E&P: Carl Bernstein: Bush Administraton Has Done 'Far Greater Damage' Than Nixon

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: Carl Bernstein: Bush Administraton Has Done 'Far Greater Damage' Than Nixon
By E&P Staff
Published: January 24, 2007

NEW YORK -- In an online chat at washingtonpost.com on Wednesday afternoon, Carl Bernstein, the famed Watergate reporter at that paper and now writing articles for Vanity Fair, took several hard shots at the current Bush administration -- almost every time he was asked about the Nixon era...."In the current administration we have seen from the President down -- especially Vice President Cheney, Attorney General Gonzales, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld -- a willingness to ignore the great constitutional history of the United States -- to suspend, really, many of the constitutional guarantees that have made us a nation apart, with real freedoms unknown elsewhere, unrestricted by short-term political objectives of our leaders.

"Then there are the Geneva conventions: Who would have dreamed that, in our lifetime, our leaders would permit their flagrant abuse, would authorize torture, 'renditions' to foreign-torture chambers, suspension of habeus corpus, illegal surveillance of our own citizens....

"But perhaps worst, has been the lying and mendacity of the president and his men and women--in the reasons they cited for going to war, their conduct of the war, their attempts to smear their political opponents.

"Nixon and his men lied and abused the constitution to horrible effect, but they were stopped.

"The Bush Administration -- especially its top officials named above and others familiar to most Americans -- was not stopped, and has done far greater damage. As a (Republican) bumper-sticker of the day proclaimed, 'Nobody died at Watergate.' If only we could say that about the era of George W. Bush, and that our elected representatives in Congress and our judiciary had been courageous enough to do their duty and hold the President and his aides accountable."...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003537212

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Nobody Died at Watergate

But the lack of prosecution of Nixon after the pardon was, imho, one of the causes of the maladministration we have now.

[HughBeaumont]

4. Paved the way for the imperial presidencies.

That will be the legacy of the Bewsh Administration - he came closest to making the office a paper title. Let's hope someone can come in and restore HONOR to the title.

[Supersedeas]

10. one culprit that he overlooked in the present scandal -- the Media accomplices

[calimary]

16. NO FUCKING SHIT. Back then, at least, we had an objective, adversarial

media. They actually were watchdogs. These schmucks? Good God. LAPDOGS who ALL have blood on THEIR hands as well. They aren't objective fact-checkers. They're collaborators. Accomplices ALL to EVERY crime, violation of the Constitution, and abuse of power committed by the bush administration.

[Hawkowl]

13. Bingo!

This is absolutely true. It is just horse shit that Ford did the right thing by pardoning Nixon. The right thing would have been to throw his miserable ass in prison. This would've given his sorry fascist assistants, i.e; Rumsfeld and Cheney, pause and may have prevented the current disaster.

[Greyhound]

2. Ain't it the truth. If somebody would've said that someday I would look

back on the Nixon era as better days, I would have thought they were insane, or republican (if there's a difference). Of course I was a young pup then and hadn't experienced the utter cynicism and corruption that passes for leadership in DC, and still had a belief in the mythological common sense of the American People.
:kick: & R

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. No shit?

:eyes:

[progressoid]

5. Funny, I'm watching "All the President's Men" on TV right now.

What's happened to us??

[northamericancitizen]

6. Happy to recommen this thread nt

[indepat]

7. With all due respect to Carl, that this administration has done far greater damage

to this Republic than Nixon is not rocket science: it is more like pre-kindergarten that everyone with the mentality of a four-year-old can understand.

[young_at_heart]

8. "All the President's Men" was on last night.......I kept comparing

The "Dirty Tricks" unit under Donald Segretti and the USC Mafia (as they were known then) was nothing compared to now. I hadn't seen this film in quite a while and I couldn't help but wonder about all the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that is going on today.

[Supersedeas]

9. social courage in action...much luv to ya, Carl

[OneBlueSky]

11. what I'd like to know is just what in the hell is wrong with Congress? . . .

these are not, for the most part, stupid people . . . surely they can see the damage BushCo has done and continues to do to our nation and the planet . . . surely they know of the multitude of illegalities -- many of them impeachable offenses -- that Bush, Cheney, and their cronies have engaged in . . . surely they know that we have a president who is becoming less and less stable and more and more dangerous by the day . . .

and yet they do nothing! . . . they applaud the SOTU, pose for photos, and act as if it's more important not to upset "business as usual" that it is to save their country from madness . . . (some even have the gall to support Bush's war AND announce that they'd like to be our next president! . . . and, God forbid, we may just be stupid enough to elect one of them) . . .

the last politician who I believe actually cared more about our interests than his own was Paul Wellstone . . . those currently in office who come close are very few indeed -- John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters and the like . . . for the most part, though, Congress sits on Capitol Hill like those three monkeys -- not seeing, not hearing, not speaking (at least truthfully), and certainly not caring about anyone but themselves . . .

[MrSlayer]

12. Almost makes you think they are all in on it together.

And it's all just a smokescreen.

[Seabiscuit]

14. Future history books will not be kind to those who served in Congress

during the past 6 years.

[OneBlueSky]

15. sorry for the underlining . . . I goofed . . . n/t

.

[brentspeak]

19. Have you been following events closely since the election?

The Democrats in Congress are in charge now. It's not "business as usual" now.

[calimary]

17. YES I'm sure I want to recommend this thread.

Kick.

AGAIN.

[Barrett808]

18. k & r