From the Daily Mail:
He carpet-bombed Cambodia, spewed out anti-Semitic slurs and crude misogynistic jokes in the White House and smeared his political opponents with ruthless ‘dirty tricks’ campaigns.
And, of course, he lied to his country about his involvement in the Watergate scandal and went down in history as America’s shiftiest, darkest President.
Given everything that Richard Nixon has been accused of, it’s difficult to believe there could be any more skeletons left in his cupboard. But it seems there are.
[…]
A new biography by Don Fulsom, a veteran Washington reporter who covered the Nixon years, suggests the 37th U.S. President […] may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician. (via @TheAdvocateMag)
Apparently the book, Nixon’s Darkest Secrets, details Nixon’s affair with a Florida ‘non-member Mafia‑affiliate’ called Charles ‘Bebe’ Rebozo. They held hands under the table. Rebozo had complete doesn’t-even-have-to-give-his-name-to-the-Secret-Service access to Nixon in the White House–where he had his own bedroom. He chose Nixon’s clothes. They held hands under the table. It’s… Well, just… Whoa!
Part of me doesn’t believe this: it’s just a damn good way to sell a book. But part of me thinks this explains a very great deal. Go read the article. Even if they didn’t actually have sex, the other revelations are just jaw-dropping.
I'm with “way to sell a book.” That being said, I mean, there are all kinds of non-binary ways seemingly binary people behave…so…
I find this very easy to believe. I think the photo of them together looks so much like two gay guys together that it kinda looks fake.
What I really can't believe is the cover photo for the book – it has horribly amateurish dodging done on it – his face is all washed out because of it. His face was dark because he was looking down, and someone lightened it and botched the job. Unbelievably bad.
People are complex, so maybe. He was still evil, twisted ans dishonest. athere's enough of that to go around.
Take one look at the author of this book, his associations and past shock-jock writtings and you will understand his pleasure with homosexual slander.
Don't know about Nixon, but I remember from the Nixon era, Bebe Rebozo had connections with Vice President Spiro Agnew.
It's perhaps a reasonable assumption that in terms of sexuality, Nixon didn't know what he was. He was also of the generation where certain levels of intimacy were easier between men than between men and women, but which fell short of definably homosexual intimacy. I do believe, as I put it to someone once who was making the tired old argument about “character” and leadership that infidelity was an indicator of a bad president, that Nixon was likely pathologically faithful to Pat—not because he “believed” in it but because he just wouldn't know how not to be. (The point being that he nearly brought down the entire system with his shadow government, so so much for fidelity equating to good presidents.) I don't mean to sound reactionary, but I've gotten to the point of hearing this kind of stuff and rolling my eyes. Oh, really? It may be true but then again so much is a matter of interpretation and so much is just “Let's make the claim and see what happens.”
mordicai, yep, I think it's both.
jennifer, now that you point it out…
anon, to me calling someone gay isn't slander. Saying they lied about it is.
Mark, I think 'pathological' is the operative word here.