History may not repeat itself but it definitely rhymes. You may have a misty, watercolored memory of the way we were back in the 1970s when we thought — oh how naively and foolishly — that the nadir of democracy had been reached when Richard Nixon, in a pique of paranoia, had operatives break into the Watergate Hotel, and then did a big cover up of the incident.

As big and bad as that seemed then, with the level of corruption in the last Republican administration, if the Watergate break in had happened under Trump’s watch, it would have ended up on page 12 of the New York Times and CNN would have talked about it at 3:00 a.m. Think about it. Trump doing spying and political sabotage on that level would have ended up as a footnote to the magnitude of crimes he was committing at the time and is still being investigated for, as we speak.

But back to the 70s, Richard Nixon’s paranoia was not only his undoing, so was his vanity. He wanted to have a record of every word spoken in the Oval Office for posterity. He was ordered to have the Watergate tapes transcribed and turned over to prosecutors. There was a mysterious 18-minute gap in the tapes. Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods, subsequently lied and said she had accidentally recorded over the tape when a phone call came in.

Woods reenacted the scene and it was a comical image. She had to have been a contortionist to have answered the phone and stepped on the wrong pedal to begin with and to have held that pose for 18 minutes is implausible in the extreme. Pictures of this reenactment were called “The Rose Mary Stretch” and the story itself was the stretch. Plus, it’s doubtful that a secretary of her caliber would have made that level of screw up to begin with.

Forensic investigators later concluded that the erasures had been done in five separate contiguous segments.

Now in this last and latest version of Republican presidential scandal, which makes Watergate seem quaint by comparison and Nixon an Eagle Scout, Kevin McCarthy is the one with an unaccounted time period to explain, a three-hour long one, to be precise. And McCarthy is most probably not going to be the only person to be subpoenaed and asked to account for the three hours, but he will be the first, is my prediction.

Take eight minutes and listen to Glenn Kirschner’s analysis of the pickle that McCarthy is in and how he put himself there. McCarthy isn’t clever enough to be duplicitous at this level and he’s about to find that out.

This three-hour gap keeps coming up in different conversations with different people. What was Trump doing for three hours? We have heard rumors that he recorded a few different versions of the tape that he finally released, but those rumors are unsubstantiated. The National Archives should have a copy of those first taped efforts and we should be allowed to view those, assuming they exist and haven’t been spirited off by Trump’s allies.

Stephanie Grisham said that Trump just sat there and rewound the footage and watched it on TV over and over again. That needs more clarification. It would be good to know what footage he re-watched that day, because there was so much footage that it took up more than three hours.

Another theory is that various people, Ivanka and Lindsey Graham among them, entreated Trump to do something and he only did do something when he felt like it.

This is key information, the three-hour gap. And McCarthy is going to have to go out there solo on the ice and explain it. After he testifies, then other people will probably be subpoenaed as well to corroborate or elaborate, but unless I miss my guess, McCarthy is going to be the star, “marquee” as Glenn Kirschner puts it, witness.

Give our regards to Broadway, Kevin. Your name is about to go up in lights, and you’re about to go up in smoke.

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27 COMMENTS

  1. I remember looking at that picture and wondering why she couldn’t stop typing long enough to turn around to get the phone. If she was having to type while on the phone, then her office was poorly arranged.

    • That was b.s. I was working my way through college at the time, as a secretary. I used to talk to the other women with the same job and we all said she’s lying to protect her boss. I can’t blame her for that, but man, the stakes were pretty high. I don’t know if I would have stuck by Tricky Dick. I guess you don’t find out until you’re in that situation.

      • According to her Wiki entry, Woods had been Nixon’s personal secretary from 1951 and continued working for him after he resigned. So, being with him for 2 full decades before Watergate, it’s really not that hard to believe her trying to protect Nixon.

        • And I appreciate that. And we don’t know their relationship — at least I don’t. If Nixon was good to her, gave her generous bonuses, all that, treated her with respect, she might very well have decided he was right to do whatever he did and cosign on it.

  2. I wonder how many millions, perhaps tens of millions are being offered in bribes in white collar DC legal circles? Because multiple people have cooperated and told the committee what they know and they can’t be sure what others have said or what physical evidence might exist. So there is a decent record of the truth already. McCarthy’s (and Trump’s, as well as some others) problem is twofold. First, these lesser players have solid legal representation who are either on the rise in their firms or entrenched enough to already be rich enough to not want to risk their law licenses. Hence the shitloads of money being offered in oh so careful ways. Second, those lawyers themselves can’t be sure of who has said what so they have to play things straight or risk their licenses and even freedom. All that begs the question of how much it would cost how many pretty well-off lawyers to abandon their lives for one in a non-extradition country comfy enough to suit them?

    All so they can spill the beans to the real targets of the investigation to allow them to craft enough wiggle room in their own testimony to stay out of trouble? It’s an interesting question to ponder. Of course, while it would mean being kicked out of Trump’s MAGA world simply telling the truth and doing so quickly would save McCarthy (and a few others) millions in legal fees and at least keep him/them out of jail. It seems like it would be a no-brainer but look where we are!

  3. “As big and bad as that seemed then, with the level of corruption in the last Republican administration, if the Watergate break in had happened under Trump’s watch, it would have ended up on page 12 of the New York Times and CNN would have talked about it at 3:00 a.m. Think about it. Trump doing spying and political sabotage on that level would have ended up as a footnote to the magnitude of crimes he was committing at the time and is still being investigated for, as we speak.”

