I approve wire-tapping

I'm reading "All The President's Men" for my journalism class. We have to talk about how excellent the journalism is. But I must ask this:

Is it? Is it really so great? 

Sure, Woodward and Bernstein were dogged, intrepid reporters. They did their job well- asking anyone and everyone anything they wanted to know. They were ballsy and could sniff through bullshit. They followed their instincts. Basically they did everything a great journalist does, I get that.

But for what? Ok, I've gathered that the it's about the Watergate scandal. To my best understanding, this means that the Republicans' "Committee for Re-election" was sneakily wiretapping the Democrats' meetings and spying on them. Great espionage, until they got caught. 

I don't know if the mysterious tapes of Nixon are in this book- they weren't in the movie- and I've still got about half of the book to go. But what's so big about the tapes? They admitted that Nixon knew about the bugging, right? Then he got impeached (or maybe just wasn't re-elected, not sure).

Admittedly, I hate politics. They bore me to tears. I go more with my own feels than what the law says. So I don't get what the big deal is.

So the Republicans spied? Ok. So they had "secret" funds to support it. It's not like they robbed banks for that money. People gave it to them. Is it dirty to spy? Sure. Is it morally wrong? Maybe, probably.

But he was the president. I've never seen Frost/Nixon (though I want to), but I have seen the commercial where Nixon says "It's not illegal when the President does it," or something to that effect.

I agree. If the President does it, fine. As long as he's not running around with a gun shooting kids in a daycare, or something equally vile, then he can do what he wants. He'll do what's best for the country.

Unless it's Obama, of course, he shouldn't do whatever he wants.

Anyway, I just don't see what the big deal is. The Washington Post just seems like a bully, wrangling up trouble for no reason, sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and interfering with something that doesn't concern it.

This is what I understand: The whole Watergate scandal was the Republicans spying on the Dems. Nixon got impeached because he denied he authorized the taps, but it was found he had. Was it the denial that got him in trouble? I don't know.

All I know is:

A) It seems like a lot of wasted time on a mildly trivial subject.

B) Maybe I should've gone to see the duo speak when they were on campus last year.

C) It's one boring book, but Dustin Hoffman was attractively badass in the film.