Reminds Me Of October ’73, But Only A Little

Those were heady days in October, 1973. I was a junior at Indiana University, back in the dorm, and I had just begun to implement my new strategy for academic success. There was a full load of tough classes, heavily tilted toward upper level history. There was Modern Germany, Eastern Europe, genetics, education. I was in a history honors seminar with my new academic mentor, and every meeting was like opening King Tut’s tomb. What days they were, always to be savored and remembered with a glowing heart.

The previous summer of ’73 I had watched the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings with the senile old Democrat Sam Ervin, manipulated like a marionette to do the bidding of those determined to bring down Nixon for any reason that could be found. The ranking Republican member was Howard Baker. Another Republican member was Lowell Weicker of Connecticut. What a joke that was. Inouye, Montoya, and Talmadge were also on the committee as Democrats. The committee did a lot of tut-tutting and harrumphing, but when it ended they had nothing to link the president to the Watergate break-in. They kept sniffing and pointing fingers.