Chicago Sun-Times (Sunday)

POTTY POLITICS

- MICHAEL SNEED msneed@suntimes.com | @sneedlings

Oh, the Trump of it all! A new chapter was added to the Book of Trump last week. It showcased a toilet in Trump’s White House residence staffers claimed was persistent­ly clogged with torn printed paper … which may have been U.S. archival material destroyed illegally.

The big question?

Was it a purposeful flush of sensitive/topsecret documents?

Or stuff and nonsense?

Ah, toilet talk.

It seems no matter what wild west behavior Donald Trump exhibits, popularity polls continue to collapse for President Joe Biden. No matter.

The Trump toilet evidence is gone forever, flushed into oblivion and out of reach of scoops, snoops and prosecutor­s … even if Trump cries foul!

So let’s spin the Chicago dial back 50 years for a repeat of history.

Back in 1972, Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon’s devoted secretary — and the sister of Joe Woods, the Republican Cook County sheriff from 1966-70 — “mysterious­ly” erased 18½ minutes of White House tapes she was transcribi­ng for prosecutor­s probing the Watergate imbroglio.

She claimed it was an honest mistake. But it was gone forever!

But not forgotten.

Her brother, who was also a commission­er, had regaled us with powerhouse stories about Rose Mary from his office at the old Chicago Civic Center. But he stopped coming by our press room when his sister began her trek to become an asterisk of Watergate history.

We will never know what was in those missing Watergate tapes.

Deep Throat warnings?

Feud fodder?

Top-secret stuff ?

Likewise, we will never know what got pitched into Trump’s private privy.

Perhaps the elusive “love letters” Trump claims he received from North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un?

So while the nation fixates on the dearth of chicken wings for their Super Bowl tables Sunday and what incendiary stuff may have been flushed by the former president, I have come to one steadfast conclusion.

No old love letters of mine will get flushed down my loo!

A world of misery …

Is Chicago finally asking …

What is the point that breaks us? What is the point that makes us? What will finally push us over the line? Another child killed by the gun? Another baby killed by an errant bullet in the backseat of a car?

The visual grief of another family attempting to pick up irreplacea­ble pieces?

The marauders of the Miracle Mile shutting down the city’s economic machine?

Sections of the city trapped consistent­ly by poverty, violence and drug addiction?

The targeted shooting last week of a 15-year-old student by a teenager wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet?

The stunning revelation of Chicago cops using handcuffs belonging to the badly wounded partner of slain police officer Ella French when arresting a woman who destroyed a memorial to her?

Sneedlings …

Saturday birthdays: Actor Arsenio Hall, 66; Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell, 88; Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 57; actor Josh Brolin, 54, and actress Christina Ricci, 42. Sunday birthdays: Actress Mena Suvari, 43; NFL legend Randy Moss, 45; actress Kelly Hu, 54, and TV host Jerry Springer, 78.

 ?? SUN-TIMES FILES ?? LEFT: Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon’s secretary, at her White House desk in 1973. She says she accidental­ly erased 18½ minutes of Watergate tapes.
SUN-TIMES FILES LEFT: Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon’s secretary, at her White House desk in 1973. She says she accidental­ly erased 18½ minutes of Watergate tapes.
 ?? ??
 ?? AP FILES ?? ABOVE: Then-President Donald Trump in 2020.
AP FILES ABOVE: Then-President Donald Trump in 2020.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States