Nailed to the Cross

Joseph A. Califano, Jr. Inside: A Public and Private Life. New York, NY: PublicAffairs [sic], 2004. Hardcover, 549 pages.

On page 268, Califano describes the Democratic reaction in the days immediately following the arrest of the five burglars:

I called [DNC Chairman Lawrence] O'Brien, who was back in Washington, and told him that we had enough to file suit on behalf of the DNC against the Committee to Re-elect the President, as well as McCord and the others caught breaking in. [Morris] Dees arrived arrived in my office that afternoon [Monday, 19th June 1972]. We drafted a complaint alleging trespassing, invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to violate Democrats' civil rights, constitutional right of free assembly, and right to vote.
The following morning [Tuesday, 20th June 1972] O'Brien and I announced the lawsuit, seeking $1 million in damages, as the complaint was being filed in federal district court. Because of O'Brien's suspicion that Nixon was personally involved, we had added as defendants "John Does and other conspirators whose names are unknown at this time."
During the press conference, O'Brien said that responsibility for the break-in went right to the White House. His unqualified accusation caught me by surprise. When I later asked about it, O'Brien said, "I've studied Nixon since the Kennedy campaign. I've no doubt that the trail will lead to the Oval Office, if we can hang in there long enough." Even if he was right, I had plenty of doubt whether such a charge could be proved. I assumed that Nixon would have taken pains to preserve his deniability. I had seen President Kennedy maintain his ability to deny any involvement in the assassination of Diem in Vietnam and the attempts on Castro's life in Cuba and President Johnson deny knowledge of actions he had directed White House aides and cabinet officers to take. O'Brien and I both knew that the mere absence of a president's name on an order did not mean he hadn't issued it.
[My law partners] Ed Williams and Paul Connally thought that, in filing the suit, O'Brien and I might have gone too far. That gave me more pause about O'Brien's charges. Nevertheless, I set as one my litigation objectives nailing Nixon to the Watergate cross.

The "Hatchet Man"

Charles Colson, Born Again. ("Twentieth Anniversary Edition") Grand Rapids, Michigan: New Spire, 1995. Paperback, 350 pages.

On page 57, Colson identifies the "Hatchet Man" moniker as having originated in an article in the 15th October 1971 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

On page 89, Colson describes a White House conversation of 13th February 1973:

During my last meeting with the President as his Special Counsel, he was leaning back in his chair, crossed legs resting comfortably on his massive carved mahogany desk. We talked of the trip to Moscow [by Colson and his wife] and other things. Then I came to Watergate. "Whoever did order Watergate, let it out!" I said emotionally. "Let's get rid of it now, take our losses."
I barely had the words out before the President dropped his feet on the floor and came straight up in his chair. "Who do you think did this? Mitchell?--Magruder?--" He was staring intently into my eyes, face flushed, anger in his voice. I had struck a raw nerve, but I was convinced at that moment that he was as much in the dark as I was."

Well, yes.

Scenes from a Tragic Life

Maxine Cheshire with John Greenya, Maxine Cheshire: Reporter. "Copyright 1978 by M & M, Inc., and John Greenya. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved."

Rosen quotes from Cheshire's recollections of Martha Mitchell:

Martha's drinking problem, now [1978?] well known, should have been publicly disclosed a lot earlier than it was. One Post reporter covered a small dinner party--one of the first the Mitchells attended when they came to town--where Martha became so drunk that she passed out and fell face down in the soup bowl. John Mitchell almost let her drown before he pulled her up. The reporter, a Republican, was outraged when a Post editor would not allow the incident to appear in her story the next day...

One time, my knock [on the front door to the Mitchells' apartment, located in the Watergate complex] was answered by the black chauffeur-bodyguard, and standing behind him was Martha, with an almost empty glass in her hand. Though it was early afternoon, she was obviously very drunk. I asked her a question, and she started to tell me that she was leaving Washington. Then she handed the glass to the chauffeur, and, placing her hand on her behind, she began a little dance, singing something about 'Goodbye to Washing- ton,' wiggling with her fingers as she waved her posterior. At that, the chauffeur closed the door in my face...

I returned a few days later, again in mid-afternoon, and this time my knock was answered by a large black woman in a white uniform, who appeared to be a nurse. As I stood in the hall, eleven-year-old Marty came down the apartment's stairs. She was in pajamas and looked as if she had not been outside in the sun for months. As the woman turned toward the child, I heard the clink of metal and noticed a large key ring attached to her belt. "I want to go in my mommy's room," said Marty. "Would you open the door so I can see my mommy?" The woman shook her head. "I've told you over and over. You can't see your mother until she wakes up."
Again the door was shut in my face, but not before I saw the look of anguish on the child's face. The curtains were tightly drawn, and the interior of the apartment was in deep shadows. Whether the nurse had locked Martha in her bedroom or Martha had locked herself in, I did not know. But I later learned that one of the main items of regular "housekeeping" in the apartment was to repair or replace Martha's bedroom door. She would often lock herself in, and when threats were ineffectual, John Mitchell instructed the chauffeur to kick the door down. I didn't like to dwell on what this was doing to Marty.

...

Martha Mitchell died on 31st May 1976 at Sloan-Kettering in Manhattan. She was 57 years old.

A Biography of Nixon's Attorney General

James Rosen, The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. New York: Doubleday, May 2008. Total pages, 637.

Purchased new.

Chief aide to Peter Rodino & the House Judiciary Committee

Jerry Zeifman, Without Honor: Crimes of Camelot and the Impeachment of Richard Nixon. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, [apparently December] 1995. Total pages, 272. "$24.95"

Appendix A, Articles of Impeachment. Text of the five Articles voted on by the House Judiciary Committee in July 1974. Appendix B, Excerpts From the Dobrovir Brief. "Originally published in November 1973 as The Offenses of Richard M. Nixon: A Lawyer's Guide for the People of the United States, written by William Dobrovir, Joseph Gebhardt, Samuel Buffone, and Andra Oakes." Appendix C, Rogers-Houston Memorandum. Text of a 1954 document written by Lawrence R. Houston, General Counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency, and submitted to William Rogers, Deputy Attorney General in the Department of Justice. From the Foreword by John W. Dean III, dated "November 1995":

During the summer of 1973 I had testified before the Senate Watergate Committee chaired by Senator Ervin. Although I answered questions for a week, I considered my testimony little more than an outline.

Five days of testimony was "little more than an outline"? Interesting.

Overall the book is very poorly edited. Thunder's Mouth has inserted a small piece of paper on the page facing the inner-front cover, listing nine separate "errors" that "were not detected prior to publication." Errors such "change John Haldeman to H.R. Haldeman" and so on. In my partial reading I discovered many other errors of a typographical nature, and a few of a factual/historical nature.

Library copy.

In No Particular Order...

Raymond Price, With Nixon. New York: The Viking Press, 28th November 1977. Total pages, 398. "$12.95"

Appendix: The First Inaugural Address, dated 20th January 1969; and Address Announcing the Decision to Resign, dated 8th August 1974.

Purchased 15th January 2009 for $6.41 at used book store. Excellent condition.