1992 was the 20th anniversary of Watergate. Having been too young (barely) to pay attention to the scandal at the time (and being woefully underemployed 20 years later), I got myself obsessed with the scandal. I read and re-read books on the subject, watched all the specials, and found myself listening to G. Gordon Liddy�s radio show. Then I grew bored with it and moved on.

Now, a dozen years later, I�m finding that earlier fixation useful. I am finding more and more similarities to the Kerry campaign and the Nixon White House than I would have thought feasible.

This week President Clinton�s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, found himself involved in a �third rate burglary� (or several) at the National Archives. Berger is insisting that all those documents found their way from the Archives to his home by a twist of circumstances that reminded me of that infamous picture of Nixon secretary Rose Mary Woods contorting to show how she �accidentally� erased 18 � minutes of crucial Watergate tape.

(Now former) Kerry adviser and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson started out as the �bright, shining light of truth and integrity� who had broken with the Bush administration over principle. Now his story is unraveling faster and faster, and it�s quite entertaining to see where he will be popping up next, announcing his previous statements are �inoperative� and tossing out new, revised versions.

Kerry announced earlier that he had endorsement from foreign leaders who were eager to see him defeat Bush, much like Nixon had his �secret plan� to win the war in Viet Nam.

Nixon had two young, upstart reporters hounding him, nipping at his heels, unraveling his plans at every turn, and resisting his every attempt to silence them (kind of like a Scooby gang). Kerry has the blogosphere, a young, upstart medium that hounds him, nips at his heels, resisting attempts to silence it, and unraveling his plans as fast as he makes them.

The only thing missing is the paranoid, cunning control freak behind it all pulling the strings. I gotta work on that angle�

I know it�s a hell of a stretch, but with Wilson rapidly losing credibility and Fahrenheit 9/11 dwindling at the box office, SOMEONE�S gotta fill the rampant speculation and ungrounded allegations void, and I got nothing else to do�

J.

(Author�s note: I attribute any shortcomings, flaws, deficiencies, and weaknesses to a rampant case of viral gastroenteritis, which has me awake at 3 in the morning. If I�m gonna have a bellyache, I want something to bellyache about.)