Register For Talk By John Dean, Noted Nixonologist And Scott Walker Observer

Former White House Counsel John Dean is giving a free public speech in Madison - - "Crossing the line: Watergate, the Criminal Law, and Ethics" - - under the auspices of the UW Law School on October 4th.

It's the annual Robert W. Kastenmeier lecture, and you can register to attend through a website, here.

Interest is predictably high; the sponsors have already moved the event to a larger venue, so I'd suggest registering promptly.

Dean, now a author and political commentator, helped blow the whistle on criminal behavior in the administration of former President Richard Nixon in the first of all the scandal "gates" - - and has been more recently in the Wisconsin media after talking to Capital Times editor Paul Fanlund last year about Scott Walker:

“His style struck me as strikingly Nixonian, so I began reading more about him,” Dean said in an email.

“As I said in my column, I find Walker more Nixonian than Nixon, meaning that Nixon did not always live up to his reputation, but Walker never seems to fall short of the Nixonian standard. … Walker is a power-abuser like Nixon.”

Dean continued, “I had hoped that Watergate would end Nixonian politics, but as Dick Cheney showed as vice president, some long for the pre-Watergate abuse of power standards.” (Cheney was also a youthful GOP aide in the Nixon era.)

Dean's remarks have sent me back more than once to his important book, Conservatives Without Conscience - - a good read before his Oct. 4th talk.