Watergate's Deep Throat Revealed

[richlevy]

I completely agree with TW's last post (I won't comment on any others). The recent attempt to rewrite history - 'What Nixon did wasn't that bad', 'Nixon was a great statesman with only a few minor faults', is the Republican party's attempt at belated damage control using their new media power.

While there had been crooked presidents before Nixon, the public had become somewhat spoiled by Presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, Coolidge, FDR, and Eisenhower. While some of these men made controversial decisions, public and private, there was a sense that these were true populists. These men were intelligent, but were regarded as fair dealers. They were men who honest, but smart enough to deal with men who weren't.

Nixon brought pettiness and pure self-interest to the White House and got caught doing it. In his defense some people might say that his not being personally wealthy and not having wealthy friends like FDR did, he had to work harder and cut corners to stay in office and lead. Of course, their were many other presidents who were not born wealthy who seemed to have been able to reach and keep the office without resorting to the level of corruption of the Nixon White House.

There have been great presidents in the past, and many of them were Republicans. Some conservative presidents like Coolidge have left a legacy of poor foreign policy and corporate interference in government, but others were true populists. Even Coolidge was a dedicated public servant.

Nixon's actions in the White House tainted his party for a least a generation, injected a (healthy?) cynicism of future presidents in a population already affected by Vietnam, and unfortunately may have provided a playbook for future less-than-honest administrations.

Of course people are trying to polish up Nixon's image at the same time we are dismantling the checks on power that were established because of Nixon's actions.

We have allowed the special prosecutor law to expire. We are discussing not only renewing some of the most controversial Patriot Act provisions, but making them permanent . In all, we are setting ourselves up for a future Nixon II who will have more unchecked power than any president in the 20th century.

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
George Santayana