Female/Teacher: When George was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was extremely fond. He went about chopping everything that came his way. One day… he found a beautiful, young English cherry tree, of which his father was most proud… Sometime after this, his father discovered what had happened to his favorite tree. He came into the house in great anger, and demanded to know who the mischievous person was who had cut away the bark. Nobody could tell him anything about it. Just then George, with his little hatchet, came into the room. "George,'' said his father, "do you know who has killed my beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? I would not have taken five guineas for it!'' This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment George was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried: "I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it—”Robert/Child: Wait, I thought he was a politician…Female/Intro: The Great politicians have always been honest with the people—Harrison/Intro: You lie!Female/Intro: Considered to be the most honorable politician ever was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Roman Consul and Dictator. He was thought of as the model of Roman virtue. Cincinnatus lived in humble circumstance until he was called upon to serve as dictator, set with the task of defeating the Aequians, Sabinians and Volscians. After the fight was over, he immediately resigned his position, rather than retain all that dictatorial power, a great example of outstanding leadership and service to the greater good and civic virtue.Robert/Intro: Yeah, one guy… ever.Female/Intro: Anyway, politicians do have a history of trouble with the truth, often at the expense of the people in favor of special interests. Simon Cameron, Secretary of State, then of War, under President Abraham Lincoln once said, “an honest politician is one who, when he is bought, stays bought.”Harrison/Intro: He oughta know. He had to resign after being found corrupt.Female/Intro: The question we have to ask: what does it take for a politician to be honest? Must he be an imposter like—

Everyone/Intro: Dave, drama by Ivan ReitmanFemale/Intro: —or suicidally depressed like—Everyone/Intro: Bulworth, drama by Warren Beatty and Jeremy FikserFemale/Intro: —or already “retired” from office like in—Everyone/Intro: Frost/Nixon, drama by Peter MorganFemale/Intro: Are the matters of politics, day to day, too big to share with the people? After all—Harrison & Robert/Intro: Untruth and Consequences: From Washington to FDR to Nixon…Everyone/Intro: …Presidents Have Always Lied…Harrison & Robert/Intro: …prose by Carl CannonFemale/Intro: The following program suggests that, when it comes to politicians—Harrison/Intro: —the moments of truth are few and far between—Robert/Intro: —so We the People need to appreciate them when we can get them—Female/Intro: —or we might never get them again.Harrison/Intro: With prose, The Cherry Tree, by Mason Locke Weems.Robert/Intro: Drama, Mastergate: A Play on Words, by Larry Gelbart.Female/Intro: Poetry, Mr. Politician, by Diane Buckley.Harrison/Intro: And, the songs, The Truth, by Good Charlotte, The Fool on the Hill and Tell Me Why by the Beatles, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, and Lies by Glen HansardRobert/Intro: “An Honest Politician: Female/Intro: Oxymoron or Just a Moron?” – Harrison/Intro: A program that wonders, Robert/Intro: can honesty and politics ever coexist?Harrison/Senator Bowman: Can we have it quiet please. I’d like to begin on time if we may, inasmuch as we’re late already. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Even though a few members of the committee have not been able to get away from a roll call vote on the floor of the house, I am advised that since enough of us are not all there we can proceed with these proceedings here. Proceedings which have submerged to the surface after years of stonewalling and cover-up. I’d like if I may to begin by presenting a preamble I've prepared for the purpose of broadly narrowing down the scope of what these hearings hope to accomplish. If we as a nation have learned anything from Water-, Iran Contra- and Iraq-Gates, it is that those who forget the past are certain to be subpoenaed…Robert/Bulworth: We stand at the doorstep of a new millennium. Our obligation is to reduce our bloated government and at the same time restore its creative power, to reinvigorate our society… and, uh, bring about a, uh, rebirth of, uh, democracy… any questions?Harrison/Man: Yes, the riots and civil unrest went down about 4 years ago. You promised us federal funding to rebuild our community. What happened?Robert/Bulworth: Well, what happened was that we all knew that was going to be big news for a while, so we all came down here, Bush, Clinton, Wilson, all of us. We all got our pictures taken, told you what you wanted to hear, and pretty much forgot about it.Female/Woman: Can’t get any insurance down here, health insurance, fire insurance, life insurance. Why haven’t you come out for Senate Bill 2720?Robert/Bulworth: Well, 'cause you haven’t really contributed any money to my campaign, have you? You have any idea how much these insurance companies come up with? They pretty much depend on me to get a bill like that and bottle it up in my committee during an election, and then that way, we can kill it when you’re not looking.Female/Woman: Are you saying that the Democratic Party don’t care about the African American community?Robert/Bulworth: Isn’t that obvious? You’ve got half of your kids our of work and the other half are in jail. You see any Democrat doing anything about it? Certainly not me. But, what are you gonna do, vote Republican? Come on, come on, you’re not gonna vote Republican. Let’s call a spade a spade. I mean, come on, you can have a billion man

