following speech to all of ‘Merka:

The speech was both maudlin and heart-warming. It became known as The Checkers Speech, a term Nixon hated, for this passage:

One other thing I probably should tell you because if we don’t they’ll probably be saying this about me too, we did get something—a gift—after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was?

It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.

Nixon ended the speech with direct appeal to the ‘Merkin people to let their views be known:

I am submitting to the Republican National Committee tonight through
this television broadcast the decision which it is theirs to make. Let
them decide whether my position on the ticket will help or hurt. And I
am going to ask you to help them decide. Wire and write the Republican
National Committee whether you think I should stay on or whether I
should get off. And whatever their decision is, I will abide by it.

But just let me say this last word. Regardless of what happens I’m
going to continue this fight. I’m going to campaign up and down America
until we drive the crooks and the Communists and those that defend them
out of Washington.

The ‘Merkin people did as Nixon had asked. They inundated the GOP with letters and telegrams, Eisenhower decided to keep him on the ticket, and Senator Richard Nixon lived to fight another day, going on to become Vice President of the United States for the next 8 years.

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► Happy Birthday Martha Mitchell

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John and Martha Mitchell before their 1973 divorce

Today would have been Martha Mitchell‘s 94th Birthday, had she not had the misfortune of dying in 1976. It’s a good thing she’s not around today, since that spared her the ignominy of having to read, or hear about, the book “The Strong Man; John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate.” This doorstop of historical revisionism, written by Fox “News” personality James Rosen, goes into painful detail, over and over and over again, about Martha Mitchell’s alcoholism, unseemly recounting marital fights and screaming matches observed by others. These details could have been omitted in favour of a few paragraphs here and there in the authors own words, informing the reader that Martha Mitchell suffered from alcoholism, a disease that affects an estimated 76 million people worldwide.

However, that would not have served Rosen, who used Martha’s alcoholism as the main excuse for John Mitchell having taken his eyes off the ball and getting trapped by the Watergate scandal. To read Rosen’s spin of the story, John Mitchell had nothing whatsoever to do with Watergate and it was all the fault of that rapscallion John Dean. This despite Mitchell being found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. He served 19 months of a two and a half years sentence, but went to his grave covering for President Richard Nixon.

Further reading:

Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”

Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► Part New 

Watergate ► The Beginning of the End

Watergate ► The End of the End

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Watergate ► The End of the End

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Dateline August 8, 1974 – President Richard Milhous Nixon tenders his resignation, effective noon the following day, and becomes the first — and so far only — President of the United States to resign in disgrace. This was the culmination of events that began on June 17, 1972 when police arrested 5 men for Breaking & Entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. At the time White House Press Secretary Ron Zeigler dismissed it as a “third rate burglary.” While it might have been “third rate,” it was the third rate burglary that brought down a president. The story didn’t get much traction until August 1st, when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein wrote their first story for the Washington Post. From that moment on the drip, drip, drip of stories in the Post and other newspapers isolated President Nixon. Once it was proven that Nixon participated in the Watergate cover-up, it was all over for his presidency.

There are so many ironies in this story, but here are just three:

President Nixon posing with the
“expletive deleted” transcripts.

► The “Smoking Gun” tape of March 21, 1973 that proved Nixon was up to his ears in the cover-up, was made by a secret automatic recording system that Nixon had installed to preserve his historical legacy. Once the existence of the recordings were made known, Nixon could have had them destroyed; they had yet to be subpoenaed and therefore were not yet evidence. Once they were subpoenaed Nixon tried to tough it out, first claiming Executive Privilege, and then trying to get away with just releasing poorly edited transcripts of the Oval Office conversations. That’s when the words “expletive deleted” became a national punchline.

► Nixon’s resignation letter (above left) was addressed “Dear Mr. Secretary,” which was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. However, it was Kissinger’s apoplectic reaction to earlier leaks, such as the New York Times printing the Pentagon Papers, that led to the creation of the infamous “Plumbers Unit” created to stop the “leaks.”

