Bradlee resonds to Colson and Buchanan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/06/01/DI2005060101457.html

Fairfield, Conn.: What is your reaction to the strong criticisms leveled at Mark Felt by Pat Buchanan and Charles Colson?

Ben Bradlee: I am really baffled by Colson and Gordon Liddy lecturing the world about public morality. Both of them went to jail after being convicted of misbehavior surrounding the Watergate cover-up. They were threatening and they paid a price for it. And as far as I'm concerned they have no standing in the morality debate.

Buchanan is a little different because he hasn't done time, but I'm not ready to be part of his indignation.

law and order, except when it may expose the mis-dealings of one in your party.

and this happened 30 yrs ago and they are still pissed!

-- he's talking about.

If our national laws were more honed and more just, Buchanan would have done time as a propagandist for an evil administration.

Richard Nixon et al mobilized arms of the federal government to act against its own citizens. Buchanan helped scirbble in the captions to those pictures.

but it seems that was just a part of his dissembling. He's still willing to run over his grandmother for Nixon. He deserved "quality" prison time.

See this thread for discussion of his comments:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3769064

as his Lord and Saviour, so he doesn't have to make amends for his heinous crimes (like stealing elections, character assassination, etc) or behave like an honorable person, because he's saved, you see.
THAT is precisely what I find wrong with that sort of theology. "Accepting Jesus" excuses any sort of horseshit.

and amazingly it often comes from people who profess allegiance to the literal words of the Bible. At one time this heresy was expressed as "once saved, always saved" and is quite clearly not the position of the Christian scriptures. For example Acts 5: 1-11, 8: 9-25, Revelations 2: 1-3:22. As St. Paul framed it: "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid." Romans 6:1-2 (ASV). Don't let the Christo-fascists, fundies and born againers get away with this bastardization of Christian doctrine.

Thanks for the relevant citations, too.

people. Especially Pat Buchanan. That was wonderful!

Was then, is worse now since he's covered himself with that cross of gold and now is a full-blown charlatan.

Liddy is a living video game...he thinks he's Rambo...the super agent, the ultimate patriot. He screwed up a simple burgerly and fucked up at the Bay of Pigs as well. He was a shitty agent and an even worse talk show host. He created the Liddy myth (I was part of the filming of his life story...:puke: in 1980) and this is what he's playing on...and he's got a legion of 25-40 year old males who believe him.

Buchanan is just trying to stay relevent. Watching that sorry Crossfire reunion the other day reminded me how far Pitchfork Pat has fallen. In the 80's, he was the leading voice of the Right. He was a serious Presidential contender. Today he's barely hanging on to a fill-in gig at the third-rate cable network...and the only reason he's brought on is to sound like a raving lunatic.

In many ways, Bradlee was the real hero of this story...going with the story despite the fall-out he knew it was going to bring. Woodward and Bernstein didn't have a clue...Bradlee did.

Las Vegas, Nev.: I watched your Nighline interview with great interest. In explaining how you were all but convinced Nixon was lying, you said, "That national security red flag is -- I've heard it before and I'm just sick of it."

In saying,"I'm just sick of it," it sounded for all the world as though you were about to draw a parallel between Nixon's lies and rationalizations and others you're hearing in 2005.

Your thoughts on this? Thank you.

Ben Bradlee: It's very hard to stand up to the government which is saying that publication will threaten national security. People don't seem to realize that reporters and editors know something about national security and care deeply about it. I spent almost four years on a destroyer in the Pacific ocean during World War II and it makes my blood boil when some guy who maybe ran an insurance company in the Midwest becomes an assistant secretary of this or that and tells me about national security.

It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth. Remember that Nixon's first comment about Watergate claimed that he was going to be unable to answer questions about Watergate because Watergate involved "matters of national security." That was baloney and Nixon knew it, but the charge convinced some people otherwise. Too bad.

He should also have added that their moralizing is no doubt due to the permissiveness of current corporate media client and they're trying to backhandedly vindicate themselves.

On edit: He's right that "most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth." The only security risks were to the GOP's future plans!


:bounce:
rocknation

Cambridge, Mass.: Is there a Deep Throat out there today, ready to save the nation once again?

Ben Bradlee: I hope so.

than Colson and Buchanan have in their entire miserable bodies.