--i sure couldn't hurt it, could i?--
--it was bullshit the way it was--
--what have you been here, nine months?--i been in this business since i was sixteen--
--you only got the job because both you and bradlee went to yale--
--they're all the same, all those ivy league places--they teach you about striped ties and suddenly you're smart--
--mine's better--
--read 'em both and you'll see--
is mine better?
mainly it has to do with your choice of words.
yeah?
you heard? they put us both on the break-in thing. simons liked the way we worked together. listen, i'm sorry i said your story was bullshit.
forget it, the main thing-- --did you call me a failure?
let me lay a little theory on you--
well, barker tried to get blueprints of the miami convention center and the air-conditioning system.
what, though? it can't be the republicans--he'd never allow something as stupid as this, not when he's gonna slaughter mcgovern anyway.
hmm.
i lived here all my life, i got a million contacts, but they're all bus boys and bellhops.
someone inside the white house would be nice.
nothing at all you can remember?
--howard hunt?
any idea what he did?
--teddy kennedy?
white house library, please.
hi. carl bernstein of the washington post. i was just wondering if you remember the names of any of the books that howard hunt checked out on senator kennedy.
--what do you think?--
maybe a political operative of some sort--
it makes sense; hunt worked for the c.i.a. and the white house was paranoid about teddy kennedy.
yes, ma'am.
we need a sympathetic face.
when did hunt start at the white house?
about the past year.
that was fun. what now?
and you haven't called him?--
what's that?
goddamnit--
--i'm trying--
---fifteen or more phone calls from the burglars in miami to gordon liddy at creep--
christ, and i even know somebody at the phone company--
why couldn't you have just dialed me from the office, irwin?
so tell me about the times article.
no games, irwin; give.
something maybe big.
just tell me about the goddamn article.
who by?
irwin? i really feel bad, doing something like this--you know that, don't you?
harry, i just talked to a miami investigator about barker--
i think it might be helpful if you'd send me to miami.
--that was awhile ago--
down to miami and back--how much damage can i do?
yeah? yes, this is carl bernstein. you're repossessing my bicycle? listen, i'm sure i paid this month's installment, so why don't you check your records before you go around hassling people? oh.
hannah, i never would have bothered you but i'm off to miami and they're gonna take away my ten speed unless i get it straightened out fast.
oh, they're here. i'm keeping much better records now, hannah. see?
hey.  very tense.
five hundred; six maybe.
i think.
it's right under that pile.
there's always a later plane.
nobody's perfect. i'm glad you're out of it, hannah-- you're a terrific reporter and i turned you into a bookkeeper.
seated perspiring on a hard bench in a stifling office. outside: palm trees; we're in miami. and judging from the number of cigarette butts strewn around the bench, bernstein's been there a while. waiting. nervous. and maybe he never will be able to get it together, who knows.
hi, it's me. i'm still here.
i'd really like to see mr. dardis.
i called him from washington. he's the one who asked me to be here at eleven in the morning.
could you reach mr. dardis by car radio?
mr. dardis does call in every so often?
good. just tell him i was here, that i'm sorry i missed him--
mr. dardis' office, please.
this is mr. tomlinson in the clerk's office. could you come across the hall for a moment? we've got some documents your boss probably should see.
carl bernstein's here to see you--i don't know why, but he seems angry--
look, you've been jerking my chain all day. if there's some reason you can't talk to me--like the fact that you've already leaked everything to the new york times--just say so.
i'm on deadline.
whatever.
the telephone calls.  we know about that.
--yeah, that was in the times this morning.
what's this dahlberg check?
this? naw.
--woodward--woodward, listen, i don't know what i got-- --and i think the times has it too-- --but somewhere there's a kenneth h. dahlberg in this world and we've gotta find him--
this is practically a high school reunion for us, jane--i would have sprung for a classier place.