march. If you don’t put down that malt liquor and chicken wings, and get behind somebody other than a runningback who stabs his wife, you’re never gonna get rid of somebody like me.Harrison/Senator Bowman: This panel, which intends to give every appearance of being bipartisan, will be ever mindful of the president’s instructions to dig down as far as we can, no matter how high up that might take us. Now, let me emphatisize one thing at the start: this is not a witchhunt. It is not a trial. We are not looking for hides to skin nor goats to scape; we are just trying at long last to gather all the facts together into one room in the hope that they might somehow recognize one another. Our chief goal, of course, is to answer the question, what did the president know and does he have any idea that he knew it?Female/Cannon: Why do presidents lie? Do they lie more than most people? Are lies of omission essentially the same as lies of commission? What about presidents who convince themselves of things that are untrue—who are, we would say, “in denial”? Is this tantamount to lying?Harrison/Dave: I could veto this Simpson-Garner thing if I wanted to, but I don’t. Do you know why? It’s got homeless shelters… and Headstart centers… and hot lunches, hot lunches for little kiddies. If I kill it, I’m gonna look like a prick. I don’t want to look like a prick. I want you to look like pricks.Robert/Howard: But, sir, we tried to kill it. Twice.Harrison/Dave: I don’t think so, Howard. No, if you killed it, it would be dead. If I kill something, it always dies.Female/Cannon: Can presidents be truly effective without lying—or are there times when they simply must engage in deception? …how is the public to know whether presidents are abusing that prerogative? Admonitions against lying are as old as Western civilization itself, but the Ninth Commandment was applied to the presidency by the first presidential biographer—a parson named Mason Locke Weems, who not only launched the cult of the president-as-truth-teller but did so retroactively with that famous, but unverifiable, cherry-tree story. Ever since, historical revisionism notwithstanding, American schoolchildren have been raised on the standard of a U.S.

Harrison & Robert: Tell me why you cry, and why you lie to me…Tell me why you cry, and why you lie to me…

president who didn’t lie—couldn’t lie—even as a six-year-old boy… Mark Twain deadpanned that Americans held their presidents to a standard few mortals could meet. “I am different from [George] Washington,” he would say. “I have a higher and grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won’t.”Harrison/Nixon: Good evening. This is the thirty-seventh time I have spoken to you from this office where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of our nation… therefore, I shall resign the Presidency, effective at noon tomorrow. (keeps mouthing words)Robert/Reston: Instead of the satisfaction I imagined I would feel, I just got angrier and angrier. Because there was no admission of guilt. No apology.Harrison/Nixon: To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: may God’s grace be with you in all the days ahead.Female/Buckley: How many words can you steal from the truth Before the story becomes a lie If we were to ever stand face to face Could you look me in the eye Preach aloud from your mighty podium Out both sides of your mouth Leading the nation on a route heading north As you sail on a course clearly south Harrison/Chip: Standby. I’m told we must cut back to Washington where the tension is mounting with each growing moment, as the committee awaits the impinging appearance of Secretary of State Bishop. Mary?Female/Mary Chase: Secretary Bishop has, in fact, just arrived, Chip. I’m gonna try and get through here. Excuse me sir, Mary Chase, Total Network News. You’ve agreed to appear before the committee, sir?Harrison/Secretary of State Bishop: I never stop appearing before committees, Mary. I haven’t been out of this building in 2 years.Female/Mary Chase: Mr. Secretary, you’re on record as having been against the entire Mastergate operation.