    On an ironic note, consider how much time Trump spent trying to get the media to cover all the “spying on his campaign” that was done by the FBI at the behest of the Obama Administration (which made no real sense since Obama wasn’t running for office). He certainly tried to make sure it was on the front page, above the fold on every newspaper and covered by CNN and MSNBC at the top of every hour (Fox News, of course, did their duty and tried to make it headline news but not even their “loyal viewers” were willing to believe that bit of malarkey–Trump showed he could cry “wolf” just a little bit too much, even for his supporters).

    • I vividly remember Watergate because I was in college. And as upset and outraged as we were, it was nothing like the Trump era. I think even Nixon would be totally disgusted by Trump. At least in Nixon’s case, his defects of character, if you will, made him spy on the Democrats and do stupid things. Nixon was an educated man and a smart politician. Trump is neither educated, nor smart, nor a politician. I think Nixon would have hated Trump for what he was, but would have admired Trump’s ability to fundraise and draw a crowd. That’s it.

  4. Just enumerate all the accusations made by Trump & his Swamp Denizens against Dems over the past 5+ years if you want to know what they’ve been up to. The GOP penchant for projection is extremely revealing – & ongoing – just look at Trump’s blather yesterday & Mr. Hawley’s recent comments, among multiple other GOPers’ -for an update on their duplicity.

    It’d be laughable if they weren’t so determined to destroy our country. For Hawley to accuse DEMS of trying to enact “one Party” control, or Trump to attack President BIDEN of “politicizing” 1/6 – the anniversary of the former guy’s completely political Insurrection, is beyond abhorrent & un-American, though perhaps we should say thanks – making a list of their fantastical attacks on the Dems & matching them to their own actions ensures we don’t miss any of Trump’s & the GOP’s High Crimes & Misdemeanors. In their desperation to invent fictional misdeeds of their political opponents, they’ve revealed their own offenses. I hope Mr. Garland has someone cross-checking all their projected malfeasance!

    • What is terrifying about this point in history is that some good Republicans — and I’m thinking of that congressman in Illinois, Anthony Gonzalez — are leaving and the jerks left behind are the worst people in politics. That is what is a nightmare. It isn’t just Trump. It’s the disintegration of the GOP that is the problem.

  5. Sooner or later, someone will write a parody song about the January 6 attack to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song…”a three-hour gap, a three-hour gap.”

  6. On January 6 I wondered why the Trumpian stage was behind glass. After all he had done dozens of rallies over the years in arenas with no protection and even had full grandstands behind him. So why the glass on Jan 6? Was it ballistic glass? Who ordered it up? There has to be records. Why does it matter? It shows they fully expected attendees to be armed.

    • I’m kicking myself for not having noticed this detail. You raise an interesting set of questions that I hope someone is looking in to.

    • I noticed that also, at the time, and afterwards thought it strange that the congressman(?) wore a bullet proof vest under his coat. So what were they afraid of?

      • There are still many unaccounted for actions. Some that come immediately to mind are the “tours” of the capitol building right before the insurrection. I would very much like to know why the members of congress deeply involved with that operation aren’t A) in front of the commission and B) in front of a judge.

  7. Absolutely spectacular URSULA. I remember gap well! And am from the #California that hates #McCarthy and Nunes and Nixon and Rohrabacher and Issa with a fervor. ending to Andrew Janz and Fresno Bee and LATIMES and OCRegister as well as US MEDIA.

  8. People peeple peeple…
    With all the corruption, the revelation of nefarious deep state actors, the stark reality of false flag events…. Does anyone grasp the truth that humanity is strung along with nose rings, so innocent and sweetly naive?
    They give you the actors, the script, the baseline. But you’re not noticing the unseen hand. My hope for younger generations…open your eyes, seek truth behind the curtain, be fearless in conquering Goliath corporations with private military specs who serve the master of pure, dark evil.
    Things are never what the appear, especially the news they hand you.
    Dig deeper. In fact, start with the Wizard of Oz…true meaning? You are the munchkins.
    There’s a purpose to discovery of truth. At some juncture, a person realizes there really is a Creator, a Lord Jesus, and a Satan with his army here on earth.

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  9. That annoying buzzing you hear out in the Capitol dome when trying to hear a reporter do a stand there interview for the big news companies, if tracked, would lead one to the House of Representatives’ main floor, where a certain Kevin McCarthy is shaking so hard with fear and anticipation of upcoming Court actions, mumbling something about, Trump- 3 hours S*** !! 🙂

  10. Idiots must idiot, it’s what they do. And they have done it so long that they begin to believe it themselves even though they know it’s not even in spitting distance of reality. I think they practice in the womb, that’s what all that kicking is about. It helps prevent them from developing what most of us would call thought.

  11. So we can find some comparison between Trump and Nixon but how about some of the other Rep. Presidents like Ronnie Reagan who pulled off the Iran Contra Affaire with Ollie North and the Bush’s dad and son who got US into the longest war in American history and then Junior increased it in scope. Since Ronnie Reagan, it hasn’t been great for Rep Pres’s?

    • Keep in mind that when Bilirubin Barr sought out and got the job as Trump’s AG it was his SECOND stint in the job. He was AG several decades ago for Bush 41, where he devised the strategy of burying the Iran-Contra affair – pardoning a string of the key players. Bush 41, who’s knowledge and participation was likely tangental/minimal as there was no love lost between him/his team and Reagan/Reagan’s team but there was enough “there” there that could tarnish Bush 41 politically if not legally he gladly took Barr’s advice and issued that batch of pardons.

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