Awesome / All the President's Men

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• Woodstein gets a story about Ken Clawson, one of the people involved in the ratfucking campaign, via Sally Aiken that Clawson was apparently flirting with. When Clawson finds out, he calls Bradlee and begs for the story not to run:
  Clawson [on the phone]: Please, listen, now, if you're going to refer to that alleged conversation with Sally Aiken, you can't print that it took place in her apartment. I have a wife and a family and a dog and a cat.
  Bradlee: A wife and a family and a dog and a cat. Right, Ken, right, yeah. Uh, Ken, I don't want to print that you were in Sally's apartment...
  Clawson: Thank God.
  Bradlee: I just want to know what you said, in Sally's apartment.
  • Clawson became so associated with the line "a wife and a family and a dog and a cat" that it was placed in his Wikipedia article. It is still there today over 10 years later, contextualized.
• Woodward and Bernstein figuring out a way to get a reluctant witness - the Bookkeeper - to reveal two people involved in the slush fund. It works when the Bookkeeper asks them who told them about Porter.
• Woodward chewing out Deep Throat after the report on Haldeman goes wrong:
  Woodward: Listen, I'm tired of your chickenshit games! [lowers his voice while retaining the urgent tone] I don't want hints! I need to know what you know!
  [long Beat as Deep Throat realizes his ass is on the line now]
  Deep Throat (slowly): It was a Haldeman operation. The whole business was run by Haldeman, the money, everything. It won't be easy getting at him, he was insulated, you'll have to find out how. Mitchell started doing covert stuff before anyone else, the list is longer than anyone can imagine... it involves the entire U.S. Intelligence Community. FBI... CIA... Justice... it's incredible. Cover-up had little to do with Watergate, it was mainly to protect the covert operations. It leads everywhere. Get out your notebook, there's more. Your lives are in danger.
• When the reporters get burned for claiming Sloan named Haldeman in Grand Jury testimony when he didn’t (because no one asked about Haldeman), the White House and the overall Washington community lambaste the Post. During the next meeting of the desks, it’s noted that they’ll need to issue a response. Bradlee hand writes his statement: “We stand by our story.” Then, he notes “Fuck it. Let’s stick by our boys” and the meeting just moves on to other matters.
• Bradlee sticking with Woodward and Bernstein when there are so many reasons to suppose that they're just wrong. Capped by his orders to them when they tell him they've figured out what's going on and why their original Haldeman story was wrong.
  Bradlee: You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home. Get a nice hot bath, rest up fifteen minutes, then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this, except the First Amendment of the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters. But if you guys fuck up again, I'm gonna get mad. Good night.

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