WATERGATE: ON POLITICS & MONEY
Harrington, Michael
I n reacting to the criminal assaults on the democratic process and the Democratic party, it is essential that we contemplate—and act on—the polite, everyday and perfectly legal subversion...
...Beyond that, we must demand open and democratic debate over energy policy...
...And when Nixon appointed Connally to the White House staff, some newsmen saw that as evidence of "housecleaning...
...In the Watergate case we see amateurish and bungled examples of the power of money in politics...
...Instead I want to focus on the more basic corruption of democracy that Connally-type wealth represents...
...Yet Connally retains his ties to a law firni that represents Gulf Resource and Chemical Corporation, a company under investigation for a secret $100,000 contribution to the Nixon campaign—a contribution that may have been "laundered" through a Mexican bank and used to pay the Watergate gang...
...the postcard system of voter registration should be enacted immediately...
...Honest John" may have been part of the very mess he is supposed to clean up...
...Although Ralph Yarborough termed Connally's conversion to Republicanism "the first time a rat swam onto a sinking ship," a number of commentators saw the former Texas governor's change of registration as a daring move to shore up public confidence in the Republican party...
...John Connally is a case in point...
...Besides his work for Gulf Resources, Connally is involved in a consortium seeking to develop an international business in natural gas...
...What bothers me is that we will become so fascinated by this blundered villainy that we will lose sight of the deeper level of corruption represented by John Connally, a Watergate winner rather than a loser...
...Three areas are particularly important: • campaign-financing should be largely federalized with allocations to be made on a democratic basis, with special protection (but not parity) for minority parties...
...When his appointment to the White House staff was first announced, it was said that Connally would serve the President as an unpaid consultant— and would therefore retain his ties to sundry business interests...
...A prime target in that venture is Siberia, possessor of the largest natural gas reserves in the world...
...But that sordid angle is not the one which concerns me most...
...Watergate—and the more insidious influences of a Connally—provides another argument in favor of policies aimed at the redistribution of wealth, for it is now clear that such policies will affect the maldistribution of political power as well as the maldistribution of income...
...Incompetents went around with briefcases filled with $200,000, burgled psychiatrists' offices, involved the CIA, the FBI, the Marines, Cabinet officials and, quite possibly, the President himself in the criminal obstruction of justice...
...I n reacting to the criminal assaults on the democratic process and the Democratic party, it is essential that we contemplate—and act on—the polite, everyday and perfectly legal subversion of democracy which takes place when corporate economic power influences government policy...
...all television and radio time in national campaigns should be provided free by the networks and stations as a condition of their licensing, and this time should also be parceled out in a democratic fashion...
...HOW CAN WE deal with the more profound problem of institutionalized and legal collusion between the public and private sectors...
...Obviously, any deal with the Soviet Union will have to be negotiated both by the United States government and the companies involved...
...As a first step, public participation on the boards of large COMMENTS AND OPINIONS companies is required...
...The indicted chief fundraiser for the Committee to Re-elect the Presi 278 dent, Maurice Stans, went to Moscow last year as Secretary of Commerce to explore that deal...
...With close cooperation between the government negotiating team and the company's negotiators, there are mind-boggling possibilities for windfall profits—profits on a scale comparable to the sums harvested by those astute—and large —grain companies that had advance notice of last year's Soviet wheat purchase...
...The figures involved are astronomical, as high as $40 billion by some estimates...
...It is important that the perpetrators of the Watergate break-in be punished, but democracy is more threatened by the subtle pressure a Connally is capable of exerting on our national energy policy, for example, than it is by the ineptness of a Gordon Liddy...
...It is possible, now and in the immediate future, to attack at least some of the flagrant excesses revealed by Watergate...
Vol. 20 • July 1973 • No. 3
