Yet I find a certain sympathy for their all too evident agony. The frustrations they have suffered, for more than thirty years, are all gushing forth in one grand orgy of angst, resentment, fear and loathing. Because try as they might, they've lost the battle over the framing of one of the great pieces of American political mythology. As one of the commenters to a Josh Marshall post noted at the new TPMCafe:
I listened to some local wingnut radio on my way home yesterday and was surprised by the reaction. The majority of the callers in my 30 minute drive, not only rejected the false choice of hero/snake, but overwhelmingly agreed Felt did the right thing. Many also noted that most of the criticism was coming from members of the Nixon admin.
It must be profoundly gauling for the ex-Nixon gang to realize that the real battle for myth and memory isn't with their great political and philosophical enemies, the liberals and hippies. No, they're up against Hollywood, the home of their own myth-making hero Ronald Reagan. They know to their chagrin that when it comes to political mythmaking, Hollywood trumps all.
So when they dutifully pen their steaming op-eds or show up to foam on the cable shows, they're not fighting the Democrats of today, or even those of an earlier generation. They're taking on Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Hal Holbrooke, and Jason Robards. They're trying to erase the memorybanks of all those millions of cable and DVD viewers -- in both the US and international markets -- who have watched a clattering teletype announce the list of indictments and convictions amid the sounds and images of the unwinding Nixon presidency and the peaceful transition of power. They're trying to eradicate the emotional experience of sharing with Redford and Hoffman -- and with Deep Throat -- the bittersweet vindication of exposing the crimes of all the presidents' men.
That's a fight over American mythology that a bunch of over-the-hill speech writers and cable show pundits just aren't going to win.