Whenever something big happens in this country, finishes up, and some time has been put between us and whatever it was, we seem to grow increasingly nostalgic. One way this nostalgia is expressed is through the search for the 'next whatever'. In sports we search for the 'next Jordan' or the 'next Montana'. In the virtual world of the internet, we search for the 'next Yahoo' or the 'next Google'. And seemingly each year around Christmas time we are awaiting the arrival of the 'next Tickle Me Elmo' or the 'next Cabbage Patch Kid'. I don't know exactly what accounts for this phenomenon. My best guess is that we desire to be a part something big so we can tell someone down the road "I remember when..".

The world of politics is no different. Sometimes we are searching for the next of something great, like the 'next Kennedy' or the 'next Lincoln'. More often than not, however, (and especially of late) we are searching for the 'next scandal'. In recent US political history, no scandal invokes this weird sense of nostalgia more than the Watergate scandal. In fact, we have cleverly dubbed subsequent scandals with the -gate moniker. Raise your hand if you remember any of these: 'Filegate', 'Travelgate', 'Coingate', 'Troopergate', 'Plamegate' and the classic 'Monicagate'. Unfortunately, more often than not (just like comparing Kobe to Jordan), the 'next' we were promised and tentatively excited about doesn't quite live up to our memories of the original and we are left yet again to search out for the ever elusive real, deserving 'next'. We actually were *so close* to having a scandal to rival, if not surpass the size, magnitude and impact of Watergate in the Iran Contra Affair (for some reason only occasionally referred to as 'Irangate'). Unfortunately, the Tower Commission robbed us all of that golden opportunity.

Why am I drudging up the past today? Well, I am starting to sense (maybe overly optimistically and definitely nostalgically) that we are right in the beginning stages, right on the cusp of opening up an investigation into a scandal that will truly be the deserving Watergate sequel. Of course I am referring to this little matter of the firing of the 8 US Attorneys. Maybe it is the citing of 'Presidential Privilege' that Nixon also tried to invoke pre-Watergate (and subsequently lost in this court decision). Maybe it is the missing 18 days of emails in this scandal, similar to the 18 minutes of missing audio from the Nixon tapes. Or maybe I just feel that this administration is run just as secretively and just as corruptly as Nixon's. And just as Nixon ultimately paid his due for all his evil doings through the narrow scope of the Watergate scandal, so too could this President pay for all of his through the narrow scope of this scandal. Break out your 70's disco gear and let's all get nostalgic!

Thanks for reading...