The Watergate: Inside Americas Most Infamous Address

Synopsis

Since its opening in 1965, the Watergate complex has been one of Washingtons chicest addresses, a home to power brokers from both political parties and the epicenter of a scandal that brought down a president. In The Watergate, writer and political consultant Joseph Rodota paints a vivid portrait of this landmark and the movers and shakers who have lived there.Watergate residentsan intriguing casts of politicians, journalists, socialites and spieshave been at the center of Americas political storms for half a century. The irrepressible Martha Mitchell, wife of President Nixons attorney general and campaign manager John Mitchell, captivated the nation with a stream of outrageous interviews and phone calls from her Watergate duplex. Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia put aside their differences many a New Years Eve to celebrate together at the Watergate, dining on wild game hunted by Scalia and cooked by Ginsburgs husband. Monica Lewinsky hunkered down in her mothers Watergate apartment while President Clinton fought impeachment; her neighbor US Senator Bob Dole brought donuts to the hordes of reporters camped out front. Years after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted chamber music concerts in her Watergate living room, guests remembered the soaring musicand the cheap snacks.Rodota unlocks the mysteries of the Watergate, including why Elizabeth Taylor refused to move into a Watergate apartment with her sixth husband; reveals a surprising connection between the Watergate and Ronald Reagan; and unravels how the Nixon break-in transformed the Watergates reputation and spawned generations of "-gate scandals, from Koreagate to Deflategate.The Washington Post once called the Watergate a glittering Potomac Titanic." Like the famous ocean liner, the Watergate was ahead of its time, filled with boldface namesand ultimately doomed. The Watergate is a captivating inside look at the passengers and crew of this legendary building.