► Nixon’s presidency was brought down by Frank Wills, a minimum wage Security Guard at the Watergate Hotel Complex. Wills discovered duct tape on a door in the building while making his rounds, so he removed it. One of the “third rate” burglars saw the tape had been removed and, instead of it alerting them to the fact that the jig was up, replaced the tape. On his next round Wills noticed the tape was back and called police, who arrested the “third rate” burglars in the middle of their “third rate” act. Harry Nilsson dedicated “A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night” to Frank Wills and included a small picture of Mr. Wills on his lapel in the cover photograph. [The other picture is Harry’s son Zak, who I am proud to call a friend.] Frank Wills was also memorialized in the song “The Ballad of Frank Wills” by folk artist Ron Turner.

Further Reading on The Aunty Em Ericann Blog:

Watergate ► The Beginning of the End
Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”

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Watergate ► The Beginning of the End

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Then

It hardly seems like 40 years. However, four decades ago today the Washington Post published the first article by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on what was to become known as Watergate. The White House tried to dismiss the break in at the Watergate Hotel as a “third rate burglary.” However, this would roil the country for more than 2 years, until President Nixon could no longer run from the cover-up in which he participated. He resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974.

No evidence has ever surfaced that Nixon knew of the break in beforehand. However, his loyalty to his staff, and blindness to what was the right thing to do, enmeshed him in the greatest political scandal ‘Merka has ever known. Once it was learned he participated in the cover up it was just a matter of time before he resigned, which he did as Articles of Impeachment had already been passed by the House of Representatives.

Now

By 1972 I was already a long-time Nixonophile. Nixon had become Vice President to President Eisenhower in 1952, the year of my birth. From that moment on he was a presence in my life, whether I was aware of him or not. It seemed stunning to me that he won the ’68 election, especially after his defiant “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” speech after he lost the race to become Governor of California in 1962.

Just some of my books about and by Richard Nixon

My fascination never really ended. I collected books and read as much as I could about Watergate and Richard Nixon in order to better understand what made him tick. That turned out to be an impossible task. Nixon is a knot of contradictions which no author has completely unraveled.

James Rosen of Fox “News”

Nor have all the secrets of Watergate been unraveled. It’s that grey
area that allows revisionist authors like Fox “News” reporter James
Rosen to muddy the waters on who was responsible for Watergate and who
bears no responsibility for Watergate. In his book “The Strong Man”
about John Mitchell, Nixon’s chief law man, and the head of Nixon’s
re-election campaign (with the ironic acronym CREeP), Rosen pins
Watergate on everybody BUT John  Mitchell, who was such a misunderstood individual. I’ve written about my fight with Rosen, and it wouldn’t hurt you to take a look.

However, it was “Woodstein,” as they were sometimes known, the two dogged reporters who kept at the scandal until the whole house of cards came falling down. There’s been a lot of Watergate navel-gazing this year. However, if you only read one recent article take a look at Woodward and Bernstein: 40 years after Watergate, Nixon was far worse than we thought.

Woodward and Bernstein donated their Watergate papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. If you’re as obsessed as I, or just a casual reader, this is a fascinating look at a unique moment in ‘Merkin history.

Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► Part New

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A moment in time

While I use this occasional series to peel back the layers and reveal some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of my blog, the more astute among my readers have already figured out that there is a hidden motive: This is my subtle way of trying to get people to click on the advertising on my blog.

Wait! That wasn’t subtle at all.

No, you’re right. Subtle can be over-rated. My need for people to click on the ads is not subtle either. I spend hours upon hours researching and writing some of these posts, yet the only compensation I receive is from the advertising…and only if you click on those adverts. If you liked something you’ve read here, why not help a blogger out?

