HBO’s 'White House Plumbers' Episode 2 Review: Hunt and Liddy are two 'gems' in Project Gemstone
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In another episode of HBO’s political satire, ‘White House Plumbers', the two men, E Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy serve at the mercy of the President. After being appointed to the committee to re-elect President Richard Nixon, the ex-CIA (Hunt) and ex-FBI (Liddy) agents decide to bring their A-game to the table. However, the political climate in the early 70s in the United States is one of doubt and distrust, as if evil is lurking around the corner. Hunt and Liddy start the episode by convincing two prostitutes to honeytrap the members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Miami, all while narrating their tales of the glory of taking Che Guevara down. Liddy is a lippy who can argue till death to make his point.
When Hunt and Liddy return to Washington DC, they show their plans to John Mitchell, the Attorney General of the country and the man leading the committee to re-elect President Nixon. Liddy begins his presentation and names “Project Gemstone” as the first plan that he believes will help in re-electing the President. However, he has 11 more plans, making Gemstone the umbrella under which all other plans fall. One of those plans is Project Opal which includes bugging the offices of the DNC at the Watergate complex to build strategies for the Republicans for the upcoming elections. But Mitchell isn’t impressed and so is Nixon’s Deputy Campaign Chair, Jeb Magruder, and White House Counsel, John Dean who are present in the room. Hunt, standing next to Liddy only shakes his head in disbelief, and the battle to impress the President and move up the ladder for both Liddy and Hunt looks lost. However, another scandal is brewing which might blow up in Mitchell’s face and end the presidency of Richard Nixon.
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Liddy wants to impress at all costs
News breaks out that Mitchell promised to help the International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) in its antitrust lawsuit in exchange for a huge donation to the Republican National Committee (RNC) convention in San Diego. Unfortunately, that memo has been leaked to newspaper columnist Jack Anderson. If Mitchell is caught, he will be charged with a felony bribery scandal and it will create a ripple effect that could hurt President Nixon. However, when Liddy learns about it, he phones Hunt and tells him that it’s a golden opportunity to help Mitchell and get back in his good graces. For Liddy and Hunt, if they could pull this off, it would mean Project Gemstone may be back on the table.
Liddy runs around the office like a madman on a mission and even hurls out to kill Jack Anderson when Jeb jokes about putting an end to the columnists once and for all. If not for Jeb convincing him otherwise, Liddy would have gone forward and killed Anderson, the man who wrote about Mitchell’s dirty deeds. He’s willing to do anything, even forget about the time when Mitchell made him burn the blueprints of all the plans under Project Gemstone.
Hunt works his magic to win Mitchell’s trust
While dealing with domestic issues, Hunt’s efforts are overshadowed at first but it is Hunt’s charismatic CIA persona that saves Mitchell from prison. Dita Beard, the woman who wrote the memo which was leaked to Anderson is on course to testify before the Senate committee against Mitchell. Liddy goes to talk to her and asks her to fake a medical episode. She’s airlifted to Denver before her hearing and Hunt arrives to persuade her not to testify. With simplicity and effective persuasion, Hunt manages to sway Dita away from the notion of testifying by invoking a sense of patriotism but only towards the Republicans.
When Dita is unable to travel to Washington to testify before the Senate, the members of the Senate committee are flown to Denver, Dita refuses to testify, saving Mitchell’s job. Hunt and Liddy are deemed heroes and Mitchell is pleased. He’s a little too pleased as he gives the green light to Project Gemstone but Jeb allots them $250,000 for Project Opal, the job that involves infiltration and bugging the offices of the Democrats
