Nixon no longer worst of the worst
Somewhere beyond the veil, Richard Nixon is finally at rest.
He will no longer be remembered as the worst of the worst as far as White House and presidential scandals go.
Just ask John Dean, Nixon’s counsel who was responsible for the Watergate cover-up.
“The abuse of Congress here and the obstruction of Congress is much more compelling than it was in the Nixon case,” Dean recently told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
And that’s only when it comes to obstruction of justice.
Look, in layman’s terms, if you or I were ever brought up on charges, there is no way we could order witnesses from the prosecutorial side to not testify.
There is no way we could refuse to turn over documents or other evidence requested by investigators.
And if we tried to coerce information from the lead investigator and then fire him because he refused to cooperate, we’d be neck deep in additional charges.
History reminds us of how obstruction was the most powerful and damning evidence in the Nixon case and how it led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
Now, there is a difference between the investigations into Nixon and Clinton and the current probe of the sitting president.
You see, both Nixon and Clinton were more forthcoming with their investigations. They may have tried to circumvent the system, but their cooperation with investigators indicated a certain respect for the system. Despite their transgressions, they were highly intelligent men. It was their lies and misinformation that got them burned. In the end, they learned the painful lesson that brains and luck will only get you so far and that nobody is above the law; that Bob Dylan was right when he sang “even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.”
In the case of today’s investigation, there is clear interference — from the firing of FBI Director James Comey to ordering those who were or remain under the influence of Donald Trump to disobey Congressional subpoenas. That would include Mick Mulvaney, Rick Perry, Mike Pompeo, Rudy Giuliani, and John Bolton, who could very well be hiding the smoking gun.
There are reasons, of course, for Bolton to keep his yap zipped. First, he has a multi-million dollar book deal signed. Refusing to divulge what he knew and when he knew it until publication would give significant boost to his book sales. There is also the uncomfortable feeling that he could be looking at a potential run for the presidency should the president be removed from office. The president’s base would lovingly embrace the crusty, hardline, white nationalist Bolton, especially if he continues to stand by his man and keep his mouth shut.
Obstruction charges against the president would be more critical than his ravaging of the presidency via his pandering to Ukraine officials to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son. As we have seen, Republicans are not saying that the president did not troll for outside influence in advance of the 2020 election. Instead, they are saying, “So what?”
It doesn’t matter that putting the screws to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky amounts to soliciting political favors in exchange for weapons and funding, that to do so threatens the fabric of our democratic system, that it is a clear and evident abuse of presidential powers. Of course, the president says his office gives him license to do whatever he chooses, an egregious exaggeration of executive authority and a tragic rending of our Constitution.
The reverberations of this impeachment inquiry will echo for ages.
It took years to overcome the damage inflicted upon the presidency by Richard Nixon. It took years to overcome the damage inflicted upon the presidency by Bill Clinton. And both of those probes were endorsed by the voting public.
This time, the voices are split right down the middle among the riffraff.
As we are learning, if impeachment leads to the removal of the president there is a segment of wingnuts out there promising civil war.
As we know, if justice is not served and the president remains, it signals the complete and utter destruction of the republic and its rule of law.
In other words, there will be no winners, only a nation of losers when the lawyers pack up their bags and head home to collect their fat checks.
The fallout will leave a taint on most of the actors, particularly Giuliani who arguably remains the president’s most pugnacious sycophant and hitman.
Should he continue to put personal gain ahead of patriotism in defending a nation he claims to love and serve, Bolton will be covered in two lifetimes of barnyard stench. History will not be kind to this back alley thug who would shiv you with a rusty screwdriver then leave you to bleed out in a dumpster.
There is strong sentiment that this is a political exercise.
To a certain extent, that is true.
The Democrats are lining up on their side seeking tin-cup justice, the Republicans on theirs holding out to silver-spoon elitism.
But at the heart of the matter, there is ample evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, a thumbing of the nose to order and the law, and a horrible and self-serving pattern of abuse.
Republicans in the House and Senate most likely will continue to obfuscate in an attempt to dial down the implications of the president’s abuse of power in the Ukraine scandal. They may be able to play their three-card Monty game into a complete state of confusion that stymies the voting public. It’s how they have conducted their end of the investigation thus far, and they have been doing a very good job of it, especially when trying to convince the unwashed masses that believe that maybe the president can do anything he wants, even if it circumvents the law.
It works like that in the private sector where wealth equates to advantage. A guy with a bankroll can easily skate through most trouble because he can tie things up in the courts until the opponent either withers from exhaustion or runs out of money.
But it’s not supposed to work like that in the public sector, especially among people we have entrusted with our liberty and the heavy yoke of justice.
Faith.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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