Harrison/Secretary of State Bishop: I have indeed, from the very beginning. I thought it was lunatic to use a movie company as a cover for the illegal diversion of arms.Female/Mary Chase: And yet, sir, you played a major role in the plan.Harrison/Secretary of State Bishop: That’s a gross exaggeration. My involvement was strictly limited to the extent of my participation.Female/Mary Chase: But, sir, isn’t it true that—Harrison/Secretary of State Bishop: I’m sorry, Mary. The truth will have to wait until after I finish testifying.Robert/Good Charlotte: I want the truth, from you. Give me the truth, even if it hurts me.Everyone: I want the truth, from you. Give me the truth, even if it hurts me… I want the truthFemale/Buckley: From the sightless view within your ivory tower Can you see further than your blind charade The world is not your Potemkin Village Saluting to your white-washed parade You line your golden pockets with my life From the morality you have whored Market my son for the price of a barrel To fight your dirty wars Harrison & Robert: Talk to me, so you can see, oh, what’s going on, what’s going on, ya, what’s going on, ah, what’s going onFemale/Cannon: Presidents prevaricate for the reasons other people do: pathology, politeness, paternalism, convenience, shame, self-promotion, insecurity, ego, narcissism, and even, on occasion, to further a noble goal. Presidents also have burdens not felt by most of us—keeping the nation safe, for one. High-level statecraft requires a talent for telling divergent groups of people what they want to hear. This is not the best recipe for truth telling, particularly in times of war or national peril.Robert/Bulworth: We stand on the doorstep of a new millennium. We have an obligation… on the one hand to reduce… (sigh) yada yada yada… yada yada yada… It’s up to the people to decide what the state of California and the nation will do… Biddy biddy bid… Ooh, what’ll we

do? The nation will do… It’s up to you. What’ll we do? What’ll we do? Well, it’s up to you.

You know it ain’t that funny, you contribute all my money.You make your contribution, then you get your solution.As long as you can pay, I’m gonna do it all your way.Yes, money talks and the people walk.Yeah, now let me hear ya say it, big money.

Everyone: Big money, big money.Robert/Bulworth: One man one vote, now is that really real?

The name of our game is “Let’s Make a Deal”Now people got the problems, the haves and the have-notsBut the ones that make me listen pay for 30-second spots

Female & Harrison: 30-second, 30-second, 30-secondRobert/Bulworth: Yo everybody gonna get sick someday

But nobody know how they gonna payHealthcare, managed care, HMOsAin’t gonna work, no sir not thoseCause the thing that’s the same in every one of theseIs these motherfuckers there, the insurance companies

Female & Harrison: Insurance, insuranceRobert/Bulworth: You can call it single-payer or Canadian wayOnly socialized medicine will ever save the dayCome on now, let me hear that dirty word: Socialism!Female/Beatles: But the fool on the hill

Sees the sun going downAnd the eyes in his headSee the world spinning round

Harrison/Dave: I’ve found some ways to put back the homeless section of the Simpson-Garner Works Bill. Now, the way I see it, we need $650 million in order to keep the project. Now, some of this can be done though some simple changes in our cash management… Money management gets us halfway to our goal. In order to get the rest of the money, we’ll have to make some tough choices. The Commerce Department: we’re spending $47 million on an ad campaign to boost consumer confidence in the American auto industry… we’re spending $47 million so somebody can feel good about a car they already bought?

