(I apologize to the late, legendary Yogi Berra in advance.)
The Watergate break-in and cover-up occurred while I was in high school. I remember watching the Senate Watergate Committee hearings and the House Impeachment Committee deliberations. My friend Lee Anne wore an “Impeachment with Honor” t-shirt in the senior play picture for the yearbook. She also wrote a sly speech on bugging devices for English class. I first heard about the “Saturday Night Massacre”, when Special Counsel Archibald Cox was fired, when Mom picked my sister and me up from roller-skating.
There are some obvious differences between the current situation and Watergate. Watergate was strictly domestic, whereas Russki-Gate crosses borders and is more ominous for our body politic. Nixon and his team (other than the actual Watergate burglars) had some experience in government. The current crew has much less experience in the delicate dance of getting productive things done for the American people.
There is one similarity that I haven’t heard discussed in the media, real or fake. There’s a reason Woodward and Bernstein called their book on Watergate “All the President’s Men“. About the only female character in the book was Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods. It was alleged that she was responsible for the 181/2-minute gap on a key tape. There’s an iconic picture of Ms. Woods stretched out at her desk in the posture required to stop recording. (Let’s just say that she was not very limber, and that theory was shot.) Women also play peripheral roles in the current situation. Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders are the poor souls attempting to keep pace with the ever-shifting explanations of the White House shenanigans. Even Ivanka’s meticulously-manicured fingerprints are nowhere to be seen.
Although some of the antics are comical, the consequences are deadly serious. We’re heading for a rocky year or two that could make Watergate look like a minor offense. Fasten your seat belts, friends.
Addendum: Tapes? Did somebody say tapes? Julian was dubious: “They haven’t used tapes in at least 15 years.”
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