And so, we add another name to the "99 Club," for those who fall a year or so short of living to 100 years of age.
But this man deserves all the glory and honor, for he was Alexander Butterfield, a former Nixon White House aide, who passed away in his California home yesterday morning. During his time working in that disgraced administration, Butterfield was involved with the installation of a covert voice-recording system that recorded the voices of the president and All His Men. “Everything was taped … as long as the president was in attendance,” Butterfield testified on July 16, 1973, at a hearing of the Senate Watergate Committee panel, led by Sen. Fred Thompson, a Tennessee GOP lawmaker and chief minority counsel to the Watergate committee.
TV viewers will remember Fred for playing District Attorney Arthur Branch on "Law & Order," where he chewed scenery for five seasons, attempting to be a down-home country lawyer running the prosecutions in Manhattan. Bad fit.
I was watching the Watergate Hearings myself that day, and when Butterfield bravely broke ranks and told the truth, I leaned my head toward the window in the direction of Washington, D.C. because I was sure I heard the sound of lawyers running and subpoenas being typed. All the Nixon chicanery, dirty tricks and lies, so long suspected and rumored, were actually recorded!
55 weeks later, his last pitiful defenses shattered, Nixon stepped down into ignominy, and the courage of Mr Butterfield largely made that possible.
When they finally dug out the tapes, I'm sure there was one with Nixon going, "Butterfield said what????"
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