I’m sure that’s important, but I don’t want to tell an 8-year old kid he’s gotta sleep in the street because we want people to feel better about their car.Robert/Frost: You’ve always claimed you first learned of the break-in on June 23rd. This tape clearly shows that to be a falsehood and, moving on to the Dean conversation of March 21st the following year, there, in one transcript alone, in black and white, I picked out… (reading)

One: “You could get a million dollars and you could get it in cash. I know where it could be gotten.”

Two: “Your major guy to keep under control is Hunt.” Three: “Don’t we have to handle the Hunt situation?” Four: “Get the million bucks. It would seem to me that would be

worthwhile.” Five: “Don’t you agree that you’d better get the Hunt thing going?” Six: “First you’ve got the Hunt problem. That ought to be handled.” Seven: “The money can be provided. Ehrlichman could provide the

way to deliver it. That could be done.” Eight: “We’ve no choice with hunt but the $120,000, or whatever it

is, right?” Nine: “Christ, turn over any cash we’ve got.”

Now, it seems to me, that someone running a cover-up couldn’t have expressed it more clearly than that. Could they?Harrison/Nixon: Let me stop you right there. You’re doing something here which I am not doing, and I will not do throughout these broadcasts. You’re quoting me out of context, out of order.Female/Beatles: The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud

But nobody ever hear himOr the sound he appears to makeAnd he never seems to notice

Robert/Frost: You have always maintained that you knew nothing about any of this until March 21st. But in February your personal lawyer came to Washington to start the raising of $219,000 of hush money to be paid to the burglars. You seriously expect us to believe you had no knowledge of that?Harrison/Nixon: None. I believed the money was for humanitarian purposes to help disadvantaged people with their defenses… I’ve made

statements to that effect before. All that was Haldeman and Ehrlichman’s business. I knew nothing.Robert/Frost: All right, if Haldeman and Ehrlichman were really the ones responsible, when you subsequently found out about it, why didn’t you call the police and have them arrested? Isn’t that just a cover-up of another kind?Harrison/Nixon: Maybe I should’ve done. Maybe I should’ve called the Feds into my office and said, ‘Here are the two men. Haul them down to the dock, fingerprint them and throw them into the can,’ but I’m just not made that way. These men Haldeman and Ehrlichman, I knew their families. Known them since they were just kids. And I’ve always maintained—what they were doing—what we were all doing—was not criminal. When you’re in office, you have to do a lot of things that are not, in the strictest sense of the law, legal. But, you do them because they’re in the greater interests of the nation.Robert/Frost: Wait a minute. Did I hear right? Are you really saying that there are certain situations where the President can decide whether it’s in the best interests of the nation and do something illegal?Harrison/Nixon: I’m saying that when the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.Robert/Frost: I’m sorry…?Female/Beatles: And nobody seems to like him

They can tell what he wants to doAnd he never shows his feelings

Harrison/Nixon: That’s what I believe. But I realize no one else shares that view.Robert/Frost: So, in that case… will you accept then… to clear the air once and for all… that you were part of a cover-up, and you did break the law?

(gets up)

Robert/Hansard: The little cracks they escalatedAnd before you know it is too lateYou're moving too fast for meAnd I can't keep up with youMaybe if you slowed down for meI could see you're only tellingLies, lies, lies

(sits back down)

Female/Buckley: Wear a white hooded robe in this new Crusades Commit murder with a righteous zeal Deploying your personal Armageddon To prove your sacred book is real Saber-rattle your two-faced intention Trace the truth in the action of the deed To disclose the price tag of your moral values Is being wholesaled by—

