From: instruct505@gmail.com   
      
   Watergate Revisionism 1.   
      
   The Secret Plot to Make Ted Kennedy President, 2008, Penguin Sentinel, by   
   Geoff Sheppard.   
      
   Geoff Sheppard has a long association with Nixon  administration.  Recipent of   
   the Richard Nixon Scholarship, awarded by Nixon himself in 1965, Sheppard   
   graduated from Whittier College and went onto to work at the Treasury   
   Department until, in September    
   1970, he joined the Domestic Council Staff under the infamous John Ehrichman.   
      
   During the Watergate Scandal, Sheppard functioned as Principled Deputy to J.   
   Fred Buzhard and was therefore a key player in Nixon’s Watergate Defence   
   Counsel (1).  Sheppard is therefore well equipped at putting square pegs in   
   round holes – producing    
   a defense for President Nixon.   
      
   Sheppard claims to have written a book on the “real Watergate Conspiracy”,   
   which he situates under various guises.  His chapter headings give a taste of   
   things to come.  Chapter 6, 18, 19 and 20 refer to what he calls “The   
   Camelot Conspiracy"  and    
   scattered throughout the text  (2) along with “Kennedy clan democrats”(3)   
   Get Nixon squad” (4) “Camelot restoration” (5). You get the idea.   
      
    The other conspiracy we are all familiar with,  the one led by Richard Nixon   
   and featuring Haldeman, Erlichnman, Dean, Colson, Magruder et  al,  is a mere   
   side show here.   
      
   Sheppard sets out his stall, by alleging  that many of the individuals –   
   political functionaries and lawyers – associated with the investigation of   
   Watergate, were brought to political life, or began their careers, or were   
   loyal to, the Kennedy    
   family, and pursuit a common goal, in getting rid of Nixon and putting Teddy   
   Kennedy on the vacant throne.   
      
   It would have probably helped, if someone at Sheppard’s publishers  at   
   Penguin, or amongst his circle, had reminded him that Teddy Kennedy was a   
   member of the US Senate, and that the desire for high office, far from forming   
   a dark conspiracy goal, is    
   actually quite normal!  Once we realize , that at the time,  the  speculation   
   that Teddy might become the 38th President, was no  secret, the foundations of   
   Sheppard’s conspiracy already begins to look a little shaky.   
      
   As for the alleged predominance of personnel either loyal or associated with   
   the Kennedy era, we should hardly be surprised, that such names pop up in this   
   history.  JFK was President from January 1960 to November 1963, while his   
   brother Bobby held the    
   Attorney Generals role between 61 and 64, when many of these individuals were   
   cutting their political and legal teeth.  What Sheppard doesn’t do is   
   compare this with other individuals associated for example with the Johnson   
   era.  Considering that this    
   appears to be Sheppard’s most powerful card, it is surprising that he does   
   little to address the possible confirmation bias that may be the most probably   
   explanation.   
      
   The Kennedy Family under the tutelage of Joseph P Kennedy, numbered themselves   
   as part of the US elite.  The elder Kennedy used his wealth, to win political   
   power for his sons.  However, this project was already in decline by the time    
   Teddy Kennedy    
   found himself next in line.     
      
   On July 18th, 1969, Senator Ted Kennedy hosted a party on Chappaquiddick   
   Island.  During the evening, Kennedy  left  and for reasons that remain   
   unclear, drove his  vehicle off the Chappaquiddick bridge.  While Kennedy   
   escaped, his passenger 28 year old    
   campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned in the vehicle.     
      
   Kennedy subsequently pleaded guilty,  to leaving the scene of a crash causing   
   personal injury and received a suspended two year prison sentence.  The   
   scandal dogged him for the rest of his life, and probably ended any   
   aspirations he had to become    
   President.  It is important that the reader not lose site of this fact.  If   
   Sheppard is right, then the plot of which he writes, failed miserably.   
      
   When it comes to influence in the House and Senate, we are dealing with a   
   simple numbers game.  In 1972, the Democrats were the party of the majority in   
   both institutions.  Of the 100 seats in the Senate, the Democrats held 55 of   
   them while the    
   Republicans had 44.  There is no great revelation in observing that the latter   
   grouping formed the core support for Richard Nixon.  What is not as well known   
   was that Nixon also obtained support from the so-called Southern Democrats or   
   Dixecrats, who    
   made up roughly 18 Senatorial seats.   
      
   Barry Sussman is quite helpful on this.  He analysises Nixon’s infamous   
   “Enemies List” for who was not on it, rather than who was.  He draws the   
   interesting conclusion that, Nixon was “lending encouragement or support of   
   one kind or another to 42.   
   5 of the opposition’s party’s incumbent candidates.” (6).  Nixon’s   
   broad support is clear, but what about Teddy Kennedy?   
   An important historical episode, which occurred just before the famous arrests   
   on the 17th June, 1972, provides an answer to this.   
      
   One of the important roles of the Senate Judicial Committee, was the   
   confirmation of Presidential nominations.  Teddy Kennedy sat on this   
   committee.   Richard Kleindienst, who had served as the Deputy Attorney   
   General, now sought promotion when John    
   Mitchell the then Attorney General moved to the Committee to Re-elect the   
   President [CREEP}.    
       
   Everything  went smoothly, until February 25th 1972, when newspaper columnist   
   Jack Anderson, printed allegations that the corporation ITT had paid monies to   
   underwrite the Republican convention,  in return for the dropping of an   
   anti-trust lawsuit  by    
   the Justice Department, in which Kleindienst was implicated.   
    Furious Kleidienst  demanded that his confirmations be re-opened in order to   
   clear his name.  So began the longest confirmation hearings in history –   
   from 5 March to 27 April 1972.  Now the Kennedy democrats – lest the concept   
   have meaning –    
   raised their heads.   
      
   When the judiciary committee had deliberated at length and had still not   
   developed the evidence to create a consensus to reject the nomination, the   
   committee voted 16 – 4 to send it back to the full Senate.  Kennedy having   
   lost in the committee, now    
   attempted to get support of the full Senate to send the nomination back.    
   Again he lost 63-20.  The New York Times noted that the refusal to accept   
   Kleidienst nomination came “almost exclusively from the liberal democract   
   ranks of the Senate”(7).     
   Here was the Kennedy faction in action, with less than half the support of the   
   Democratic party and a 1/5 of the Senate as a whole.  On the question of   
   Kennedy influence, the numbers speak for themselves.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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