One of the long forgotten subplots of the entire Watergate saga is the story of Nixon's inside source on the Senate Committee investigating his administration. In the day's before the existence of the White House taping system was made public, someone on the committee staff warned the White House that congress knew about their existence.
Who might that inside source have been?
None other than Republican hero Fred Thompson. And not only is he not denying it, his own 1975 memoir discusses it directly. My hometown paper:
Thompson, in his 1975 memoir, wrote that he believed "there would be nothing incriminating" about Nixon on the tapes, a theory he said "proved totally wrong."
"In retrospect it is apparent that I was subconsciously looking for a way to justify my faith in the leader of my country and my party, a man who was undergoing a violent attack from the news media, which I thought had never given him fair treatment in the past," Thompson wrote. "I was looking for a reason to believe that Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, was not a crook."
Actions, not words, should be the way we measure the man. It is what you do in the moment that matters, not how you justify it afterwards.
UPDATE: A few people have written to ask that I clarify my thoughts about what specifically was wrong about Thompson's actions here. Here goes:
Thompson was a lawyer on the committee investigating the actions of the president of the United States. The tapes were evidence being used in that investigation. Without consulting anyone, Thompson decided it was both appropriate and necessary to contact the White House - yes, the very same White House that was under investigation - to let them know that the committee knew about the tapes. He was a lawyer representing the investigating committee. His actions not only undermined that investigation, they assisted its target!
Is there a connection between Thompson's actions and the missing 18 1/2 minutes of tape? Dunno. Either way, the missing tape proves the larger point. As a lawyer, Thompson must have known that his actions would undermine his client's efforts to get at the truth. And yet he went ahead and did it anyway. That tells you everything you need to know about the man.
UPDATE: Looks like Hilzoy is making the very same point in far more detail here.
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