Everyone: —unrestricted greed Female/Cannon: Presidents have rarely told the full truth in the midst of major military operations, and until Vietnam, Americans tended to cut them slack for the sake of the troops, if nothing else. During World War II, for example, the government launched an elaborate disinformation campaign to mask the details of D-Day…Robert/Cannon: “Paternalistic lies.” The everyday version would be a parent falsely reassuring a child that Mommy and Daddy are not fighting.Harrison/Cannon: Another presidential equivalent would be falsely reassuring the citizenry on issues of national security for their own protection. Presidents have trouble resisting the short-term gain a lie can afford them… The question is, should the government engage in lying…? The answer is, no it shouldn’t. It’s a serious business when government lies, and eventually it does hurt a government and a president’s credibility.Female/Panelist: Senator Bulworth, the news today requires us to ask you about the sudden change in your campaign style.Robert/Bulworth: (laughing) C'mon. Female/Panelist: Could you explain it?Robert/Bulworth: (laughing) C'mon... why are you here? Let's admit it... You're here 'cause you're making a bundle, right?Female/Panelist: I beg your pardon?Robert/Bulworth: Oh? You mean... You're not here 'cause you're getting paid a bundle of money? C'mon, we got three pretty rich guys here, getting paid by some really rich guys, to ask a couple of other rich guys questions about their campaign? But our campaigns are financed by

the same guys that pay you guys your money. So, (laughs) what are we talkin' about here? I could tell you stories about getting money from these guys that would pin your ears back. (laughing) Stories about me. I mean, I don't know about, Hugh. Do you have... (pause) But, uh, I tell ya...(Harrison/Murphy slips away, finds the light switch.)Robert/Bulworth: We got a club, right? Republicans, Democrats...what's the difference? Your guys, my guys, our guys, us guys...it's a club! (Robert/Bulworth: pulls out a flask) So, why don't we just have a drink? (laughs, unscrews the cap on a liquor flask)Female/Panelist: Excuse me, Senator, if you don't mind, at the moment I think we're here to ask about the news of your campaign.Robert/Bulworth: News, What are you talking about? C'mon, the guys you and I get our money from, they don't want the people to have the news. They want you to think the corporations are more efficient than government, right? You want to know why the health care industry's the most profitable business in the United States? Cause the insurance companies take twenty-four cents out of every dollar that's spent. You know what it takes the government to do the same thing for Medicare? Three cents out of every dollar. Now, what is all this crap they hand you about business being more efficient than government? (Lights go out.)Robert/Bulworth: These guys need to be regulated. What do you think, that thee pigs are going to regulate themselves? (looking around) What's going on?Everyone: What’s going on? Ah, what’s going on?Harrison/Producer: Senator, Mr. Weldie... I'm sorry to say, but we're going to have to cancel this for today. They don't want to bump Jerry Springer. (Turns to the audience) I'm sorry, folks. That will be it.(Lights come back on.)Female/Buckley: Are all the certainties that we’ve ever known 

Entrenched in deceit and lies Could you answer just one simple question Will you enlighten us as to why We teach our children to live in fear 

But can’t recognize the enemy’s face In this day of confused hypocrisy It’s our humiliation—

Everyone: —and our disgrace Female/Connie: Welcome back. In our Los Angeles studio we have incumbent Democratic Senator Jay Bulworth of California. Good evening, Senator. Senator, why this new campaign style? (Robert/Bulworth doesn’t look up)Female/Connie: Why this new manner of dress and speech... Your ethnic manner of speech, your clothes...this use of obscenity?Robert/Bulworth: Obsenity?The rich is gettin' richer, an' richer, an' richer, while the middle class is gettin' more poor. Jus makin' billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of bucks?Well my friend, if ah, you weren't already rich at the start, that situation sucks.'Cause the richest muthafucker in five of us is gettin' ninety-fuckin' eight percent of it. And every other muthafucker in the world is left to wonder where the fuck we went with it. Obscenity? I'm a senator. I got to raise $10,000 a day every day I'm in Washington.I ain't gettin' it in South Central, I'm gettin' it in Beverly Hills. So I'm votin' in the Senate the way they want me to and I’m sendin' 'em my bills.But we got babies in South Central dyin' as young as they do in Peru. We got public schools that're nightmares, we got a Congress that ain't got a clue.We got Bill just getting' all weepy, we got Newt blaming teenage moms.We got kids with sub machine guns, we got militias throwin' bombs. We got factories closin' down, Where the hell did all the good jobs go? Well, I’ll tell you where they went—my contributors make more profits… hiring kids in Mexico.Oh a brother can work in fast food, if he can't invent computer games But what we used to call America—that's going down the drains.

