Why Anthony Weiner needs to call Chuck Colson and Jeb Stuart Magruder

My lunch with Jeb Stuart Magruder (and what I suspect he might say to Anthony Weiner)

In 1988, I was running in a Republican primary for a spot on the ballot to replace my old boss, Jim Bunning, in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District. During that time, I was having a moral crisis about spending so much time away from my family and asked a friend to set up a meeting with Magruder for some spiritual advice.

The meeting started by Rev. Magruder telling me that he didn’t “do politics” anymore and that he was only there for a few minutes. But when Magruder found out that the purpose of my visit was not to solicit campaign advice, his mood changed. What followed was a two-hour lunch where Magruder advised me on the spiritual nature of political power.

For a time in 1973, as the director of Richard Nixon’s inaugural, Magruder basked in the glow of being the top powerbroker inside the Beltway. If a person wanted to be with the president on the night of the inaugural, they had to go through Magruder. His calls were taken and his messages were quickly returned. Two months later, when Magruder began cooperating with Watergate prosecutors, he became persona non grata to those same people.

Reverend Jeb Magruder told me privately what he has said publically — that Nixon knew of the Watergate scheme prior to the break-in and that, at the time, he was mistakenly willing to do anything to protect the president and his agenda.

Magruder’s personal lessons for me were two-fold. First, he said, all power comes from God and a politician ignores this reality at his or her own peril. In 1973, Magruder believed he had power. Fourteen months later, his penance for such thoughts was a jail term which left him emotionally and financially bankrupt. He said that upon his release from jail he understood that his only true assets in life were his family and his faith.

Secondly, even though I had gone to Magruder seeking answers in my life, he informed me that I would never find them. Only God knew the answers and He was not going to tell them to me in this life.

Magruder then instructed me that there were right questions. He said that as long as I kept asking the right questions, I could keep my political (and personal) life on the right track.

Maybe it’s just that simple

Somewhere along the way, like so many members of Congress from both parties, Anthony Weiner began to believe he had real power and quit asking questions based upon a basic understanding of right and wrong.

Before Anthony Weiner takes a call from Keith Olbermann, he needs to pick up the phone and call Rev. Magruder.

Rick Robinson is the author of political thrillers which can be purchased on Amazon and at book stores everywhere. His latest novel, Manifest Destiny, has won seven writing awards, including Best Fiction at the Paris Book Festival.