|
Novak
"Has a History," As They Say
A
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Kathleen Sullivan
Here's
an interesting tidbit, showing the Nixon "CREEP" (Committee
to
Re-elect the President) gang members Porter and Haldeman, planning leaks
to Novak over 30 years ago, from:
"The
Watergate Hearings -- Break-in and Cover-up"
by the New York Times staff, 1973, paperback
(transcripts
of testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign
Activities, chaired by Senator Sam Ervin)
Senator
Weicker questioning Herbert Porter, June 12, 1973, re: disbursement
of monies for the CRP dirty tricks operations (pg. 228)
Porter: "The
nature of those film strips was that they were 35
millimeter photographs or negatives of intra-office memos from Senator
Muskie's campaign headquarters to his Senate office and back again"
"On
one occasion, I think it was early December, there was a staff memo
that I saw from one of the campaign officials to the Senator's role,
I
believe, as chairman of a subcommittee on governmental operations, or
something like that--
Weicker: "Which
Senator was that?"
Porter: "Muskie
-- could be used as a great front to go to California
and hold tax hearings that would be a great visual for Senator, and all
at taxpayer expense and he could get a lot of value for his campaign.
"We
thought it was rather interesting, to say the least, and I told
Mr. Magruder about it. He asked me to just copy the memo on a, I
believe
it
was written on plain bond-- and send it to Evans and Novak"
*****
Senator
Weicker questioning John Haldeman, August 1, 1973, re: Memorandum for
John Dean, From H. R. Haldeman, dated Feb 10, 1973 (pg.
598)
Haldeman
memo: "We need to get our people to put out a story on
the
foreign or Communist money that was used in support of demonstrations
against the President in 1972. We should tie all 1972 demonstrations
to
McGovern, and thus, to the Democrats, as part of the peace movement.
'The
investigation should be brought to include the peace movement which
leads directly to McGovern and Teddy Kennedy. This is a good
counter-offensive to be developed. In this connection we need to itemize
all the disruptions such as the Century Plaza, San Francisco, the Statue
of Liberty, and so on.
"You
should definitely order Gray (acting FBI director, after death of
J. Edgar Hoover) to go on ahead on the FBI investigation against those
who taped Nixon and Agnew in 1968.
"We
need to develop the plan on to what extent the Democrats were
responsible for the demonstrations that led to violence and disruptions.
"There's
also the question of whether we should let out the Fort Wayne
story now - - that we ran a clean campaign compared to theirs, libel
and
slander such as against Rebozo, et cetera.
"We
could let Evans and Novak put it out and then be asked about it to
make the point that we knew, and the President said it was not to be
used under any circumstances.
"In
any event, we have to play a very hard game on this whole thing and
get our investigations going as a countermove."
*****
The
more things change, the more they stay the same...
Kathleen
Sullivan
A
BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY |
