Buchanan: On the money…

Posted on June 2, 2005 by Vinny

I was watching Joe Scarborough on Tuesday night, and I wanted to get a quote from Pat Buchanan in but I wanted to make sure the transcript was up and I got it 100% right before posting it:

SCARBOROUGH: After all these years, we find out team Nixon was actually betrayed by the number two guy at the FBI. His grandson calls him a hero. What do you call him tonight, Pat?

BUCHANAN: Well, I don‘t think he is a hero at all. I suspected it was Mark Felt in recent years. Everything pointed to him, motivation and knowledge.

But here‘s a man who has been entrusted with a high honor, deputy chief of the FBI, sneaking around at night, handing out materials he got from a legitimate investigation to “The Washington Post,” Nixon‘s enemy, in the middle of a campaign. And we find out from Bob Woodward that he is unhappy because he was passed over for director.

I think it was payback. I think it was a nasty thing to do on his part. The honorable thing to do, if he felt something terrible was going on, stand up and resign and say so.

Seems there are quite a few of us who, while not necessarily unhappy with the end, are not always happy with the means.

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  • If Felt had taken action, in accordance with his job and the law, I doubt that any self-respecting member of the Nixopn administration or supporter thereof could say they were betrayed by Felt.

    However, by acting outside of the bounds of his job, and playing this cloak-and-dagger, figure in the shadows game, to use an already hostile press to bring down a sitting President? That's a betrayal of the Presidency, of the FBI and of the country.

    Just my admitedly biased opinion. Your mileage may vary.

    -cjb-
  • In the end, Felt betrayed Nixon.

    There’s no room for debate on that at all.

    Huh? No room for debate? Not likely. Felt's oath of loyalty was to the United States of America, NOT the President.

    A betrayal is a back-stabbing of an innocent person or entity. You betrayed your wife. You betrayed your country by being a spy.

    You don't betray a rapist who happens to be your brother, when you turn him in to the authorities, or even call an annonymous tip line.

    And where did I say YOU said Nixon was honorable. I was stating that Buchannan supports your point of view, and that THERE is someone who should have their motives questioned for stating that Felt sucks.

    Pam: I believe (and I think Felt believed the same) that his fate would have been similar to that of Tripp's had he come out publicly.
  • Pam
    Sirrios- Linda Tripp did more than reveal an affair. She supplied the government with other information as well. As retaliation, she was demoted, transfered, and her civil rights were trampled on.
    Vinny-Due to the information I have now, and conversations I had with my grandfather, I believe the government would not have been able to have a conviction stand up against Nixon. My GF, a staunch Dem,atty, and politician, firmly believed the the way they obtained the information on Nixon was illegal. I am sorry he didn't live to find out who it was.
  • Betrayed? Hmm, I didn’t think law enforcement officials were expected to give favors to their bosses.


    You're right, law enforcement officers are not expected to give favors to their bosses, but they are expected to file reports and turn over evidence of illegal activities...
  • He wasn't betrayed? Regardless of why or how, Felt betrayed Nixon. Nixon was guilty, fine. Nixon was a bastard? Fine. In the end, Felt betrayed Nixon.

    There's no room for debate on that at all.

    Oh, sorry, he supports your collective view, so his intentions are irrelevant. My bad.


    Cheap shot. Not worthy of a response other than to say that I've already said I didn't think Nixon was exactly an honorable guy and I don't even have a problem with him being brought down. Just Felt's way of doing it bothers me. Nobody here is "bashing Felt" meaning mindlessly ripping him. In fact, I think everyone here pretty universally agrees that what he did was weasly and scummy but that's pretty much it.

    He betrayed Nixon's trust. Was it for an ultimately good reason? I'd say so. But how he did what he did, to me, is more important than the result considering who he was when he did it.
  • Oh, and look how the question was framed by Scarborough (whom I generally think very highly of):

    After all these years, we find out team Nixon was actually betrayed by the number two guy at the FBI.

    Betrayed? Hmm, I didn't think law enforcement officials were expected to give favors to their bosses. Is Joe suggesting Felt should have looked the other way? If not, what is he implying with the use of the word "betrayed"?
  • I'd like a Felt-basher to explain how, "having an axe to grind" was better served by him being deep throat.

    It wasn't. If he was after Nixon for personal reasons, what better way to gloat than to spit in your face and say, "I'm bringing you down, Tricky Dick!"?

