When the Expletives Hit the Fan

"When the Egg Hit the Fan" by D. Edward Holland in Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1974

It's time for our Graphical History Tour to step back 50 years, just as the Watergate scandal was really, um, hitting the fan.

On April 30, 1974, Richard Nixon released transcripts of tape recorded White House conversations, responding to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee earlier that month for 380 hours' worth of the tapes themselves. 

"Right After You Eat..." by Dick Locher in Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1974

Rodino in Locher's cartoon is Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Peter Rodino (D-NJ); I suppose you can interpret the other diner to represent either the rest of the committee's Democrats or the media. Either way, the transcripts were not what the committee had ordered, but they were hungrily accepted nevertheless.

Major newspapers across the country printed out the White House transcripts in full, either by adding a special section or by serializing them over several days. It seems unlikely that more than a select handful would have the wherewithal to repeat such a feat today.

"That's All There Is" by Bernard Seaman in AFL-CIO News, ca. May 17, 1974

Tricky Dicky's transcripts were extensive, but didn't satisfy anyone. (Now, wouldn't Seaman's cartoon have been better if the transcripts had been wilted flowers?)

"Would You Buy a Used Encyclopaedia from This Man" by Ranan Lurie, ca. May 6, 1974

"Would you buy a used car from this man?" had been a Democratic Party poster attacking Nixon during the 1960 presidential race, resurfacing in variations (a used economy, a used war) when he won the presidency in 1968. Lurie was not the only cartoonist to resurrect it in connection with the White House transcripts.

"If You Liked the TV Appearance..." by Dennis Renault in Sacramento Bee, May 2, 1974

We already knew of the suspicious 18.5-minute gap in one of the tapes, supposedly produced by Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods simultaneously holding one foot down on the Play And Record button and reaching behind herself to answer a phone while transcribing them. To nobody's surprise, the released transcripts included a lot of little omissions on just about every page.

"Like Him, I'm Doing My Best" by Warren King in New York Daily News, May 1, 1974

In addition to innumerable comments on the tapes reported to be "inaudible" or "unintelligible," there were hundreds of instances of "expletives deleted." And a new phrase entered the popular lexicon.

"Fourscore and Seven..." by Don Wright in Miami News, May 2, 1974

President Nixon had cultivated an image of staid propriety — even, when he made an abortive move to doll White House security personnel up like a bunch of marching band drum majors, pomposity. When candidate Nixon showed up on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in just to say "Sock it to me?!" it was funny just because one was accustomed to hearing him speak more formally. We all assumed he wore a suit and tie every waking hour and only loosened the tie when it was time for bed. That he addressed his wife and daughters as "my fellow Americans."

"That's Nothing..." by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, ca. May 10, 1974

So learning that he routinely swore in private like a drunken sailor who'd just stubbed his toe was rather shocking. You'd have expected that sort of thing from LBJ. We were slightly embarrassed but not at all surprised later on to hear the recordings of him discussing inseams with his tailor.

"Now That You (Expletive Deleted) Have These (Inaudible) Transcripts..." by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, May 7, 1974

As for Abe Lincoln? You know, I'll bet he could tell a pretty good ribald joke if Mary wasn't around.

The Judiciary Committee continued its demand that the White House turn over the actual tapes, taking its cases to the Supreme Court. Everybody expected that as damning as the transcripts were, the tapes had to be worse. 

"Top Billing" by Charles Werner in Indianapolis Star, May 2, 1974

I wanted to be sure to include cartoons by some of Richard Nixon's most loyal defenders. That includes Ed Holland and Dick Locher at the top of today's post, and Charles Werner and Don Hesse.

"Friends List" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, ca. May 22, 1974

 It was becoming ever more difficult, however, to defend Nixon any more.  As edited as the transcripts were, they still provided ample evidence that the president was involved in efforts to cover up its connection to the Watergate break-in, and to obstruct congressional investigations into the affair. 

"Still Hungry, Big Fella" by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond News Leader, ca. May 9, 1974

Arch-conservative Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) was the first Republican Party leader to urge Nixon to resign; House Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-OH) also told reporters that Nixon "ought to consider resigning as a possible option." Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott (R-PA) called the behavior of Nixon and his aides revealed on the transcripts "deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral." 

"Sometimes I Must Admit to Some Misgivings" by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, ca. May 14, 1974

Even Vice President Gerald Ford began to distance himself publicly from the administration he had joined just five months earlier.

"Easy, Dick..." by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1974

By the way, I've kept the caption to the Ed Holland cartoon at the top of this post exactly as it appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Whether the bowdlerization of a common vulgar phrase was done by the cartoonist or some milquetoast editor, he or they definitely blew an easy and obvious opportunity for cartoon use of "expletive deleted."

