Obama's Watergate

Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Dean, Mitchell, Kleindienst. These names probably mean nothing to you young 'uns, but they should. They were the heart and soul of a terrible tragedy that caused the President to resign in disgrace. The current occupant of the White House appears to be headed down the same path.

A BIT OF HISTORY
The so-called 'Watergate Scandal' got its name from a hotel where the burglarly took place. The Democratic party had an office in said hotel, and some low level campaign workers from Nixon's reelection busted into the office and swiped materials and info. So far, no big deal: such things happen, even in the 2010 election. Problem: when news of this began to leak out, Nixon et al tried to cover it up. Well, in true tradition of the best laid plans of mice and men, the effort failed, and it magnified the importance of an unimportant political burglary. It was because of Nixon's attempted coverup that he was almost impeached and therefore forced to resign. He and his White House staff told many lies. That was the true tragedy: an unwillingness of the Chief Executive to simply tell the truth.

OPERATION 'FAST AND FURIOUS'
This was an initiative within the Obama administration. This allowed firearms, whose sale would otherwise be illegal, to flow into Mexico, the idea being that the drug cartels would be the recipients of said guns, and to trace their flow and therefore gain intel. So far, so good. Problem: they lost track of the firearms; worse, a border agent and a BATF agent were killed, and the deaths were traced to weapons from Operation F&F. Both the SecJustice and the Prez denied knowledge of this disaster, claiming that the first time they heard of it was from the news reports. Bullshit. Something this doofy does not occur without explicit White House approval. Question, Mr. President: what did you know, and when did you know it?