Some history: When @SenAlexander ran for governor in '74, his Democratic opponent tried to tie him to the Nixon scandal because of his work in the WH in 1969. Alexander pointed out that his work there preceded the "Watergate scar" but the Dem won.
newspapers.com/clip/43348962/…
newspapers.com/clip/43348962/…
2/ That Democrat, Governor Ray Blanton, was eventually caught up in an abuse of office scandal, cash-for-clemency. Alexander defeated him in a 1978 rematch.
newspapers.com/clip/43349355/… via @_newspapers
newspapers.com/clip/43349355/… via @_newspapers
3/ Blanton's brazen actions so outraged the state, Alexander was sworn in early -- and secretly -- so he couldn't pardon/commute anyone else.
newspapers.com/clip/43349513/… via @_newspapers
newspapers.com/clip/43349513/… via @_newspapers
4/ Alexander served as an aide in the late 1960s to Sen. Howard Baker, R-TN. Baker may be best known for asking, as top GOPer on the Senate Watergate Committee, “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”
5/ People forget that Baker was trying to protect Nixon with that question -- walling him off from the behavior of aides.
csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/D…
csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/D…
6/ Baker in 1992: “I believed that it was a political ploy of the Democrats, that it would come to nothing. But a few weeks into that, it began to dawn on me that there was more to it than I thought, and more to it than I liked.”
pbs.org/newshour/polit…
pbs.org/newshour/polit…