Take a closer look at that column of ads over there on the right? Choose something that sounds interesting (but it doesn’t have to be interesting). Then click on it. That’s it!!! While it costs you nothing, dear reader, each click sends a few pennies (and I do mean “few”) my way. I bet that every time you click on one of those adverts, you will feel better. Go ahead, try it! See? Now try it again. Feel even better, doncha? It works every time.

A moment in time on the The Aunty Em Ericann Blog

Meanwhile, I’ve noticed some interesting things in the latest set of statistics. For the longest time — from almost the very day it was posted — Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News” was my most popular all-time article. It was written on May 15th and remained at the very tippy-top of my All Time Popular Posts right out of the gate. However, it was recently overtaken — by a very wide margin — in just this last week by my Musical Appreciation ► Brian Jones post. The Brian Jones post went up on July 3rd, almost 2 months after the Rosen post, yet has jumped to the top of the leader board.

It probaly didn’t hurt that The Rolling Stones celebrated their 50th Anniversary since I posted the Brian Jones appreciation. Most people arrived at the Aunty Em Ericann Blog through a Google search. I wonder if yesterday’s birthday of Mick Jagger will boost the latest numbers.

NUMBER 6 WITH A BULLET: It’s also gratifying to see my Coconut Grove series rising in popularity, especially the post Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part Two ► E.W.F. Stirrup House. This is the article in which I lay out the history of Ebenezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup and why his house and legacy should be saved. I would be gratified if you will pass this along to people who are interested in historical preservation.

Stay tuned for Part Three of this series. In the next installment, which is almost complete, I will expose who controls which properties surrounding the E.W.F. Stirrup House and who is responsible for the Demolition by Neglect that the house is currently undergoing. This could get very ugly, especially since there are millions of developers’ dollars at stake.

James Rosen of Fox “News” who
wrote “The Strong Man.” his and
cover-up of John Mitchell

ROSEN UPDATE: For those of you clamoring for Part Two of Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News,” fear not: It’s coming. While it’s partially written, I have had more important things on my plate than proving why the 4-year old book “The Strong Man,” by Fox “News” correspondent James Rosen, is nothing but revisionist history. And, not to put too fine a point on it, there are still a few interviews I need to conduct in order to expose Rosen’s secret source on Page 61 (of the hardcover).

When Rosen wrote his John Mitchell apologia, his anonymous source could be assured that (s)he could lie with impunity about whether Anna Channault was telling the truth. However, subsequent releases of information about the 1968 presidential election, years before Watergate, proved that what Channault said was THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

This might be considered by some to be arcane, academic knowledge not worth revisiting at this point, some 44 years, or 11 presidential elections, after the one that put Richard Nixon in office. However, TREASON is never an academic issue and that’s what Rosen’s secret source is covering up by lying about Anna Chanault.

The million dollar question needs to be asked: Who could possibly be still around from those bygone days still interested in covering up Richard Nixon’s TREASON? Rosen knows who it was and, by now, must know he printed an untruth told to him by his anonymous source.

I have my suspicions on who the source was. A few more interviews and I will be able to announce it as a fact. I am even willing to listen to what James Rosen might have to say, but he’d rather block me on Twitter than answer my uncomfortable questions about his book.

Another moment
in time.

BACK TO THE STATS: One of the statistics that continues to fascinate me is where my readership lives. While ‘Merkins are far and away the top readers of my blog, I find it surprising that #2 is Italy by a wide margin over #3, the United Kingdom. Both of those beat Canada, where most of my family and friends live.

Italy? I don’t even speak the language.

Meanwhile, feel free to poke around on my blog, leave some comments, call me names, whatever meets your fancy. However, don’t forget to click on one of those adverts. Pretty please with sugar on top!