--you don't really think you're being followed?
fbi too?
if you don't like it down there, why don't you quit?
hey, easy.
riding home on his bicycle. he gets to his building, starts lugging it up when--
i can help if you'll--
see her? get anything?
and?--and?--
were you eyebrow reading?
left up ahead.
alphabetically, on the creep phone list, miss helen abbott of south george street.
now hang your second right-- --this was my turf when i was a kid.
i brought you over one street too many--go back and hang a left again.
i don't get it.  this really was my turf.
my first day as a copy boy i was sixteen and wearing my only grown-up suit--it was cream colored. at 2:30 the head copy boy comes running up to me and says, "my god, haven't you washed the carbon paper yet? if it's not washed by three, it'll never by dry for tomorrow." and i said, "am i supposed to do that?" and he said, "absolutely, it's crucial." so i run around and grab all the carbon paper from all the desks and take it to the men's room. i'm standing there washing it and it's splashing all over me and the editor comes in to take a leak, and he says, "what the fuck do you think you're doing?" and i said, "it's 2:30. i'm washing the carbon paper." (bernstein looks at
you had the mighty mo and the fries without gravy, right?
i never scared anyone before.
facts or theory?
we know there's got to be something or they wouldn't be so panicked.
i just wish we knew when someone would talk to us, that's all.
we never reveal our sources, which is why you can talk to us.
we understand your problem--
we appreciate your position--really.
i hate both parties.
(surprised, turns to
who'd you vote for?
you voted for him.
hi, i'm carl bernstein of the washington post and--
could i bum one of your cigarettes?--
--don't bother, i'll get it.
just let me get a match.
but i want you to know that i understand why you're afraid--a lot of good people down there at the committee are afraid. i'm really sorry for what you're being put through.
we don't tell anyone that. which is why you can talk to us. and if we can't verify what you say someplace else, we don't print it. that's another reason you can relax.
you were hugh sloan's bookkeeper when he worked for maurice stans at finance, and we were sort of wondering, did you go work for stans immediately after sloan quit or was there a time lapse?
please, yes, thank you. (he looks at the
--right, right, i've got to go. why did you lie just then?
i was just curious--you don't do it well, so i wondered. have you been threatened, if you told the truth, is that it?
it's obvious you want to talk to someone--well, i'm someone.
i'm not even going to put your name down. it's just so i can keep things straight. start with the money, why don't you?
everything, please.
the general accounting report said there was a 350 thousand cash slush fund in stans' safe. did you know about that from the beginning?
--it was all in hundreds, wasn't it?
could buy a lot of steaks, 350,000 dollars.
which people?
who were they?
sloan knew which five, didn't he?
it's awfully hot-- --and you haven't finished telling me about the money--
gordon liddy, you mean?
think sloan's being set up as a fall guy for john mitchell? sometimes it looks that way.
i couldn't believe what she told me. eight cups of coffee worth.
--we've got to find out who the five guys are--the five with access to the slush fund--they were aware of the break-in.
it goes very high--we've got to find out where--
--she was really paranoid, the bookkeeper.
how do you want to handle sloan?
he's another ivy leaguer so he'll probably expect you to be understanding--might surprise him if you're not.
and i'll just shitkick in my usual way.
this must be a difficult time for the both of you.
maybe you could put in a good word.
nothing--i just found out that jeb magruder from creep is a bigger bike freak than i am. i never like it when the other guy's human.
we were hoping that maybe now you could. we know why you left the committee. we know you're not guilty of anything. but we know you know who is--
--then again, maybe things are even worse than we've written--
do you think the truth will come out at the trial?
because people at the committee were told to lie to the prosecutors?
to cover up?
mitchell, stans, magruder, they're obvious--
--colson.
but they both worked at the white house?
kalmbach--nixon's personal lawyer.
right.
ordinarily, though, what was the procedure?
what happens when the baby comes?
look--five men controlled that slush fund as creep--three of them we've got, mitchell, stans, magruder, and we're pretty sure of kalmbach.
--yes--
--no--
--and we got a guy in justice--
john mitchell, please.
sir, this is carl bernstein of the washington post, and i'm sorry to bother you but we're running a story in tomorrow's paper that we thought you should have a chance to comment on.
john n. mitchell, while serving as us attorney general, personally controlled a secret cash fund that--
--fund that was used to gather information against the democrats--
--according to sources involved in the watergate investigation. beginning in the spring of 1971--
--almost a year before he left the justice department--
--to become president nixon's campaign manager on march 1, mitchell personally approved withdrawals from the fund--
sir, i'd like to ask you a few--
11:30.
night.
what's a real denial?