    And geez, do you think Buchannan has a little axe to grind himself? He was a Tricky Dick lapdog.

    Oh, sorry, he supports your collective view, so his intentions are irrelevant. My bad.

    Felt knew the political heat that would be generated by this (just look what's happening 30years after the fact), and reasoned justice would be better served, and his life would not be ruined, by verifying information Woodward and Bernstein brought him.

    The bottom line is: Nixon and Company were guilty. They were convicted/booted out of office. It was done honorably and effectively.
  • ram
    "Seems there are quite a few of us who, while not necessarily unhappy with the end, are not always happy with the means."

    Yeah, kind of like being told we are going to war for WMD's but "oh look! we caught Saddam", huh?
  • Dear God,

    Please give me the strength to tolerate people who take one line of a conversation and expand it beyond a reasonable limit into a point that nobody made.

    Please give me the strength to tolerate people like Sirrios, who despite me saying Nixon probably deserved the heat brought upon him accuses me of defending him.

    God, please give me strength.

    Please.
  • Barefoot Paul
    so many people paid the price of this scandal with jail time and their careers

    Thank you all for sharing your insight. If not for your revelations I might have continued in my misguided thinking that convicted felons are themselves responsible for the results of their crimes. Now I realize it's all the fault of those who report them. I'm finally beginning to understand what "personal responsibility" is all about.
  • Pete
    Sirrios,

    Linda Tripp was a lowly government civil servant as compared to Mark Felt who was the deputy director of the FBI. That's the second highest rank in the FBI!! That’s a pretty substantial difference wouldn’t you agree?
    Employees of the justice department who leak information on an ongoing investigation are subject to criminal prosecution. Linda Tripp broke some Maryland state law that states you can’t tape a phone conversation without the other party’s knowledge.
    No one is defending Nixon. The point is that Mark Felt is being portrayed as a hero even though his actions were criminal. But with a lot of you leftists the ends justify the means when it’s a republican/conservative.
  • Dear God my spelling sucks. Sorry :(.
  • having an affair is not national security


    The mos funny thing about this comment is how not-entirely-true it is. First, you have the somewhat humorous aspect of the entire problem of "pillow talk", and all of its associated barbs and the like.

    Secondly, having an affair seriously threatens one's security clearance (or getting one, if you do not already have one), in that you broke one vow, what is to stop you from breaking another? I am unsure if Presidents are required to attain security clearances, but, at any rate, his affair and subsequent lying destroyed any vestiges of honesty he might have had, thus putting in jeopardy any national security interests he migth have known. Did he actually tell anyone anything? I do not know. But the very fact that I do not, and partially believe he would, is troublesome.

    Beyond that, Felt's actions were that of someone out for revenge, for the limelight, and for getting something he felt he deserved, whatever that may be. If he felt (harhar) that Nixon's actions were wrong, there are several better avenues of airing those opinions than selling it out to the press.
  • I absolutely agree with Buchanan. I what Felt did is dishonorable entirely. If he knew there was lawbreaking occurring, he should have moved to take the evidence to a grand jury. He, as # 2 lawman in the US, broke the law himself. What a bastard.
  • Buchanan is spot on. the dude broke the law. there are other ways to blow the whistle besides sneaking around with a journalist. so many people paid the price of this scandal with jail time and their careers. he didn't pay at all for his crimes, and now he (with his money-grubbing family) will laugh all the way to the bank. the ends do NOT justify the means.
  • Sirrios, nobody is defending Nixon.

    Pay attention.
  • Sirrios
    Linda Tripp duped Lewinsky into revealing her relationship. More importantly, having an affair is not national security. Spying on other Americans, is. What felt did was not only honorable, but also the right thing to do in his profession. A crime was being comitted, and he is an enforcer of the law.

    How you guys can sit here and defend Nixon for what he did and tear apart one of the men who did the right thing in opening the case up, is beyond reprehensiible. You guys got the payback by dragging Clinton through the mud. Let it go now.
  • J. Rogers Brown (No Relation)
    Deep Throat revealed.... YAWN!!!

    Hero, villain.... who cares?
  • Pete
    Linda Tripp was vilified by the MSM as public enemy #1, but Mark Felt is being treated as a whistleblower hero. Go figure.
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