It's all too predictable. A scandal or merely an apparent scandal involving Republicans happens and one of the Watergate people, usually John Dean or Carl Bernstein, is brought aboard by the media to perform their "Worse than Watergate!" or "Bigger than Watergate!" shtick.
There's nothing at all unusual about Dean invoking Watergate for the umpteenth time as part of his media circus act. Why bring on this 84-year-old pundit, if that's not the point? Dean wrote a book in 2006 that mild-mannered George W. Bush was Worse Than Watergate. Last summer, Dean was the star of a four-part CNN special titled Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal.
In the case of the indictment of Donald Trump in Fulton County, Georgia (after it was prematurely announced before the grand jury even finished deliberating) CNN's Kaitlan Collins inducted John Dean to perform his "Bigger than Watergate!" act.
KAITLAN COLLINS: Do you see echoes of Watergate in this? Or is it -- is it bigger than that? How do you see it?
JOHN DEAN: It's much bigger than Watergate, Kaitlan. It's of a whole different dimension. It goes to the very foundation of democracy.
However, Dean also provided something newsworthy in the form of an observation about Fani Willis and Jack Smith that could cause trouble down the road for both of them.
DEAN: So, I think I understand why Fani did not want to address whether she talked to Jack Smith or not. Because I think they're in conversation right now because they are stepping on each other's toes.
Is "in conversation" the same as "in collusion?" The problem for Willis is she has already strongly denied being in communication (or collusion) with Jack Smith.
“I don’t know what Jack Smith is doing and Jack Smith doesn’t know what I’m doing,” Willis told WABE in a Saturday interview. “In all honesty, if Jack Smith was standing next to me, I’m not sure I would know who he was. My guess is he probably can’t pronounce my name correctly.”
It's pronounced like "Fonny," apparently.
So, thank you, John Dean. You, and possibly Carl Bernstein, can continue making the usual "bigger than Watergate" rounds in the media but at least you did something a bit newsworthy by perhaps painting Fani Willis (and perhaps Jack Smith) into an embarrassing corner.