How's a young man gonna meet his financial responsibilities workin' at a mutha fuckin' Burger King? He ain't. And please don't even start with that school shit. There ain't no education goin' on up in that muthafucker.Obscenity? We got a million brothers in prison, I mean the walls are really rockin'. But you can bet your ass they'd all be out if they could pay for Johnnie Cochran.The Constitution sposed to give 'em an equal chance. Well that ain't gonna happen for sure. Ain't it time to take a little from the rich mutha fucka and just give a little to the poor?I mean, those boys there on the monitor—they want the government smaller and weak. They be speakin' for the richest 20 per cent, while pretendin' they defendin' the meek.Aww, shit, fuck, cocksucker. That's the real obscenity black folks livin' with everyday. Is tryin' to believe a mutha fuckin' word Democrats and Republicans say.Obscenity? (standing) I'm Jay Billington Bulworth and I’ve come to say. The Democratic Party’s got some shit to pay.It’s gonna pay it in the ghetto, It’s gonna pay it in...Female/Connie: Senator, are you saying the Democratic Party doesn't care about the African American community?Robert/Bulworth: (sitting) Isn't that obvious? Look, a lot of people think there're no black leaders anymore because they all got killed but I happen to think it's because of the decimation of the manufacturing base in the urban centers. Don't you think so?Harrison/Engineer: He's had his time. Flush him. Robert/Bulworth: (lowering his speech) You know the guy in the booth who's talkin' to you on that tiny little earphone. He's afraid the network gonna tell him he's through, If he lets a guy keep talkin' like I'm talkin' to you.

Corporations got the networks and so they get to say Who gets to talk about the country, and who’s crazy today.I would cut to commercial if you still want this job, You might not be back tomorrow with this corporate mob. Cut to commercial, cut to commercial.OK. I got a simple question that I'd like to ask, Of this network who pays you for performing this task. How cum they got the airwaves? They're the people's, aren't they?Wouldn't they be worth 70 billion to the public today If some money grubbin' Congress didn't give 'em away For big campaign money? It's hopeless, you see. If you runnin' for office without no TV. If you don't get big money you get a defeat. Corporations and broadcasters make you dead meat.You been taught in this country There's speech that is free. But free do not get you no spots on TV.If you want to have Senators not on the take, Then give them free air time, they won't have to fake.Telecommunications is the name of the beast, That, that, that, that, that, that's eating up the world from the West to the East.The movies, the tabloids, TV and magazines, They tell us what to think and do and all our hopes and dreams.All this information makes America fat, But if the company's out of the country, how American is that?But, we got Americans with families can't even buy a meal. Ask a brother who's been downsized if he's gettn' any deal.Or a white boy bustin' ass till they put him in his grave. He ain't gotta be a black boy to be livin' like a slave.Rich people have always stayed on top, by dividing white people from colored people. But white people got more in common with colored people than they do with rich people. We just gotta eliminate 'em.Female/Connie: Eliminate?Robert/Bulworth: Eliminate.Female/Connie: Who? Rich people?

Robert/Bulworth: White people. Harrison/Man: Damn.Robert/Bulworth: Black People, too. Brown people, Yellow people. Get rid of 'em all. All we need is a voluntary, free spirited, open ended program of procreative racial deconstruction.Female/Connie: Uh...Robert/Bulworth: Everybody just got to keep fucking everybody till we're all the same color.Harrison/Man: Damn.Robert/Bulworth: (leans forward) I think it’s gonna take a while but...