The Telltale Tapes

Today's Graphical History Tour is going to be extra heavy on the cartoonistry and light on the commentary; so if you're the kind of reader who skips to the editorial cartoons, you've come to the right place.

"Speak Frankly into the Olive" by Jeff Darcy in Newsday, Long Island NY, ca. July 23, 1973

Fifty years ago this month, on Friday, July 13, Donald Sanders, a junior staff Republican counsel to the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair, asked Alexander Butterfield, a former White House aide to Nixon Chief of Staff Harry R. Haldeman whether "conversations in the President's office are recorded."

It was a throw-away question asked at the end of an up-to-then unremarkable interview, with no Senators or top counsel present.

"Oh god, I was hoping you wouldn't ask that," Butterfield answered. Richard Nixon had been tape recording conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office since the spring of 1971.

"Testing, Testing" by Wayne Stayskal in Chicago Today, ca. July 21, 1973

Editorial cartoonists reacted immediately with a lot of cartoons mocking Nixon for the recording system — seeming not to realize that the tapes would support or refute the testimony before the committee given that month by those closest to the President: former Attorney General John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and former presidential counsels John Ehrlichman and John Dean III.

"You Can Say That Again" by Herb Block in Washington (DC) Post, July 17, 1973

Instead, we had a lot of cartoons about people with much less to be worried about in those recordings than Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean, or Nixon.

"Go Ahead, Kissinger" by David Simpson in Tulsa Tribune, ca. July 21, 1973

"About That Conversation We Had" by Leonard Borozinski in Wisconsin State Journal, Madison WI, July 18, 1973

Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev had just returned home from a state visit to the U.S.

"Good Lord, That's My Voice" by Bill Crawford for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., ca. July 27, 1973

Nixon wasn't the first president to record White House conversations; Lyndon Johnson had done the same. It seems Nixon tossed out the best legacies of the Johnson administration and kept the worst.

No caption, by Louis "Tim" Mitelberg in Paris Match, 1973 (?)

(Having not putting a date on the above clipping, I could be off on whether Tim's cartoon was drawn in July with the rest of these; but it was one of my earliest favorites, so I'm including it anyway.)

No caption, by Fritz Behrendt in Het Parool, Amsterdam Netherlands, ca. July 19, 1973

At this same time, Nixon was briefly sidelined with a bout of pneumonia.

No caption, by Don Wright in Miami News, July 26, 1973

The Senate Committee, chaired by folksy "old country lawyer" Sam Ervin (D-NC), subpoenaed the administration to turn over to them tapes which might have recorded conversations about the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

"This Jus' Might Unravel the Mummy's Secret" by Hugh Haynie in Louisville Courier-Journal, July 18, 1973

Claiming "executive privilege," Nixon refused, and a constitutional crisis was thus in the making.

"The Collectors" by Gene Basset for Scripps-Howard Newspapers, ca. July 20, 1973

It's at this point that most cartoonists quit using bugs as a symbol of the scandal, in favor of reel-to-reel tapes.

"And Stay on Your Own Side" by Leonard D. Warren in Cincinnati Enquirer, ca. July 30, 1973

"Constitutional Crisis in the Oval Office" by Frank Miller in Des Moines Register, July 25, 1973

It's only fair that I include a couple of cartoons by defenders of the President:

"You Guys Are Way Off the Trail" by D. Edward Holland in Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1973

I have a difficult time imagining where Nixon apologist Ed Holland thought the Watergate investigation ought to have been leading. It was too early to be worried about Hillary's emails (although she was actually an aide to the committee) or Hunter Biden's laptop (he was three years old). Teenager Barack Obama's birth certificate, perhaps?

"We'd Be Delighted for Him to Prove His Innocence" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, ca. July 24, 1973

Don Hesse's reaction is more typical of the Nixon Defense League. "If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell." —Carl Sandberg

No caption, by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, ca. July 31, 1973

As tempting as it is to go on, I have to stop somewhere. So I'll wrap up with Pat Oliphant's pointed reference to the Nixon plumbers' earlier break-in of the offices of the psychiatrist of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.

✍

Say what you will about Richard M. Nixon, but his Watergate scandal (and the war in Vietnam) brought out a golden age of editorial cartooning. I was just beginning to appreciate and eagerly read the work of these guys above and many more: Paul Conrad, Jacob Burck, Bill Mauldin, Bill Sanders, Jeff MacNelly, Dick Locher, John Fischetti, Tom Curtis, Jim Berry, Ed Valtman, Draper Hill, "Corky" Trinidad, Lou Grant, Dennis Renault, Guernsey LePelley, Ranan Lurie, Jules Feiffer, Edward Sorel, Robert Gray Smith, Mike Peters, Mike Konopacki, Ed Huck — there were literally hundreds of them. You could find their work daily in just about any newspaper with a modicum of self-respect, and every major newsmagazine around the world.

