![\"Ashbygate\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Ashbygate.jpg?resize=800%2C400\")
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A few weeks ago Ross Jones and Dave Donovan, of Independent Australia, sent me messages asking me to review Ross\u2019s book on the Ashbygate saga. Despite being as crook as Rookwood I was more than happy to agree, and in due course a copy appeared in my letterbox. I was in the middle of reading it very, very late one night when I happened to notice \u201cALL THE PRESIDENT\u2019S MEN\u201d being run on one of the Fox channels and started to watch it.\u00a0 You know how you are in that semi-somnolent state when something is triggered, a penny drops, and suddenly you are alert and alive.<\/p>\n
What got me going? It suddenly occurred to me 40 years hadn\u2019t passed me by.\u00a0 Both these \u2018\u2026gates\u2019 were made from the same foundry.<\/p>\n
The similarities between the break-in at Watergate, and its subsequent cover-up, which brought down a US President and sent a horde to gaol, versus the plot leading to the political demise of Peter Slipper by James Ashby and others, sent my alarm bells ringing.<\/p>\n
If there was any lingering doubt about adding the term \u2018gate\u2019 to Ashby it was put to rest. A clich\u00e9 it may be nowadays, however, after some 40 years the Ashbygate saga resonates with Watergate.<\/p>\n
They are both about a sense of entitlement to the acquisition and retention of political power requiring the total annihilation of your political opponents irrespective of the law, breaches of the constitution, compromising the roles of the police, military and press, and at a huge cost to the nation, ethically, morally as well as financially.<\/p>\n
Of course to test my thesis I had to revisit a very old and battered copy of the novel written by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. It is a dense read requiring an index of who\u2019s who at the end of the book to keep you informed of the players involved. This delayed writing the review, much to the hair-pulling frustration of both Ross and Dave, as I had to carefully re-read the Woodstein book, and I hadn\u2019t read it for 40 years. It is so long and so very detailed.<\/p>\n
Two items mirroring the ASHBY saga immediately sprang to mind. Firstly, the analysis of those working in the White House by Woodward\u2019s essential source, Deep Throat, and secondly, the level and extent of \u00a0\u2018ratfucking\u2019 by those in the Nixon camp in an attempt to destroy their opponents.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ratfucking\u2019 is a slang term for engaging in dirty tricks and political sabotage with the aim of effectively destroying your political opponent. Does this not sound familiar?<\/p>\n
Nixon had a whole \u2018ratfucking\u2019 division to run amok in the lead up to the 1972 US Presidential elections. Included in their repertoire of dirty deeds were fake letters written on stolen Democratic letterhead, false and malicious gossip campaigns, putting plants into rival campaign headquarters, hiring agitators to disrupt political town-hall meetings, cancelling hall meetings & press conferences, push polling, vote rigging, and the list goes on. It cost Muskie the Democratic nomination, which was won by McGovern, perceived by Nixon\u2019s White House as the preferred, weaker Democratic candidate. It is interesting to note that Karl Rove was involved in Donald Segretti\u2019s group of \u2018ratfuckers\u2019. \u00a0It seems now an integral part of the GOP playbook.<\/p>\n
The other item that resonated was something Deep Throat says to Bob Woodward at one of their 2am garage meetings. The Washington Post was stuck. The story and their sources had dried up primarily because they were starting to make inroads into the White House, and their informants were running scared. Woodward was going over what they had in terms of the people who were starting to be named. Deep Throat tells him they must always follow the money as it\u2019ll gradually lead them to the inevitable conclusion. When Woodward says why people in power would be involved with this. Deep Throat answers, \u201c\u2026what you have to understand is that these guys in the White House are not that smart \u2026and things just got out of control\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the long-held view in our household that the guys occupying the front bench of the LNP Government aren\u2019t that smart, and their performance since coming to office continually supports the proposition.<\/p>\n