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Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”

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Pic: Fair [and Balanced] use

I didn’t start it, but those who know me, or those who have grown to know and love Aunty Em Ericann, know that I won’t walk away from a fight. Johnny Dollar, aka Mark Koldys, is not the only person I’ve had a had a pissing match with on the interwoven nets lately. My Canadian friends won’t know James Rosen, Chief Washington correspondent for FOX “News” Channel. My ‘Merkin friends might know him only too well. Despite watching Fox “News” so you didn’t have to, Rosen hadn’t really registered on my radar until he reached out and introduced himself to me.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  It all started with a Tweet to John W. Dean. [Those who have known me a long time, and my obsession with President Richard Nixon, know what a thrill it is just to be able to say that.]

Wait!  What?  A Fox “News” person?  No kidding, Dean?  I happen to write about those.  I was in too much of a hurry to even glance at the name of the author when I bought the book.  I was merely using a bookstore to get from A to B more quickly when I spotted the book on a remainder table. Even with half his face cut off, I clearly recognized John Mitchell, President Richard Nixon’s Attorney General.  Here was a Watergate book I hadn’t seen before, even though I’ve always considered myself something of a Nixonphile.  I was born in Detroit in 1952, the year Nixon was first elected Vice President, and I have always felt a bizarre connection to the man.  By the time I was eight years old, with President Kennedy entering the White House and President Eisenhower leaving, Nixon was already a source of fascination to me.  [I had no hobbies, apparently.]  His winning the presidency in 1968 only added to my interest.  By the time he was reelected in ’72, I was already living in Canada and watched his presidency fall apart from afar.  Hours were spent watching the Watergate hearings instead of going to college classes.  By the time Nixon resigned it was clear to me that he made a Faustian bargain in order to become president.  That’s when I started reading books by and about Richard Nixon and Watergate. 

Some of my Nixon books. There are Nixon books behind the books.

On the day Richard Nixon died I happened to be in a K-Mart in Oak
Park, Michigan when a woman started berating me about Richard Nixon,
seemingly out of the blue.  It took almost 10 seconds to realize I was
wearing my original 1972 “President Nixon Now More Than Ever” button on
my denim jacket, where it had been for many years.  I’ve never worn it
since.

Here’s the truth: When I saw the John Mitchell book I grabbed it to add to my Nixon collection (pictured above). I stood in line, even though I was already running late.  After I paid for it I stuffed it in my knapsack without a second glance and hot-footed it to my appointment.  Later it occurred to me to tell John W. Dean about my new purchase.

Pic by Westerfield

As soon as Dean warned me off reading it, I ran to my knapsack, pulled out the book, and saw that the remaindered sticker covered the name of James Rosen, “Chief Washington
correspondent for FOX ‘News’ Channel,” as the Fox web site puts it.  It seemed like ironic synchronicity that I
was holding a book written by someone at Fox “News” when my side-vocation was to write about Fox “News” for NewsHounds. I told my BFF John Dean that I would read it anyway,
since I read just about anything Watergate related, even the prison apologia/biography
of Nixon, written by my former-countryman (until he renounced his Canadian
citizenship) Conrad Black, or as I like to call him Lord Black of Black Bottom.

[BTW: “Tit in a ringer” is not sexist; it’s inside Watergate, inside
John Mitchell, inside baseball talk.  If
it needs explanation, it’s not worth it.]

And, that was that…or so I thought.

The next day I received the following tweet from the book’s author, who
thinks himself some kind of Beatles expert. 

Oh man, this is GREAT!!! I have John Dean and James Rosen arguing over my head on Twitter. The gang at the coffee shop certainly heard all about THAT the next day. All those days of skipping college classes to watch the Watergate hearings, and reading all those books, is finally paying off. Meanwhile, I’m not intimidated by a cutebeatle or anyone else at Fox “News.” If there’s one thing I know more about than Watergate, it’s The Beatles. So, I changed the subject and challenged Rosen with a Beatles trivia question.

