Silly, over reaching and dreadfully boring:

The website of Thompson’s presidential exploratory committee, imwithfred.com, suggests that Thompson helped reveal the taping system and expose Nixon’s role in the Watergate coverup. And while Thompson’s question to presidential aide Alexander Butterfield during a Watergate hearing unveiled the existence of the taping system to the outside world, it wasn’t Thompson who discovered that Nixon was taping conversations. Nor was Thompson the first to question Butterfield about the possibility.

On July 13, 1973, Armstrong, the Democratic staffer, asked Butterfield a series of questions during a private session that led up to the revelation. He then turned the questioning over to a Republican staffer, Don Sanders, who asked Butterfield the question that led to the mention of the taping system.

To the astonishment of everyone in the room, Butterfield admitted the taping system existed.

When Thompson learned of Butterfield’s admission, he leaked the revelation to Nixon’s counsel, J. Fred Buzhardt .

“Even though I had no authority to act for the committee, I decided to call Fred Buzhardt at home” to tell him that the committee had learned about the taping system, Thompson wrote. “I wanted to be sure that the White House was fully aware of what was to be disclosed so that it could take appropriate action.”

Armstrong said he and other Democratic staffers had long been convinced that Thompson was leaking information about the investigation to the White House. The committee, for example, had obtained a memo written by Buzhardt that Democratic staffers believed was based on information leaked by Thompson.

Armstrong said he thought the leaks would lead to Thompson’s firing. “Any prosecutor would be upset if another member of the prosecution team was orchestrating a defense for Nixon,” said Armstrong, who later became a Washington Post reporter and currently is executive director of Information Trust, a nonprofit organization specializing in open government issues.

Baker, meanwhile, insisted that Thompson be allowed to ask Butterfield the question about the taping system in a public session on July 16, 1973, three days after the committee had learned about the system.

The choice of Thompson irked Samuel Dash , the Democratic chief counsel on the committee, who preferred that a Democrat be allowed to ask the question. “I personally resented it and felt cheated,” Dash wrote in his memoirs. But he said he felt he had “no choice but to let Fred Thompson develop the Butterfield material” because the question initially had been posed by Sanders, a Republican staffer.

When Dash told Thompson on the day of the hearing that he had agreed to let Thompson ask the question that would change US history, Thompson replied: “That’s right generous of you, Sam.”

Gasp! This semi-interesting rehash of partisan politics during the Nixon years makes me question whether or not I’ll vote for Fred Thompson. Why, if he was a loyal Republican who stayed true to his beliefs, that’s cause for concern. And he stole the thunder of a Democrat who was in the midst of stealing the thunder from a Republican! Unforgivable!

Isn’t it ironic that a left leaning rag like the globe is complaining of leaks during Watergate? I mean, wasn’t Watergate all about the leaks? Is leaking bad when it helps Republicans, but good when it undermines our national security?

But what do you expect from the same paper that used violent pornographic images to culled from rape fetish sites to “prove” American soldiers were gang raping women.

Journalistic integrity? Not when the Presidency is on the line.

Also penning (or typing really) hit pieces on Fred Thompson are Media Matters, whose revelation that Fred Thompson is no Ronald Reagan has caused much Republican shoulder shrugging to be sure.

Media Matters is a well known front group so their attacks of Thompson are evidence of his threat to radical leftists.

But what do I know, I’m with Fred!