the Why of it
Who is this "Martha Mitchell" and why should you care? You read the page with her thumbnail bio, right? Still don't get it? Well, that likely just means you're a lot younger than I am. Don't let that worry you, there's still lots of us older folk still around who almost remember it like it was only thirty years ago. I say 'almost' because the truth of what happened took years to unfold and not everyone ever agreed as to what it all meant.

I guess I ought to start by mentioning that Martha was a rather minor player in the scandal that surrounded her - minor, but could she talk up a storm. To listen to the evening news you'd have thought it was all about her! Well ... it wasn't about her, she just happened to be enthusiastically ready, willing and able to tell anyone who'd listen about the conversations she'd over-heard between her husband and the president, ones where they plotted nefarious deeds.

What deeds? Why the Watergate break-in, the cover-up that followed it, and all sorts of illegal spying on the folks on Nixon's 'Enemies List'. How bad was it? Richard Nixon was forced to resign - that or be impeached and sent to jail. People - important members of the administration - did go to jail over it - including John Mitchell, once the Attourney General of the US. Oh, and every time you recognize that something's supposed to be a scandal because they tacked the word 'Gate' on the end of it? That's part of the legacy, too.

Well, today we have new laws and a different president. But ... no Martha. Yet, it all seems to be coming back - like a spicy meal you can't quite digest. Congress passed a law, back then, that made it clear the government couldn't spy on Americans in America - not without a court order, anyway. So ... why are the feds investigating who leaked the 'secret' program to do just that? They want to put someone in jail for ratting out the criminals in the government - and Mr Bush has admitted it goes right to the top - for breaking the law. It's getting so it isn't safe to be on the right side of the law any more.

David Meyer - in his own words

Other people certainly had other things to say on the subject. A few random links:

Mae Brussell, from The Realist said in August 1972: "The Watergate Affair is too large for the Democratic Party to prosecute or investigate. The best objective minds, not like the hand-picked Warren Commission, must work together. We must follow the pieces of scotch tape left in the door latches of the Watergate Hotel that led to the arrests, and continue to open more and more doors."

The Washington Post included this in John Mitchell's obituary: "Although Mitchell, according to testimony, turned down that proposal, he eventually approved giving Liddy and his coconspirators $250,000 for another project: the break-in and bugging of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Office Building in Washington."

Here's one from Dixie Dea as posted in The Education Forum, but you really need to check the entire discussion out for yourself: "During Watergate, Martha felt that Nixon was using her husband as a scapegoat so she began calling Woodward, Bernstein, and other reporters. Sometimes she called them in the middle of the night. Sometimes she took the telephone in the bathroom to make the calls so her husband would not hear her. Martha never had any qualms about shouting the administration's misdeeds, though instead of in testimony to Congress she did her shouting in 3 AM phone calls."