The hedge fund managers pretending they know how to run today's newsmedia don't know what they're killing off. Or perhaps they just don't care.

A Third-rate Burglary

"He Says He's From the Phone Company" by Paul Conrad in Los Angeles Times, June, 1972

The House's televised "January 6th" hearings this month coincide with the fiftieth anniversary next Friday of the Watergate break-in: the "third-rate burglary" that brought down Richard Nixon's presidency.

"This Is Where The Democratic Platform Committee Will Meet" by Gene Basset for Scripps Howard Newspapers, ca. June 19, 1972

A so-called plumbers squad of Republican-affiliated operatives were caught breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee, which was preparing for the party's national convention the next month. The Democratic Party's likely presidential nominee, Sen. George McGovern, representing the party's anti-war, "New Left" insurgent faction, had just won primaries in California, New Mexico, and his home state of South Dakota. 

"The Phone Company Cut Off My Service" by Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times, ca. June 24, 1972

It was still too early to count out the more establishment Democratic candidates, Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie. Alabama Governor George Wallace, seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in May, despite a strong showing in Michigan, was a very long shot.

"When Did You First Begin..." by Don Wright in Miami News, June 20, 1972

At the time, McGovern's chances of unseating President Nixon were regarded as slim at best, so bugging Democratic national headquarters seemed an overreaction by the Nixon campaign to McGovern's candidacy. The White House's earlier involvement in sabotaging the campaigns of the Democrats' more establishment candidates would come to light only later as the scandal unfolded.

"What Makes You Jump to the Conclusion that I'm a Republican" by Guernsey LePelley in Christian Science Monitor, by June 26, 1972

No indeed, there wasn't a great deal of mystery as to why someone would want to burgle the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

"Who Would Think of Doing Such a Thing" by Herbert Block in Washington Post, June 20, 1972

Paul Conrad and Herblock (the latter working at the newspaper of Woodward & Bernstein) were not the only ones to note that the burglars' tactics resembled those of the Nixon administration. John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst in this cartoon were Nixon's first Attorney General and Mitchell's newly-minted successor in the office.

"Everything Went Dead" by Jeff MacNelly in Richmond News Leader, ca. June 27, 1972

The ITT scandal, referenced in some of these cartoons, surfaced the previous February when investigative columnist Jack Anderson exposed internal memos at International Telephone & Telegraph that implied a connection between the company's political donations to the Republican Party and Nixon's Justice Department settling an antitrust case in ITT's favor. 

"Agent 0072 Muffs One" by Tom Engelhardt in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 20, 1972

Around the corner from the Post-Dispatch offices, Engelhardt's counterpart at the Globe-Democrat pooh-poohed the importance of the Watergate break-in — as he would continue to do right through the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings two years later.

"Boy—We've Got Him Trapped" by Don Hesse in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, before June 26, 1972

The Watergate break-in was discovered in the wee hours of a Saturday. The following Monday, the Supreme Court ruled against the Nixon administration in a case where his Justice Department had wiretapped suspects without prior judicial approval. Justice Powell's ruling in U.S. v. U.S. District Court applied Fourth Amendment protections:

"Though physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed, its broader spirit now shields private speech from unreasonable surveillance. ... The price of lawful public dissent must not be a dread of subjection to an unchecked surveillance power. Nor must the fear of unauthorized official eavesdropping deter vigorous citizen dissent and discussion of Government action in private conversation. For private dissent, no less than open public discourse, is essential to our free society."

"Empty..." by Ken Alexander in San Francisco Chronicle, June 21, 1972

Ken Alexander's cartoon also cites the Justice Department's unsuccessful prosecution of San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto in an antitrust case (just one of several news events such as Hurricane Agnes vying for attention that week). But Alioto's was a mostly local issue, whereas the Nixon administration's fondness for wiretapping real and perceived enemies was an integral factor in the Watergate scandal.

"Such an Interesting Creature..." by Pat Oliphant in Denver Post, ca. June 24, 1972

Oliphant's cartoon stars the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Lawrence O'Brien, and would be the first of a swarm of cartoons making a play on the word "bug" ...

"Your Kid Has Been Bugging Me" by Tony Auth in Philadelphia Inquirer, June 20, 1972

...one way or another.