ALEXANDER BUTTERFIELD

[WilliamPitt]

Who?

Exactly.

Alexander Butterfield was the White House senior aide under Nixon who let it slip under oath that the Oval was bugged.

Alexander Butterfield was the guy whose testimony brought down the hammer.

White House senior aide.

John Hannah?

Wurmser?

Who?

Exactly.

History, it seems, is just getting started.

(edit for the confused: there are no plamegate tapes...try harder... :) )

[Sydnie]

1. An amazing thing isn't it?

Just when they least expect it --- whomp! there it is!

[berner59]

3. Will...don't tease...

Are you implying there is TAPE of wrong doings????? This can't get any better...I'm going off to sleep with sweet dreams...thanks!!

[WilliamPitt]

6. No no no, no tapes.

Jeez.

There's a senior White House aide that history has forgotten. That's the point.

If there were tapes, the headline would have been HOLY FUCKING SHIT, THERE ARE TAPES, probably followed by at least a dozen exclamation points.

[berner59]

11. sorry...I'm just jumpy...

I know this thing is going to bust wide open soon and I didn't know your level of coyness...good to know you wouldn't hold back...

This is still good news...could you write that headline anyway...just for fun????

[Hamlette]

2. can I buy a clue?

there are tapes? If not, even if these guys "turn" its their word against the leader of the free world. And after all, he was able to convince 58M Americans he was a good president in 2004. Won't he just do it again?

[WilliamPitt]

7. No

Jeez.

There's a senior White House aide that history has forgotten. That's the point.

If there were tapes, the headline would have been HOLY FUCKING SHIT, THERE ARE TAPES, probably followed by at least a dozen exclamation points.

[Hamlette]

16. Jeez. Then its no biggie....to those of us who also remember

Iran/Contra. Or a million other "top aides" who sing.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Strange, isn't, how these seemingly small, unexpected details

turn everything around? I followed the whole Watergate thing avidly, from the beginning -- and when this obscure guy, Butterfield, mentioned -- rather casually, as I recall -- that Nixon had a secret taping system, the whole thing went nuclear. And now it's starting to look like deja vu all over again.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Cheney and Rumsfeld learned nothing from their sensei.

Sad.

[spuddonna]

8. lol I just got off the phone with my mom...

I was having trouble remembering the names of the two 'flippers' - Hannah and Wurmser.

My mom said, "It doesn't matter - they could bring the whole thing down like that guy in the Nixon WH did... what was his name? Butterball?" LOL We were one the phone for ten more minutes and she was beating her head with the phone trying to remember the name, and I had NO idea who she was talking about!

Thanks! Now I can call my mom and tell her so she stops going nuts over that! :D

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

9. Ah yes, Will, Alexander Butterfield.

Don't you think it kind of karmic (?) that today is the 32nd anniversary of the Saturday Night Massacre?

Could history be repeating itself, once again?

[longship]

10. John Dean really started things.

Alexander Butterfield finished it.

Here's a good story about that event:

Butterfield was sitting in a barber's chair in the Capital barber shop when he was due to testify. Every TV had the hearings on and every barber shop had a TV. Butterfield watched on the TV as an aid leaned over Sam Ervin's shoulder--he was telling him that Butterfield, due to testify, was in the barber shop. Ervin's great eyebrows flapped up and down a couple of times as he told the aid that if Butterfield didn't get his butt into the chamber quickly that he'd send the Senate Sargent-at-Arms to fetch him. Butterfield showed up in chambers freshly-coiffed and a bit more contrite a bit later.

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. As I recall, Butterfield was ASKED a question to which he responded

with the revelation of the tape system. The question prompted this answer, otherwise it would not have come out then. Another moral to the story: pull that thread to start the knot unraveling.

If Wilson had knuckled under when his wife was outed, or if others hadn't taken up the issue when he wrote the NYT article, we would not be waiting for the indictments now.

It makes a difference: ask the questions and insist on answers.

[WilliamPitt]

13. Hannah and Wurmser were asked questions, too

[Jack from Charlotte]

20. Yes. I think Sam Dash asked Butterfield about something or other....

and Butterfield revealed the tapping system. This was during the private interviews with staffers.

I'll never forget that day Butterfield testified. Think it was on a Friday. There was a rumor that something startling was going to happen in the afternoon session. Butterfield spoke for less than 20 minutes. The TV guys didn't even know who he was. The 1st thing I thought of when the taping system was revealed was that John Dean had better have been very honest about his previous 2 week testimony or he'd be going down for perjury. Turns out John Wesley Dean III, had been remarkably accurate.... almost verbatim.... the tapes later proved.

End of Dick-fer-brains.

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. yes, that's as I remember it too. Butterfield's revelation was totally out

of the blue and it was the breakthrough that changed everything overnight. Goes to show: you never can be sure what's at the other end of even the most unpromising thread you have the choice of pulling on or letting go.

John Dean has a truly amazing memory. I remember Olbermann writing about it in his blog some months ago; he commented with evident awe on how Dean remembered even baseball statistics and team personnel from decades ago as if he had the record books in front of him. So Dean's scholarly essays on legal precedents come with that extra experience and layers upon layers of memory.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. lol! Just thought of something. If they put the screws to Harriet Miers

could she be the next John Dean? I bet she isn't totally in the dark about what went on.

[KittyWampus]

15. she certainly seems to be a likely culprit in getting info to Dan Rather

she's the one who dealt with scrubbing the TANG info.

WHO funneled that info to the hispanic woman that gave Burkett a military document with legitimate info but questinable provinance?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. Wouldn't it be great if someone on the judiciary committee confronted her

with this? A woman can dream, can't she???? :)

[NoPasaran]

17. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, THERE ARE TAPES!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, it was Butterfield. I knew is all along.

[Skidmore]

19. If there are no tapes, are there

disks--as in computer disks?

[HereSince1628]

21. All the disks in Cheney's office were examined last week

by FBI supposedly investigating a spy from the Phillipines.

What if it was realy Fitz' who was after those things?

[Skidmore]

22. Did I win?!?

[HereSince1628]

23. Just confirms yer mind is and quick and deadly like a steel trap

[Skidmore]

24. Whew! I thought I might be losing my edge there for a while.