McGovern returns to The Watergate

St. Augustine’s most famous living politician, former Senator George S. McGovern, will be out of town for a while; Historic City News has learned that, after a stop in Cuba, he is headed for his part-time office — an address in Washington, D. C., for which McGovern and former president Richard M. Nixon are best known.

McGovern will make an appearance at his new offices in The Watergate complex, located at 600 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W., on Tuesday and he will return Wednesday, July 6th, for meetings with Treasury officials.

The term “Watergate” entered the American cultural lexicon and is forever tied to the ’72 presidential campaign. Thirty-nine years later, the term “gate” is attached to most political scandals.

On June 17, 1972, burglars, under the control of the Nixon administration, were caught entering the Democratic National Committee offices on the sixth floor of The Watergate.

McGovern was the Democratic presidential nominee that year and former Kansas Senator Bob Dole was the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

McGovern sought to make the Watergate burglary a major issue during the closing days of the 1972 campaign; however, the public and most of the media weren’t that interested.

President Richard Nixon defeated McGovern in a landslide; with McGovern carrying only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.

Later, in 1973 and 1974, Watergate became the biggest story in the world as a series of criminal actions by the Nixon administration and campaign were uncovered.

President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, while McGovern served six more years in the U.S. Senate.

McGovern, who said he has been back to The Watergate complex several times since 1972, says it holds no negative connotations for him.

When the Senator finishes his business in Washington, DC, he said that he will be returning to his part-time home in Mitchell, SD, in time to celebrate his 89th birthday on July 19th.

Marshall Matz, a principal attorney in the law firm Olsson, Frank, Weeda, Terman, Matz P.C., where the 88 year-old McGovern is a Senior Policy Advisor specializing in food, nutrition, and agriculture, has been quoted in the media saying that McGovern has enjoyed the irony of now working in one of the office buildings that is linked to the most famous political scandal in world history.

Just over an hour ago, McGovern jokingly wrote on his facebook, “I sure hope that no one breaks into my office this time,” a comment from the retired Senator that has appeared in The Washington Post’s blog and on numerous websites.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News archive photograph