Okay, maybe I made it worse with my next tweet.  And, maybe it was hubris on my part to also add Paul McCartney to my Beatles trivia challenge, but there it is:

And there it is, the gauntlet drawn. James Rosen will only play Beatles trvia with me if I promise to read his book and not be cowed by John Dean. Why do I suspect there is bad blood between Rosen and Dean and why do I feel that reading The Strong Man will provide the answer? But I don’t have time for that because there’s Beatles trivia with which to stump Rosen. Note my clue: You Can’t Do That.

And there we have it. I must have convinced Rosen that I would read his book because he finally deigns to play Beatles trivia with me.

Rosen’s second guess was Sophie Tucker, which if you know Beatles trivia isn’t that crazy an answer. But it was still wrong.  Rosen never attempted a 3rd guess, arguing instead that at the ’64 press conference The Beatles said Brian Wilson was their fave and at the ’66 press conference The Beatles said “Sophie Tucker” was their fave group. I had to remind cutebeatle about the ’68 press conference, when The Beatles were announcing the formation of Apple, they were asked their favourite ‘Merkin singer and they replied, “Harry Nilsson” and then were asked who is their favourite ‘Merkin group and they answered “Harry Nilsson,” which is how I discovered Harry Nilsson for myself.

So…I thought me and Rosen had a good thing going. Days later, a s I began reading his book we were still exchanging tweets back and forth, mostly Harry Nilsson-related at my instigation. Now I would see what the NYT and Doris Goodwin Kearns raved about.

Then several things occurred almost simultaneously:

  • I started asking James Rosen uncomfortable questions about The Strong Man;
  • I was besting him in Beatles trivia;
  • I told him an off-colour joke about President Nixon [It’s a pretty good joke. Rosen tweeted out that they had just released Nixon’s love letters. I told him that Nixon had watched Deep Throat 6 times because he wanted to get it down Pat. Buh Duh Boom!];
  • Wrote about him for NewsHounds, when he pulled the 21st Century Equivalent of the age old Fox “News” tactic of “Some people say” by reading anti-Obama tweets on the air. What was I to do? I couldn’t cut Rosen any slack just because he was now my Twitterific buddy.
Soon afterwards I learned that James Rosen, Chief Washington
correspondent for FOX “News” Channel, had a very thin skin because he blocked me on Twitter. However, for a while I didn’t know why. It could have been “All of the above” for all I knew. [He eventually cleared it up. It was “D.”]

Meanwhile I was reading Rosen’s book on John Mitchell just like I promised. Because so many things jumped out at me while I was reading it, I marked each one with a yellow Post It note. This is what the book looks like now that I have finished. Every one of those yellow slips is a question I have for cutebeatle.

However, more to the point, I believe I have unmasked Rosen’s secret source. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had their Deep Throat, the secret source that was later revealed to be Mark Felt, 2nd in command at the F.B.I., who kept them on the right track. Rosen appears to have his own Deep Throat, a secret source to whom he guaranteed anonymity. It comes early in The Strong Man, on page 61: “A source close to the [Anna Chennault] affair–who demanded anonymity–strongly challenged the veracity of the prime witness.” This is backed up by endnote 66, which reads: “E-mails from [a confidential source] to the author, January 21, 2003, 6:16 p.m.; and Wednesday January 22, 2003, 3:25 p.m.”

Here’s where we get into the weeds on Nixon. Rather than do that here, I am going to write a full review of The Strong Man by James Rosen, but I wanted to provide the background to why I would even bother to review a 4-year old book. Not only do I think Rosen made an overt challenge that requires a response in the form of a review, but now there are two other factors driving me: 

  1. It’s a book that deserved greater attention and condemnation when it was released. It’s full of contradictions, loaded language, softening of misdeads, and attempts to place the blame for Watergate on lower-downs; 
  2. I can break some news. I can not only expose Rosen’s confidential source, but can also explain who still has a reason to cover up Nixon’s misdeeds and why all these years later this confidential source still doesn’t want the public to know what happened way back then.

However, I miss playing Beatles trivia with cutebeatle.

Further reading on Not Now Silly:

Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka?