As the rest of America and Americanophiles fix their eyes on Trump and Harris it’s almost gone unnoticed that it’s half a century today since the fall of Richard Nixon and 50 years of Gates.
The resignation of the 37th President of the United States was one of those stop-in-your-tracks moments then.,
But time, forgiveness, David Frost’s probings, and future presidents outdoing him since has seen us all move on.
What has become a constant, without I suspect many knowing, why is the use of the suffix Gate.
All of which have been affixed to someone’s name or an institution or form of misbehaviour to denote misbehaviour.
Well, Watergate was the building which housed Democratic offices which were broken into.
By agents working for Nixon’s Republican party as part of the campaign to re-elect the President.
Gates galore
So, there you are that’ll save you the two and a half hours trying to figure out what’s going on in All The President’s Men.
But seriously, do watch it, and I do and every time and it reconfirms my desire to do this journalist scribbling thing.
In the hope that one day, even now I’m 59, that I could do a Woodward & Bernstein.
And so we have had Vietgate, Whitewatergate, Monicagate, Camillagate, Emailgate, Garglegate against Boozing Brian Cowen, the-then Irish Taoiseach.
Squidgygate against Princess Diana, Officegate directed at former Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish.
And our favourite Gategate when Tory MP Andrew Mitchell had a go at a police officer at the gate to Downing Street.
A history of Nixons and Kennedys
The original Watergate is still there and for political anoraks like yours truly it was always going to be on the list of must-visit sites in the endlessly-enjoyable American capital.
It was refreshing to see that little had changed since Nixon’s day.
The complex still includes three luxury apartment buildings, the hotel/office building, and two office buildings.
What did surprise me as I hadn’t done all my homework is that it sits next to the Kennedy Center.
John F Kennedy being his nemesis back in the 1960 Presidential run-off.
Read all about it in the library
Only that perceptions can be misleading and when I then met the good folk who run the Richard Nixon Library in California at the American Travel Fair.
I was told how the two families became great friends in latter years.
And that Pat Nixon became First Lady one of the first people she invited was Jackie.
As for Richard Nixon, he returned to the international stage in later life as an unofficial ambassador and consultant.
Much of it under the radar while others were affixed to the surname given to his greatest indiscretion… Richard Nixon and 50 years of Gates.
Of course, this being America, everything is an opportunity for promotion and the Watergate Hotel on the banks of the Potomac makes the most of his moment of notoriety.
It’s a five-star where you can stay from €299 per night.
And again we always advise to fly out of Dublin with Aer Lingus with pre-clearance, from €232.77.
