July 28th, 2007 11:00pm

WATERGATE might never have been uncovered if Jann Wenner had given Carl Bernstein the job he wanted - Hunter Thompson's gig at Rolling Stone. At a Thompson symposium on the Plum cable channel in Aspen, Bernstein told Hunter's former assistant, Sari Tuschman, now a Plum anchor, that he hoped to score the famed Gonzo journo's job on the magazine's national-affairs desk while Hunter followed George McGovern's campaign. He said he was bothered the Washington Post wouldn't send him to cover Vietnam. But while Bernstein waited for Wenner to respond, he and Bob Woodward began to uncover the connection between the White House and the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters. The rest was history.