Showing posts with label richard nixon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label richard nixon. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Blow Job That Roared
Bill Clinton was impeached over lying about a blow job. He wasn't convicted, despite the fact that lawmakers such as Trent Lott voted against impeaching Richard Nixon for his high crimes and misdemeanors, yet thought Clinton's sexual habits were worthy of removal from office.
That is just politics. Impeachment is a political act as much as a legal one. The conviction of Bill Clinton did not occur because the American people were opposed to drumming a man out of office for the high crime of adultery.
Large segments of the media on the other hand, cheered and declared Clinton unfit for office despite what the rabble in the masses thought. They knew better. David Broder famously quipped on the "seriousness" of Clinton's transgressions.
"He came in here and he trashed the place," says Washington Post columnist David Broder, "and it's not his place."
Oddly, like Trent Lott, "Dean" Broder thought the Nixon impeachment was much ado about nothing.
Today, comes word that Karl Rove gave pep talks to U.S. Diplomats on ways they could give help to at risk Republican congress members. The ambassador to Denmark needs to know how to help Chris Shays beat a challenger in order to do his job apparently.
Also today, Alberto Gonzales lied under oath once again, with the response being another stifled yawn. It turns out, under version 583 of Gonzales' story, that he was there talking to a sedated man out of surgery to be helpful.
"We never had any intent to ask anything of him if we did not feel he was competent," Gonzales testified at an oversight hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that Ashcroft was "lucid" and did most of the talking during the meeting.
There is a litany of abuses. Habaes Corpus, Geneva Conventions, illegal wiretapping, going around the courts, ignoring subpoenas and to call the reaction muted in contrast with the stain upon our constitution that was Monica Lewinsky's navy blue Gap dress would be an understatement.
My question is why. Why is violating our constitution brazenly, repubsively, wantonly and arrogantly less of a crime than a horny middle aged man playing doctor with a twenty-three year old woman? There never is an answer. "Moderate" pundits such as Chris Matthews, David Broder, Maureen Dowd either don't hear the question, or demur from answering.
It does not mean we should stop asking. Anybody who went against the public wishes and demanded that a blow job create a constitutional crisis does not deserve to be listened to discussing inane chatter while our Republic is torn assunder by a disrespect for our constitution that would have even given Richard Nixon pause.
Today is the 33rd anniversary of Nixon being compelled by the courts to turn over the White House tapes. Even Nixon realized that executive privilege was a matter to be litigated by the court. Does anybody feel that serenely about Bush complying even under the order of the Supreme Court?
But, he didn't get a blowjob. There is that.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Fred Thompson Is As Dumb As Hell.
That's not me speaking. That's Richard Nixon's zombie corpse haunting us with words of wisdom from the grave.
Nixon was disappointed with the selection of Thompson, whom he called "dumb as hell." The president did not think Thompson was skilled enough to interrogate unfriendly witnesses and would be outsmarted by the committee's Democratic counsel.
This assessment comes from audio tapes of White House conversations recently reviewed by The Associated Press at the National Archives in College Park, Md., and transcripts of those discussions that are published in "Abuse of Power: The New
Watergate Tapes," by historian StanleyKutler.
"Oh s---, that kid," Nixon said when told by his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, of Thompson's appointment on Feb. 22, 1973.
"Well, we're stuck with him," Haldeman said.
Nixon may have been evil, but his intellect was never questioned. Maybe
Thompson has gained some IQ points from all of his lobbying and acting work, but I doubt it. Nixon was worried that John Dean wouldn't get a good grilling from Thompson because he was too stupid to do the job properly.
We also learned this week that Thompson's leaks to Nixon included a heads up on the taping system about to be revealed by the Senate Watergate Committee. Perhaps the Rosemary Woods and the eighteen and a half minute (very cut) gap in the tapes could get a fresh looksie in light of this news.
Nixon did think that Thompson was "friendly". So, it's not all bad news. The
problem is that it sounds like Dick Nixon was describing Checkers instead of a man to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) compared President Bush to former President Nixon today, suggesting Bush is "as isolated" now over the Iraq war as Nixon was during the Watergate scandal, reports Politico's Carrie Budoff.
"The president is as isolated, I believe, on the Iraq issue as Richard Nixon was when he was hunkered down in the White House."
For fun, here is Richard Nixon's I am not a crook speech. Replace crook with evil doer, and have Bush mangling the english language and I can see it happening once again. These Nixon comparisons by the way are totally unfair... to Nixon.
Richard Nixon made the opening to china, signed the EPA legislation, and read books. He even wrote quite a few without Karen Hughes help. Nixon may have been evil and paranoid, but he was intelligent, and willing to change course on an issue when persuaded with facts. It's an insult to Nixon to lump Bush in with him.
Update:Anybody have thoughts on this? Nixon or Bush. My money goes on Bush as being the worst president ever. It's not even close. I would dig up Nixon, put his stinking corpse in the oval office chair, and prop his fingers in the classic V for victory pose. He wouldn't do nearly as much damage as Bush.
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