weird watergate trivia question

[Ken Gargett]

i was only a kid when Watergate was in full swing but it has always fascinated me, especially after being able to spend a year in DC. 

anyone interested in it or American political history should rush to grab a recently released new book on the subject - 'Watergate' by Garrett Graff. I'm a bit over half way through and it is riveting. i have not read a fiction thriller this year that is half as exciting. edge of seat stuff.

but there was one surprising fact in it.

judge Sirica, the Watergate judge (who had even worked on republican campaigns - in fairness to the white house, they did not appoint him to this case. he had his pick of cases and thought that this would be interesting - got that right - but he also said it would not look good if he, in his role as chief local judge, appointed a democrat-leaning judge to hear the case, although his friends thought it much more likely that he appointed himself as he liked the spotlight) - any guesses as to who his best man was? 

the answer was a big surprise to me. scroll down....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Dempsey, the famous boxer. 

[joeypots]

Weird Watergate trivia? Who was the lifeguard at the hotel pool during the era of the burglaries?

[Woody Hayes]

My understanding is that Sirica was in Miami, Fl. working out and preparing for a career in boxing.  He received a telegram that on his 3rd try, he passed the bar exam. He was kind of astounded he passed.  The rest is history.

[NSXCIGAR]

8 hours ago, joeypots said:

Weird Watergate trivia? Who was the lifeguard at the hotel pool during the era of the burglaries?

You?

[brutusthebuckeye]

8 hours ago, joeypots said:

Weird Watergate trivia? Who was the lifeguard at the hotel pool during the era of the burglaries?

Was it Wendy Peffercorn?  

[joeypots]

16 hours ago, joeypots said:

Weird Watergate trivia? Who was the lifeguard at the hotel pool during the era of the burglaries?

My Older sister, Rosemary. 

 

[Ken Gargett]

On 8/30/2023 at 4:31 AM, Woody Hayes said:

My understanding is that Sirica was in Miami, Fl. working out and preparing for a career in boxing.  He received a telegram that on his 3rd try, he passed the bar exam. He was kind of astounded he passed.  The rest is history.

don't know about the florida part but he was a keen boxer apparently and had one fight - think he won, not sure - but parents keen he was a lawyer. i gather he was not considered top shelf. ended up head of the local DC courts, not sure how, and could pick the judges for cases. he thought that this one might be interesting and did not want it to seem that the court was biased by appointing a democrat-leaning judge to the case of a break-in at democrat HQ. his friends apparently thought it was more likely he enjoyed the spotlight. 

[Woody Hayes]

He was a product of the Democrat machine who would always play ball with their interests.  There is a legal term for this but I can't recall the term...he met on at least 2 occasions in his chambers with the prosecutors unbeknownst to the defense attorneys for G. Gordon Liddy.  Man, he hated Liddy and Liddy hated him because Liddy didn't cave and turn state's evidence. He was a big ego guy like a vast majority of judges.

[Ken Gargett]

7 hours ago, Woody Hayes said:

He was a product of the Democrat machine who would always play ball with their interests.  There is a legal term for this but I can't recall the term...he met on at least 2 occasions in his chambers with the prosecutors unbeknownst to the defense attorneys for G. Gordon Liddy.  Man, he hated Liddy and Liddy hated him because Liddy didn't cave and turn state's evidence. He was a big ego guy like a vast majority of judges.

he seems certainly to have been a big ego guy and if he hated Liddy, he was hardly alone in that, but it is simply not true to suggest that he was a product of the Democrat machine. he was a Republican and was appointed to the bench by the Republicans in 1957, specifically by Eisenhower, because of his work in the 1952 and 1956 elections, when he worked for Eisenhower and Nixon. 

Sirica could have sentenced Liddy to between 35 to 50 years. he ended up spending about 3 1/2 in jail, plus nine months for contempt for refusing to answer questions from the prosecution, after Sirica gave him immunity. so, he could have hated Liddy a hell of a lot more. Sirica was a former prosecutor and known for that style, so it was not something aimed solely at Liddy. i think Liddy probably got off as lightly as he could have hoped, especially as the judge was nicknamed maximum john. but at one stage sirica had to be talked out of jailing Woodward Bernstein, hardly the act of a product of the democrat machine. 

i know of only one occasion when Sirica met cox (from the prosecution) and that was when Sirica advised cox that there was a probation report, which Sirica told cox he thought should be sealed and cox agreed, unless it became relevant. doesn't seem that disadvantageous to the defence, especially as it was about hunt and not liddy. this may or might not have been with the knowledge of the defence. 

sirica was known as a tough and aggressive judge, and probably not a particularly good one with a high rate of reversals, although not with watergate, but history shows he was convinced that there was a huge cover-up and also that the att-gen and govt were doing all they could to ensure nothing came out and he felt it his duty not to allow that to happen. there was a time when some put country before politics. he was convinced that what was happening was definitely not in the country's interests. and it is a bit difficult to argue with that, unless one felt that nixon and his cronies should have been allowed to get away it. one would like to think that a judge would stand up in those circumstances no matter which side it involved. but it is rubbish to suggest he always played ball with democrat interests. i don't think anyone involved had the slightest doubt that had this been a democrat president that sirica would have acted precisely the same. 

[BlueRidgeFly]

On 8/30/2023 at 7:09 AM, joeypots said:

On 8/29/2023 at 2:25 PM, joeypots said:

Weird Watergate trivia? Who was the lifeguard at the hotel pool during the era of the burglaries?

My Older sister, Rosemary. 

Wow, that is some cool trivia!

I used to work for a company in the late 80s-early 90s and our office was in the Watergate. Would often cycle to work, and roll my bike onto the elevator to stash in the office during the workday. Dirty looks sometimes but was never told to stop. My first visit to a good wine shop was there too.

Years later, mid-90s, I was driving on the beltway and was behind a Corvette, license plate “H20GATE,” which exited onto Little River Tpk heading west. Found out who that was later that day… his radio show broadcast from Fairfax City, if I recall. Tuned in a few times. He was still ranting about John Dean et. al. Bizarre.

[Woody Hayes]

I screwed up Ken; my apologies.  I should have researched my assertions for accuracy and I was way off.  The legal term for a judge meeting with one side and excluding the other is an ex parte meeting.  

[Chris P. Bacon]

On 8/30/2023 at 9:09 PM, joeypots said:

My Older sister, Rosemary. 

Man, I searched for an hour trying to figure it out!

[Ken Gargett]

4 hours ago, Woody Hayes said:

I screwed up Ken; my apologies.  I should have researched my assertions for accuracy and I was way off.  The legal term for a judge meeting with one side and excluding the other is an ex parte meeting.  

no need. i should have picked that up as well - though i was never a litigator. it is some of the most fascinating history imaginable and this is a great book. incredibly thorough but reads like a thriller. 

[NSXCIGAR]

Those guys should have been jailed for just how amateur that burglary was. All the money, all the resources and some high school kids could have done better. 

As far as Nixon, he should have fired everyone immediately once he found out the plumbers were behind it. It would have ended there. I don't know why Nixon felt he had to cover for these guys but that was the fatal mistake. Blinded by ego or power or something.