Re: Romenesko's "Woodward sounds like his critics from the Watergate days."

Readers of Media Orchard know that we are (1) history buffs and (2) students of journalism. And so, as we have in the past with Anderson Cooper and the Fox News Channel, today we use a fun alternative-history game to ask:

What if Ron Ziegler, the late Nixon press secretary who famously dismissed Watergate as a "third-rate burglary," and Bob Woodward -- the 2005 version -- appeared together on MSNBC's Hardball?

The topic of the conversation? Watergate? Plame? You decide.

(All quotes below are from actual statements made by Ron and Bob.)

Chris Matthews: How big is this scandal, Bob?

Bob Woodward 2005: First of all, this began not as somebody launching a smear campaign ... When the story comes out, I'm quite confident we're going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter...

Ron Ziegler: Certain elements may try to stretch this beyond what it is.

Bob: And there's a lot of innocent actions in all of this ... Well, this is a junkyard dog prosecutor and he goes everywhere and asks every question and turns over rocks, and rocks under rocks, and so forth ... I think it's quite possible, though probably unlikely, that he will say, you know, there was no malice or criminal intent at the start of this. Some people kind of had convenient memories before the grand jury.

Ron: It's necessary to fudge sometimes. You have to give political answers. You have to give non-answers ... If my answers sound confusing, I think they are confusing because the questions are confusing and the situation is confusing.

Bob: Technically they might be able to be charged with perjury. But I don't see an underlying crime here, and the absence of the underlying crime may cause somebody who is a really thoughtful prosecutor to say, you know maybe this is not one to go to the court with.

Chris: So you're saying that this criminal allegation is --

Ron: Third rate.

Chris: Seems you two are in complete agreement. Thanks for playing hardball!

Update: Woodward Was Told of Plame More Than Two Years Ago

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