Former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean in the Rector's Forum

The rector is on sabbatical but the "beat goes on" at All Saints Church! Don't miss this informative and timely forum as we welcome John Dean back to the All Saints Forum!

Only those who occupy the office understand the privileges and pitfalls of the presidency. What appears to be life in a fishbowl has its hidden dimensions. Any newly-elected president confronts layers of power held by individuals who are not elected to public office. Over a four or eight-year term we watch each president age before our eyes under the weight of responsibility and challenge. It is often through the eyes of those who surround the president that we receive the most useful insights into our country’s highest office.

How does a promising presidency go wrong? In a search for answers, bestselling author John Dean has become a sleuth. June 17 marks the 40th anniversary of the break-in at the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate, the beginning of the end for Richard Nixon’s presidency. Dean’s publisher, Viking Press, has persuaded him to re-visit his years in government in order to answer the question, how did this happen? How did a highly intelligent and politically savvy president like Nixon make such a mess of his presidency? Dean has been at work on the project for slightly over a year and has made some startling discoveries. At the Rector’s Forum he will share a few of his findings from his work-in-progress.

Dean became Counsel to the President of the United States in 1970 at the age of 31. He served as Richard Nixon’s White House lawyer for a thousand days. Having spent his undergraduate years at Colgate University and the College of Wooster, with majors in English Literature and Political Science, he received a graduate fellowship from American University to study government and the presidency before entering Georgetown University Law Center, where he receive his degree in 1965. Dean is the author of five books, the latest of which is Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches.

Please join us Sunday, May 8, to welcome John Dean back to the Rector’s Forum, as he challenges and inspires us to examine a critical period in our nation’s history. Copies of his books Conservatives without Conscience and Blind Ambition: The End of the Story will be available.