@frankm What I find discouraging is that few people in Washington seem interested in trying to govern for the benefit of the people. Everything everywhere is spin & hype!! I don't think that was the case with the Watergate investigation. The independent council law should be repealed. It is just used to pass the buck and conduct a secret inquiry with unlimited funds ($64 million in this case). Doing things in secret is NOT the American Way. It has just wasted nearly three years of our time and a LOT of our money.
@Ron I would amend the council law such that if Congress authorizes such a formal investigation of he President there must be an impeachment inquiry, which would force exposure of the results, deliberation and decision. Mueller’s role was as the police investigating an alleged crime and he presented his results. It’s not his job to charge the president that is with the House. Without an actual inquiry the House makes the whole investigation and its expense a waste. In this instance Pelosi is doing the same thing as McConnel. Btw, my understanding of Watergate is that Nixon nearly got away with it, and would have if not for the tapes. Most Republicans were solidly in support of their team and it’s quarterback, Nixon.
@frankm That's not how I remember it at all, as a sporting event with winners and losers, as all political activity is now viewed. To begin with, the Watergate hearings were not an investigation of Nixon at all. They began with an investigation of the Watergate break-in. I remember it as a sober investigation from the very beginning, with honorable men on both sides in the Senate getting at the facts. Two major newspapers were involved in digging up facts about what actually happened, rather than merely publishing spin about events for one political agenda or another. As for the tapes, I think a better way of putting that is to say that Nixon might have gotten away with it, if the truth had not come out. BUT the truth DID come out, that was the beauty of it, in a public hearing with all to see, where Senators were permitted to pull strings and ask questions and follow where the answers lead. There was no rehearsing for weeks in advance. In those days, clocks were needed in basketball games, not in hearings in a Senate committee. In the beginning we didn't even know Nixon was involved at all. It was a surprising and shocking development when it came out. But it DID come out, as a result of public hearings. It confirmed that America had a workable system of governing! I don't think secret investigations for years on end by an unelected group of partisans is healthy for our country. I would like to see the law repealed.