Richard Nixon was one of the greatest paradoxes on the latter half of the 20th century American political scene. Here we have a man who:
1) Declared himself to be a social and political conservative while at the same time introducing legislation that led to the creation of both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the final abolition of the “Gold Standard,” indexed Social Security benefits to inflation, and created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.2) Actively supported Gun Control legislation
3) Ordered wage and effect controls in a futile effort to combat inflation
4) Whose subordinates issued new governmental rules and regulations at such a rate that they caused the number of pages in the Federal Register to double each year of his Presidency.
5) Made the initial moves toward a reconciliation with Communist China while ordering a general escalation of the bombing of North Viet Nam and Cambodia
6) Promised “Peace with Honor” in Southeast Asia.
7) Was the first President to nominate a woman as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Harriet Lilly, who withdrew her nomination after the American Bar Association declared her to be “unqualified.” The job eventually went to a man named William Rehnquist.)
While Nixon, when viewed in the light of the above-listed accomplishments, would appear to be a liberal’s idea of the ideal US President, Nixon was hounded by the left-of-center wings of both the Democratic and Republican Parties for being “too conservative!”
In the Presidential Election of 1972 Nixon was opposed by Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota). Despite having a double digit lead over McCarthy in every view poll, including the Communist-sponsored Daily Worker, Nixon’s advisors decided that they should use every trick (legal or otherwise) in the book against the Democratic Party in general and Senator McCarthy in particular. This attitude would lead to the famous “third rate burglary” now known to history as the “Watergate Break-in.”
It should be pointed out that, at the time the break-in occurred (June 17, 1972), Nixon himself had no previous knowledge of the planned break-in but the subsequent action of the Nixon White House (including Nixon) are conclusive proof of the statement “Stupid people will invariably appoint even stupider people as their key advisors.”
When he was first sworn into office (January, 1969) Nixon had instituted a policy that all conversations occurring in the Oval Office were to be tape recorded as fragment of the “historic record” of his Presidency. This taping system was apparently working quite well on June 23, 1972 when Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. “Bob” Haldeman discussed using the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to block, or at least hinder, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe into a possible link between the Watergate break-in and the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, but more often referred to as CREEP).
Thanks largely to the journalistic efforts of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, the extent of the illegal use of the CIA and the FBI against Nixon’s enemies (both real and imagined) became known to the American public. This led to demands that Congress hold hearings (a witch-hunt) concerning the matter, which in turn led to the famous Senate Watergate Committee hearings of May 17-August 7, 1973 in which Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee asked the now-famous (and repeatedly asked) question:
“What did the President know, and when did he know it? ”
You would expect that Nixon, being the man with the codes that could unleash enough hydrogen bombs to vaporize our home galaxy, would have simply told the Senate to go to Hell before he launched a retaliatory strike against the Post. There was just one minor problem: the previously mentioned thing with the tape recorders.
The Senate Watergate Committee, as with the rest of the nation, had remained blissfully unaware of what was gong on in the Oval Office until one Friday afternoon in July, 1973. The Senate committee’s investigators were briefing Nixon’s appointments secretary, Alexander Butterfield, on what he might quiz to be asked when he gave his public testimony the following Monday. One of the investigators, apparently “trolling,” asked Butterfield if there had been anything like a recording system that would have taped the President’s conversations during the times immediately surrounding the Watergate break-in, Butterfield’s answer was probably the greatest understatement in the history of American politics.
“I was hoping you fellows wouldn’t ask me that.”
The testimony that Butterfield gave the following Monday was the “beginning of the end” for Richard Milhouse Nixon. A brief summary is provided for those who happened to not be paying attention during American History class.
1) The Watergate Committee demanded the tapes. Nixon, citing “executive privilege,” told them to go to Hell.2) The Senate took the matter to the Federal Courts, which subsequently ruled that not even the word of God (powerful less Richard Nixon’s) was above the law in a criminal matter and that Nixon had to pony up the tapes.
3) Nixon, after a year of stonewalling, gave up transcripts of the taped conversations.
4) Nixon’s ass was on its diagram out the doors of the White House.
Analysis
If sheer stupidity had been a crime Richard Nixon would have been publicly executed on the White House lawn. Despite numerous attempts at both the state and federal levels of government, no one has yet to make a bigger mess that Richard Nixon left behind. Take a look at what Nixon’s resignation caused:
1) Gerald Ford became President. Although he wasn’t the smartest guy to own that particular office, the American public replaced him with an even bigger disaster by the name of Jimmy Carter.2) The American voters dumped Carter in favor of Ronald Reagan and his eventual successor George H. Bush.
3) Despite having the highest approval ratings of any un-assassinated President since George Washington, George Bush managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when he lost the 1992 election to a couple of political hacks from Arkansas by the name of Hillary and Bill Clinton.
4) Bill, having learned nothing from the Nixon fiasco, lied to a federal grand jury about sex and cigars with Monica Lewinsky.
5) William Rehnquist finally got to preside at an impeachment trial.
6) Bill walked away clean, but left behind such a mess that he (with an assist from Ralph Nader) doomed Al Gore’s chances at the job. Gore has yet to stop pouting.
7) George W. Bush gets blamed for the 9-11 nonsense and, in response to that crisis, ordered screening of phone calls and e-mail from countries that are known to be sympathetic to Islamist extremists. The vote is still out on demands that he be impeached.
Moral:
Never elect a stupid person to an office that has been previously held by a stupid person.
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