With the revelations of the Bush administration's clandestine, warrant-less wiretapping program, it is now abundantly clear which former U.S. president George W. Bush most resembles.
The whole situation can be summed up in my favorite presidential quote spoken by my favorite president. I'll go as far as to say it's quite possibly the most amazing thing a president has ever said.
Journalist David Frost was conducting an extensive interview with ex-president Richard Nixon. During his presidency, Nixon had granted his approval to the Huston Plan - a 1970 proposal drafted by White House aide Tom Huston for a series of burglaries, infiltrations, wiretappings, mail openings and other "black bag jobs" to be carried out against groups with leftist, anti-war and other agendas. Huston made sure Nixon knew these acts were illegal. The plan was scuttled within a week, at the urging of FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. Nevertheless, parts of it were still implemented, and it was listed in Nixon's Articles of Impeachment.
So, Frost asked Nixon about the Huston Plan.
Frost said, "So what, in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations - and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them - where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal?"
And then Nixon let loose a bomb as explosive as any he'd had dropped on Vietnam and Cambodia: "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."
Visit the CarryaBigSticker Web site to purchase a bumper sticker of the quote. You know I'll be ordering half a dozen.
Nixon then goes on to quote Abraham Lincoln to further try to justify himself. Frost calls b.s. - the Vietnam War and the Civil War were hardly equivalents.
Eventually, Nixon admits there is nothing in the Constitution putting the president above the law as a sovereign entity, but he adds, "I do know this: That it has been, however, argued that as far as a president is concerned, that in war time, a president does have certain extraordinary powers which would make acts that would otherwise be unlawful, lawful, if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the nation and the Constitution."
Is it OK for the government to break the law in order to protect the country? Is it OK to shred the constitution in order to preserve it? No, it's not.
It's a political truism that stretches across almost the entire political spectrum: Government cannot be trusted. Both liberals and conservatives embrace this fact. This idea is universal to anyone with a brain. It has nothing to do with partisanship. Should we have trusted Senator John Kerry if he had won? Never.
Knowing no leader can be trusted, the ultimate question is the most troubling: Why has President Bush decided to break the law?
According to CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, "The key question is why didn't the president go to the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court? It's a virtual rubber stamp. The president says he didn't always adhere to FISA because the terror threat is so fast moving, and there's no time to wait. But you can actually get a court order from the FISA court retroactively, so it's hard to see what is slowing things down. Also, there have been 19,000 court orders approving wiretaps from the FISA court since it started in 1978, and only five have been turned down."
The only logical conclusion we can reach is that the president is spying on people he knows he shouldn't be spying on - people the FISA court would never approve.
It seems Richard Nixon is alive and well in the 21st century.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
