Q: Why Go After Valerie Plame? A: Republicans Have Done It Before

They tried to ruin Maureen Dean, wife of Nixon's White House Counsel, in order to discredit her husband, John Dean.

And they tried every trick in the book. In fact, they got St. Martin's Press to publish a book of total lies about Watergate called Silent Coup: The Removal of a President, by Leonard Colodny and Robert Gettlin, and cast poor Richard Nixon as the victim of... as Fargo's Sheriff Marge Gunderson would say, "An inside coup-type deal"... to unseat the president.

(Personal Note: The Richard III Society's motto is "More sinned against than sinning." Sound familiar?)

Oh, yeah. Silent Coup also accused Maureen Dean of being a high-priced Watergate hooker.

And who was ultimately found to be behind this POS from St. Martin's?

Yep, you guessed it:
Infamous Born-Again Christian,
G. Gordon Liddy

Today's Snarky Sermon on the Blog Reading:

The Authoritarian Streak in the Conservative Movement

By John Dean

The despotic personality types we see in the Bush White House have their origins in the amoral politics practiced by the low-lifes of the Nixon administration. --snip--

When the phone rang that Monday morning, I assumed it was my wife, Maureen -- "Mo" to family and friends -- calling from Pennsylvania, where she had gone to care for my mother, who had recently suffered a stroke. I was instead greeted by Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, and his producer Brian Ellis. --snip--

"According to Silent Coup, sir, you, John Dean, are the real mastermind of the Watergate break-ins, and you ordered these break-ins because you were apparently seeking sexual dirt on the Democrats, which you learned about from your then girlfriend, now wife, Maureen." When I failed to respond, because I was dumbfounded, Wallace asked, "Does this make sense to you?"

"No, no sense at all. It's pure bullshit. How could I have ordered the Watergate break-ins and kept it secret for the last twenty years?"

"Fair question," Wallace responded. He explained that the book claimed I arranged the break-ins through my secret relationship with former White House consultant E. Howard Hunt -- Hunt, who along with Gordon Liddy, had been convicted two decades earlier of plotting the Watergate break-ins.

"I recall meeting Hunt once in Chuck Colson's office. Hunt worked for Colson. I don't think I ever said anything more than 'hello' to Howard Hunt in all my years at the White House. The only other time I have spoken to him was long after Watergate, when we gave a few college lectures together. Anyone who says I directed Hunt to do anything is crazy." Still trying to sort out the various claims of Silent Coup, I asked, "Did you say this book has me ordering the break-ins because of a call-girl ring?"

Read the rest. It's an eye-opener, to say the least.

Thus Endeth Today's Sermon.

Go forth today and question every Republican associated with both Nixon and George W. Bush.

Oh, and follow the money, y'all.

I mean it, damn it!

Best bar bet in the world: Delilah didn't do it.
Judges 16:19-- And she made him (Samson) sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.