We cannot compare Watergate to Bush's war

[MindPilot]

Watergate was done in secret, revealed after the fact and of course the conspirators tried to cover it up. Nixon broke a file cabinet; George & Tony's not-so-excellent adventure is way different: They broke a country.

Even setting aside the fact that they lied from from the start and most of the people on the planet knew they were lying, millions of ordinary people and dozens of statesmen told them it wasn't a good idea, wasn't going to work and would create more problems than it solved. They did it anyway and now we the people of the world are stuck with having to fix the screw-ups of two guys who wouldn't listen.

I don't think I have ever felt quite so helpless in my life.

[wryter2000]

1. As someone who watched all of Watergate

Remember, it took a while for Watergate to build steam. If the Repugs remain in lockstep, this will go nowhere. If they start to feel that supporting Bush is a liability to them, they may jump ship. Who knows, maybe some of them even have consciences? Stranger things have happened.

True, the initial crimes are completely different -- a break-in versus a war. But, Nixon was a serious threat to our form of government.

Don't despair. This is just starting. Pop some popcorn and get ready for the hearings on Thursday.

[spanone]

2. I was there for Watergate too. Took forever. But I watched HIM resign.

It was a party in August 1974 that I won't forget!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. We were in a friend's inn in Bethel, Maine

Everyone sprawled everywhere in the bar, watching the one TV set.

Ah, the smoke, the noise, the incredible high of knowing that a true villain had been vanquished by the good guys and that the Republic and the Constitution had prevailed.

I want to see that one more time in this lifetime. Preferably with the same doobie tucked between my grinning lips.

[MindPilot]

11. I was in Vietnam when the story broke...

I didn't know anything about it until I returned and the hearings were in full swing. That was probably the most profound :wtf: moments of my life.

[rustydog]

15. Watching the crooked fuck give his final wave at the helicopter

was well worth the wait.
I regret that my mother died before seeing Nixon disgraced. She hated tha man.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. Don't forget that during that same time,

Kissinger and Nixon were also cooking the books on Vietnam and thousands and thousands died for nothing.

Then Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize instead of the gallows, and Tom Lehrer quit performing, declaring that irony was dead.

Do you have faith in those hearings? I'm skeptical, and I hate myself for it.

[MindPilot]

12. I always thought they just scratched the surface

of the crime and corruption that is part and parcel a republican administration.

It like there was an opportunity to remove the cancer in the early seventies, but that didn't happen and it's metastasized into the fascist regime we have now.

[Just Me]

4. This cabal is a HELLUVA lot more secretive and corrupt than Nixon.

Totally opaque governance which set out to intentionally deceive and exploit the American people.

The whole damn lot of them deserve to be charged and convicted for their crimes agains the people of the USA and against humanity, period!

I will never equivocate on that position, ever!!!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

6. Amen

Nixon stumbled into it in a craven bid for reelection. Not to excuse him, but his motives were far less sinister and deadly than the bullshit this gang has executed (no pun intended).

Indeed. Never equivocate. They're all criminals.

[anarchy1999]

10. Just one more AMEN!!!

This bunch of criminal thugs do need to be removed! Just read up on their history and then follow the ties for 50+ years of all the "rich" folk.

[kenny blankenship]

7. I would say at least two countries

Iraq and ours. I can't speak for Britain but perhaps that counts as a third. (Although it seems that the basic machinery of democratic government is still working there, if very slowly. In America though the machinery appears to have been destroyed altogether.)

Also, Richard Nixon's supporters may have included plenty of alarmed uglyminded people, but Nixon didn't have large cadres of supporters ready to kill and even die for him. (I'm talking about the neighbor across your street, not a handful of E. Howard Hunt whackjobs working unofficially for the Pres.) His supporters weren't all utterly irrational zealots who believed in "the leader" above the principles the leader stood for, who could believe 2+2=4 one day and that 2+2=5 the next day, or that the outcome of 2+2 was irrelevant or completely indeterminate depending on whatever the leader's policies required them to believe that day, and who could coordinate a widespread campaign to destroy free elections without even being told to do so. As dark as things may have been then, even though there might have been incipiently fascist attitudes and sympathies in the air, Richard Nixon was not the head of Fascist MOVEMENT. But George Walker Bush is, even if he personally didn't start it. And the existence of that movement is what makes all the difference.

Things are one hundred times worse now. Can you imagine for example a person with the core decency of John Dean being retained in the Bush White House as counsel without being detected and eliminated by Rove and Cheney in like 5 or 10 seconds? Can you imagine Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee voting to forward the impeachment resolution against Bush to the floor for a vote? It's hard to imagine Democrats voting to do that even though Bush has indisputably and even brazenly committed impeachable offenses.

[EFerrari]

8. There is a useful comparison to be made between the two:

both misAdministrations sought to subvert our democratic process by any means at their disposal AND tried to accrue power to the Executive to extend those means.

Watergate was not about a file cabinet but about a serious attempt to steal a Presidential election.

And I agree that this current Cabal seems to have improved on the Nixon Administration's tactics.

[DrDebug]

9. The current cabal is much worse. And they've gotten away with it

and twice in a row as well. And know the old saying. If it happens twice, it is bound to happen a third time. Don't let them get away with it!

[kittenpants]

13. I thought there was an old saying in Oklahoma....

fool me twice, or something like that.

[DrDebug]

14. I hope you are right. I truly hope so.

But first the voting machines need to "fixed" around the votes...

Paper ballots


Paperless ballots