Alexander Butterfield

I was a kid when the Watergate story broke. I remember my teachers trying to explain it to us, and it was very difficult to understand. All we really knew about it was that our favorite cartoons and reruns were being pre-empted every day for those dry Watergate hearings.

In high school I read "All the President's Men" and later saw the movie. I became intrigued by the story and really immersed myself in it. Like many other kids from that era, it made me want to be a journalist. It also schooled me on the potential abuses of government. Real abuses. Spying on your political opponents. Using the Secret Service, the FBI, and the CIA...for political gain. No one has done anything like that since, despite the constant use of "gate" at the end of every political scandal.

Well, if you're a Watergate junkie like me, you'll love this piece in the Washington Post today about Alexander Butterfield. Great stuff. He's the former Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the taping system in the White House, and he hasn't really spoken out until now. Naturally, Bob Woodward is the one that got him talking. Highly recommended.