Another cancer

Once again, the parallels to Watergate are brought to our attention in “There is, again, a cancer on the presidency” (Michael Gerson, Aug. 24, 2018) and “Uncle Rudy rattles the rafters” (Kathleen Parker, Aug. 3, 2018). Both commentaries leave us wondering if and when President Trump will fire the special counsel as Nixon did the special prosecutor.

I had thought that Watergate all began with the politics of the Committee to Re-elect the President, but in checking my copy of “The Final Days,” the chronology lists a few items that read like headlines:

1) May 12, 1969: “The first of 17 ‘national security’ wiretaps on White House aides and newsmen is installed following disclosure of the secret bombing of Cambodia”;

2) June 13, 1971: “The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers”;

3) September 3, 1971: “White House aides E. Howard Hunt, Jr. and G. Gordon Liddy supervise burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsburg’s psychiatrist.”’

Now two articles in The Spokesman-Review on August 24, 2018, report that the “Former translator who leaked report on Russian hacking sentenced to five years” and “DNC hacking was security test.” Who’s covering up what that relates to national security not politics? Was Watergate also a witch hunt? The answers are in the questions asked by news reporters.

Judith Maibie

Spokane