So far, Fred Thompson has been able to coast through his undeclared candidacy without offering any substantive discussion of the issues, relying instead on an inane pseudo-folksiness:
At ease behind the podium, he grinned broadly and spoke in a conversational manner, glancing at notes before him and gesturing often, his eyeglasses in one hand. He made a self-depreciating joke about the Senate and Hollywood, invoked Reagan and, in his deep drawl, used phrases like “hitched up our belts” and “the dogs ain’t eatin’ the dog food when they put that one out there.”
Republicans raved.
Frankly, that seems like enough to sum up the man and his party right there — but for the Boston Globe striking again, this time with a critical look at his role in the Watergate investigation (h/t: Crooks & Liars). Thompson portrays himself on his website as the man who exposed the Nixon White House’s secret tapes (”He gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office”). In fact it was a Democratic staffer, Scott Armstrong, who “led the line of inquiry” in that public hearing; Thompson was merely assigned the plum job of asking the actual question about a system the investigators already knew existed.
Much more damning, though, are the allegations that, during the investigation, Thompson was leaking information to the White House — including a tip-off to Nixon’s counsel Fred Buzhardt, three days before the hearing, that the Senate Watergate Committee was aware of the secret tapes:
Thompson tipped off the White House that the committee knew about the taping system and would be making the information public. In his all-but-forgotten Watergate memoir, “At That Point in Time,” Thompson said he acted with “no authority” in divulging the committee’s knowledge of the tapes, which provided the evidence that led to Nixon’s resignation. It was one of many Thompson leaks to the Nixon team, according to a former investigator for Democrats on the committee, Scott Armstrong , who remains upset at Thompson’s actions.
“Thompson was a mole for the White House,” Armstrong said in an interview. “Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was.”
Thompson himself has admitted leaking the committee’s knowledge of the secret tapes. What Armstrong is saying is that the leak was part of a wider pattern. Of course, that revelation may only lead conservatives to like him more.
3 Responses to “Was Thompson Nixon’s “Mole” in the Watergate Investigation?”
[...] early poll numbers; conservatives have great hopes for him, but he has stumbled a bit, and the dirt on him is starting to come out. Plus he looks ridiculous in [...]
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Not hardly. The author of the piece relied on to unreliable witness’ with a axe to grind, with no full rebuttal provided. Of course Thompson let the WH know about the tapes. They interviewed the witnesses before they took the stand and went over the questions that they were to be asked. In his book, Thompson questioned the credibility of both Armstrong and Dean, and now, they have the perfect opportunity for payback. The author also forgot to put that Dash was overall quite complimentary of Thompson, and only used the part where Thompson got to ask the question, which was decided by none other than Committee Chairman, Sam Ervin, Democrat from North Carolina.
Left by Perico
July 5, 2007 at 12:15pm