WaPo, 1996: Buchanan outlined plan to harass Democrats in '72, memo shows

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Blast from the past. I'm clearing out old papers.

Politics

Buchanan outlined plan to harass Democrats in ‘72, memo shows

By George Lardner
March 4, 1996

Republican presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan strongly favored a plan of “covert operations” to harass and embarrass Democratic contenders in the heady days at the Nixon White House before the Watergate scandal.

Then a White House speechwriter and enthusiastic member of the Nixon campaign’s “attack group,” Buchanan laid out his ideas in an April 10, 1972, memo looking ahead to that summer’s Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. It was addressed to Attorney General John N. Mitchell and White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman.

On the memo’s last page -- one never turned over to Watergate congressional investigators -- Buchanan and his top aide recommended staging counterfeit attacks by one Democrat on another, fouling up scheduled events, arranging demonstrations and spreading rumors to plague the rival party, all the while being careful not to run afoul of the Secret Service.

Buchanan denied in testimony before the Senate Watergate committee in 1973 that he was aware of any “covert operations” that the GOP had sponsored for the Democratic convention.

{snip}

Terry Lenzner, former assistant chief counsel for the Senate Watergate committee, said on learning of the memo last week that it was more reminiscent of the separate program of “dirty tricks” directed against Democratic presidential candidates in the 1972 primaries by individuals such as White House-hired political saboteur Donald H. Segretti.

With funds supplied by Nixon’s personal lawyer, Segretti crisscrossed the country under assumed names, planting spies, disrupting rallies and creating divisiveness among the Democrats with false press releases, bogus letters and fake ads. After plea bargaining, he drew a six-month prison term for fabricating literature in the Florida primary. One was a letter on the campaign stationery of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (D-Maine) accusing Sens. Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) and Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.) of sexual misconduct.

{snip}

Staff researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.

[Kaiserguy]

1. And they are still at it

with the GOP lying, cheatings and stealing to win is still going on today and will still be happening tomorrow. With Republican the ugliness never ends.

[catrose]

2. And that is why whenever a Dem is accused of something

My first impulse is disbelief.