The Nixon Administration bugged Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex. Their operatives were caught breaking and entering Watergate to replace a defective device. One of the operatives was a former CIA agent, James McCord, and at least one other had been involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Although it is true that, as conventional wisdom holds, the cover-up was worse than the crime, that is really only part of the Watergate story. The other part is that the investigation of Watergate and the cover-up revealed other illegal and rogue operations that were not.

Sean Hannity, like his cowardly rightwing compatriots Cheney, Limbaugh, Kristol, O'Reilly, Lowry, Gingrich, talks a big game about fighting spirit, war, toughness, but when it comes to putting their own bodies on the line, they follow their leader George W Bush's answer to his Air National Guard's question about whether he would volunteer for overseas duty, and check the "no" box.

Hannity has now broken ranks. He has agreed to be waterboarded, and Keith Oblermann has offered him $1000 per second that he undergoes it with the money going to charity.