CRASHFemale/Connie: (startled) Thank you, Senator Bulworth. We'll return with former Governor Lamar Alexander after this message.Harrison: What’s going on? Ah, what’s going on?Female/Buckley: Eventually we’ll stand and we’ll fight back 

When we shake our collective apathy There’ll be no more reality channels to turn As the opiate unveils its fallacy The truth will unfurl like a blooming flower Unblemished in its hoary light There will be a resolution through naked peace As we awaken from this long dark night  

Robert/Man: Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States.Harrison/Dave: Mr. Speaker. Vice-President. Members of the Congress. Fellow Americans. I wish I could be here today under different circumstances. There are many things about this country that we should be discussing. But, I realize that’s not possible now. As all of you know, my former chief of staff has implicated me in a scandal involving the First Liberty Savings and Loan. And, once people start discussing a scandal, it's hard to talk about anything else. So, fine, let's talk about it. Bob Alexander has accused me of—Let me read this to make sure I get it right—“illegally influencing regulators on behalf of campaign contributors,” “interfering with an ongoing Justice Department

investigation,” and “violating federal election laws in the area of campaign finance.”Female & Robert/Good Charlotte: I want the truth, from you.

Gimme the truth, even if it hurts me.

Harrison/Dave: OK, let's get right to the guts of it. Each one of these charges is true. I'm the president, and as they say, the buck stops here. So I take full responsibility for every one of my illegal actions. But, you see, that's not the whole story. And I think each one of you is entitled to the whole truth. I have here written proof... In the form of notes, memoranda and personal directives, proving that Bob Alexander was also involved in each one of these incidents, and in most cases, planned them as well. Now, allegations of wrongdoing have also been made against Vice-President Nance. As this evidence will prove, at no time, and in no way was the Vice-President involved in any of these. Bob just made all that up. Vice-President Nance is a good and decent public servant and I'd like to apologize for any pain this may have caused him or his family. And, while we're on the subject, I'd like to apologize to the American people. You see, I forgot that I was hired to do a job for you... And it was just a temp job at that. I forgot I had 250 million people who were paying me to make their lives a little bit better. And, I didn't live up to my part of the bargain. You see, there are certain things you should expect from your president. I ought to care more about you than I do about me. I ought to care more about what's right than I do about what's popular. I ought to be willing to give up this whole thing for something I believe in because if I'm not... If I'm not… (hand to head) if I’m not… if I'm not, then... Maybe I don't belong here in the first— (collapses)Female/Cannon: So, is it still lying, anyway? He displays a kind of willful disregard for the truth, which is the moral equivalent of lying. He doesn’t do any due diligence with the facts. Even if you believed something was true at the time you said it, it becomes a lie when you don’t act on new information—or correct yourself when you’ve been proven wrong.Robert/Frost: Mr. President, we were talking about the period March 21st to April 30th. About the mistakes you’d made and so on… I’m wondering… would you go further than ‘mistakes?’ The word seems not enough for people to understand.

Harrison/Nixon: Well, what word would you express?Robert/Frost: All right. Since you’ve asked me, there are three things the American people would like to hear you say. One, there was probably more than mistakes. There was wrongdoing—yes, it might have been a crime, too. Secondly, I did abuse the power I had as President. And, thirdly, I put the American people through two years of agony and I apologize for that.Harrison/Nixon: It’s true, I made mistakes. Horrendous ones—ones that were not worthy of a President. Ones that did not meet the standards of excellence that I always dreamed of as a young boy. But, if you remember, it was a difficult time. I’d been caught up in a ‘five-front war’ against a partisan media, a partisan House of Congress, a partisan Ervin Committee… (catches himself) But yes, I’d have to admit there were times I did not fully meet that responsibility and… was involved in a ‘cover-up’ as you call it. And for all those mistakes, I have a very deep regret. I still insist they were mistakes of the head, not mistakes of the heart. But they were my mistakes and I don’t blame anyone else. I brought myself down. I gave them a sword. And they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish. And I guess, if I’d been in their position, I’d have done the same.Robert/Frost: And the American people?Harrison/Nixon: I let them down. I let down my friends. I let down the country. Worst of all, I let down our system of government and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but now think it’s too corrupt. I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life… My political life is over.