Posted on 03/26/2013 12:47:35 PM PDT by Seizethecarp
This month, I spoke at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal with some of its survivors at the National Press Club. While much of the discussion looked back at the historic clash with President Nixon, I was struck by a different question: Who actually won? From unilateral military actions to warrantless surveillance that were key parts of the basis for Nixon’s impending impeachment, the painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.
Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments.
Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half. Many Democrats and progressive activists find themselves unable to oppose Obama for the authoritarian powers he has assumed. It is not simply a case of personality trumping principle; it is a cult of personality.
(Excerpt) Read more at jonathanturley.org ...
He loved his country enough to resign and it amazes me that so many people think he was impeached
Idiotic article. Nixon inherited and ended the war, and his conduct of it had diddly squat to do with his resignation. The idea that attacking the North Vietnamese in Cambodia in an already hot war was “unilateral warfare” is a liberal fantasy.
the democrats screwed us and our allies so bad in Vietnam after they got Nixon out, it makes me sick reading their crazy revisionism.
The common thread in the acceptance/denial of the two Presidents and their powers is the media. The Progressive media hated Nixon for jailing their Communist darling, Alger Hiss. The Washington Post made toppling his Presidency its central mission.
The Progressive media love Obama for muscling through the kind of totalitarian welfare state they've lusted for. With very few exceptions they'll support and defend his every attack on the Republican form of government.
Kudos to Jonathan Turley. The man has courage and integrity.
Stupid article - trying to catch eyeballs with a catchy headline. What this really says is what we’ve said all along. The RATS are like cheating husbands - it’s OK if I do it - just don’t let me catch YOU doing it.
It’s OK for the RATs to have an enemies list, use drones, basically act like Mob bosses. Just don’t let the other party do it or they’ll go all holier than thou.
Nixon didn’t win - the RATs won. Sheeesh.
Not only that but Nixon's cause was to try and save the nation from the entrenching of the Marxist elements that have now taken over our unions, universities, nonprofit foundations, major media, the democratic party and the government itself.
The Progressive media love Obama for muscling through the kind of totalitarian welfare state they've lusted for. With very few exceptions they'll support and defend his every attack on the Republican form of government.
Absolutely nailed it.
Today we'd have a few still kvetching about hanging a few hundred commies, but not as vigorously, nor as boldly!
A very common error, unfortunately.
Yes, we would. But the fact is, McCarthy tried to sound the alarm and was the one who was hung out to dry by the same Progressive media and entrenched Marxist "shadow government."
The truth about Watergate is that it was nothing more than a defensive gambit by scared Democrats. They feared that Nixon was just about to launch an enormous investigation into “Who lost the Vietnam War?”, with dozens of Democrats under the hot limelight.
Therefore, Watergate was going to be a bargaining chip to get Nixon to back off, before the Democrat party had been decimated, in hearings akin to the HUAC investigations that unveiled extensive communist infiltration in the federal government. (For which Nixon had been a lead attorney.)
But to their amazement, Nixon did not launch this investigation.
So they decided to just keep pushing with the Watergate scandal, and maybe make some political capital out of it. And because Nixon was so ill prepared, the Watergate investigation crushed the Republicans, like the war investigation would have crushed the Democrats.
Let’s not smear Nixon. In his wildest dreams, Nixon could not imagine doing what Obama gets away with.
"Impeachment" is just the official accusation or indictment. The House Judiciary Committee had prepared the articles of impeachment of Nixon and had voted to send them to the full House. Nixon resigned before this vote of the full House occurred, but he would certainly have been impeached since Republicans were already joining Democrats in significant numbers to vote against him.
Conviction in the Senate requires a 2/3 majority, but Nixon would have lost there too. That is why he resigned.
Something else the libs hope people forget was that President Nixon was accused of trying to use the IRS against his enemies. They we also rabid about it. Now that it’s standard practice for Dem Presidents, not a peep out of them.
It was a leftist coup, no more, no less.
BTTT!
Is he saying Obama is a Dick?
Actually, that would be John F. Kennedy, but I get the point.
Of course, it was Nixon's application of his prerogatives to domestic politics that cost him.
If he'd just been content with the powers of the office in foreign and military affairs, he would have served out his second term with more of those powers intact.
“The idea that attacking the North Vietnamese in Cambodia in an already hot war was “unilateral warfare” is a liberal fantasy.”
I agree. The reason I posted Turley’s blog is that he is calling out his comrades for attacking Nixon and Bush while staying silent when POTUS Barry does “the same thing” (in Turley’s civil libertarian estimation...not mine).
There is a circular firing squad smoldering on the left, as shown by Maddow’s comment posted today claiming that Barry won’t go on MSNBC because he would get “hard” questions.
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