--what?--
--the lookout in the motor inn?-- --he say anything we don't know?--
--there's nothing new in it--
goddamnit--
--we gotta top the times--
--if we could name the guys got the reports, we'd be ahead again--
--i know a lawyer at justice--
--almost every source we've used has been republican, this guy's a card- carrying democrat.
--i want you to shut up and listen to me--
--for the first time i'm beginning to feel like a fucking reporter-- woodward, i got a tip. a guy called me up with a tip-- --someone named donald segretti contacted a bunch of lawyers and asked them if they'd like to go to work with him screwing up the democrats, dirty tricks, shit like that. the fbi knows about segretti-- howard hunt made a bunch of phone calls to him--they interrogated him, but on account of segretti wasn't involved with the break-in, they didn't follow through. but segretti did a lot of traveling--he called these lawyers from different places, and he told them the republicans knew what he was doing.
that's what we've got to find out, but segretti went to southern cal. and so did a bunch of nixon men--
dwight chapin, nixon's appointments chief--he knew segretti in school. maybe i'm crazy, but this is the first time any of this starts to make sense. what were the three theories?
now the reason no one believed the republicans is because there wasn't any reason, they were so far ahead. but segretti was talking to these other lawyers a year before the break- in.
--because a year before, the republicans weren't ahead, not in the polls, muskie was running ahead of nixon then. before he self- destructed.
segovia begged me for me secret but i said, "no, andres, you'll have to try and make it without me."
--'cause i only know four chords--
donald segretti?
i'm carl bernstein. my paper sent me out to see if i couldn't persuade you to go on the record.
mind if i try?
according to what we've been able to verify, you've been busy.
listen--we know you're involved in this--we're going to get the story, why not help?
by "they" you mean?
by "they" you mean the white house, don't you? your buddy from usc, dwight chapin-- he works for the white house.
when did he hire you?
do you feel much about the things you did?
tell that to muskie.
during the florida primary, you wrote a letter on muskie stationery saying scoop jackson had a bastard child. you wrote another that said hubert humphrey was out with call girls.
you wrote the canuck letter--the one where you claimed muskie slurred the canadians.
but you know who did.
chapin did contact you then?
on the orders of haldeman?
it gets interesting if it was haldeman, because our word is that when chapin says something, he's gotten the ok from haldeman, and when haldeman says something, he's gotten the ok from the president.
at usc, you had a word the this-- screwing up the opposition you all did it at college and called it ratfucking. ever wonder if nixon might turn out to be the biggest ratfucker of them all?
what would you have done?
um-hmm. why?
tell him what you just told me.
you think we're being set up?--christ, deep throat tells you last night that the letter came from inside the white house and up traipses marilyn naming names.
you think this was clawsen's initiation?
--if he did it or just said he did it, god knows.
we've just been talking to young--
--he was going to go into law practice with segretti.
he'll give us a sworn statement.
baldwin told the fbi it was you.
--this'll only take one second--
--mitchell, stans, magruder, kalmbach--
--it's gotta be haldeman--someone from the white house had to be involved--
--that leaves haldeman, period.
--if we wrote a story that said haldeman controlled the fund?--
who?
nah. maybe.
well, we are trying to ruin his life.
what's the matter?
i wish we were investigating attila the hun.
--about how all you supposed experts really blew the whole investigation--
--not about haldeman--
--jesus--
--and the fbi confirms--what more do you need?--
absolutely--
how many fucking sources they think we got?--
i know a guy in the justice department who was around the grand jury.
will you confirm that haldeman was mentioned by sloan to the grand jury?
all right--listen--it's against the law if you talk about the grand jury, right? but you don't have to say a thing--i'll count to ten--if the story's wrong, hang up before i get there--if it's ok stay on the line till after, got it?
right, right--ok, counting: one, two-- --three, four, five, six-- --seven, eight-- --nine, ten, thank you.
yeah!
--what went wrong?--
woodward?
what was the mistake? do you think it's been rigged, all along the way, leading us on so they could slip it to us when it mattered? they couldn't have set us up better; after all these months our credibility's gone, you know what that means?
you overslept?
i finally got through to sloan--it was all a misunderstanding that we had: he would have told the grand jury about haldeman, he was ready to, only nobody on the grand jury asked him the goddamn question.