It's Simple: Bush's ProsecutorGate = Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre"

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/6136


It's Simple: Bush's ProsecutorGate = Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre"
by RJ Eskow | Mar 16 2007 -

The latest rightwing propaganda smokescreen for covering up political misdeeds is this one: Clinton fired Federal prosecutors, too. And they serve at the President's pleasure. The real historical parallel for this scandal isn't Clinton's routine action, however. It's the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," when Nixon wanted the special prosecutor investigating GOP crimes to be fired. When the Attorney General refused and resigned on principle (remember when Attorneys General had principle?), Nixon fired his successor for refusing and finally got someone who'd do the job for him.

That was the beginning of the end for Nixon's Presidency, and rightfully so. Ethical leaders in both parties were forced to acknowledge the pattern of lawlessness underlying his behavior, and his resignation took place the following year.

That's your analogous situation, folks - not Clinton doing what every President does upon taking office. As has been well reported, every President appoints his own prosecutorial team at the start of his term. That's irrelevant to this scandal. Every new President appoints his own Attorney General and senior Justice Department staff, too. The fact that the Attorney General serves at the President's pleasure didn't make Nixon's actions any more defensible.

The question about the firing of these prosecutors is not what was done, but when it was done - in the middle of a four-year term - and, most importantly why (apparently for refusing to comply with politically-motivated interference with investigations and prosecutions).

The parallel's not exact, of course, in that Nixon was protecting a specific crime with his actions, while these actions were taken for a variety of suspicious reasons. But the irregularity is the same - the unscheduled, mid-term firing of Justice Department officials who refused to permit political tampering with the investigative process.

In other words, motives may have been different in these two cases, but the misdeed is the same.

more...

[Demeter]

1. Bush, Rove, Gozales and Miers Were Protecting a SLEW of Crime

Because CrooksRUs is all about crime.

[Zenlitened]

2. I've been calling it "just a third-rate burglary." Irony intended!

:D

[MnFats]

3. next we'll find out that Bush bugged his office...and there are TAPES!

wouldn't that be sweet?
Bush is just about dumb enought to do it...