John Dean:''Bush may have outdone Nixon'' and may be worthy of impeachment

[dajoki]

AP
http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap03-31-020341.asp?t=apnew&vts=33120061815

John Dean: Bush spying worse than Nixon's

By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, March 31 — John W. Dean, Richard Nixon's White House lawyer, told senators Friday that President Bush's domestic spying exceeds the wrongdoing that toppled his former boss.
Bush, Dean told the Senate Judiciary Committee, should be censured and possibly impeached.

''Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented,'' Dean said. ''Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it.'' Republicans and their witnesses rejected the comparison between Watergate and Bush's wiretapping program, and attributed Sen. Russell Feingold's censure resolution to posturing in a year of midterm elections.

<<snip>>

In fact, only two Democrats have co-sponsored Feingold's resolution: Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California. The rest have distanced themselves from the proposal, with many saying the resolution is premature because a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of the eavesdropping program has not concluded.

<<snip>>

Feingold summoned Dean to the hearing in part because the former White House counsel made his suspicions about the Bush administration clear long before the wiretapping program became public. In his 2004 book, ''Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush,'' Dean wrote that the former Texas governor began to evoke Nixonian memories with his strategies against Republican John McCain's primary challenge in South Carolina in 2000.

After The New York Times revealed the NSA program in December, Dean wrote that ''Bush may have outdone Nixon'' and may be worthy of impeachment. ''Nixon's illegal surveillance was limited; Bush's, it is developing, may be extraordinarily broad in scope,'' Dean wrote in a column for FindLaw.com in December.

Dean said Friday that the issue is one of checks and balances, adding Congress should pass some measure serving a warning to Bush if it can't stomach a censure resolution. ''The president needs to be reminded that separation of powers does not mean an isolation of powers,'' he said.

[FarLeftRage]

1. "..may have outdone nixon" WTF??

That misses the mark by a million miles... :wtf:

[NativeTexan]

2. John Dean was always the straightest shooter of that bunch.

He saw what was happening and tried to stop it, but got caught up in it anyway. He also gave up the president!

He knows his way around stuff like this, and he is hitting the nail right on the head! STOP THIS CRAP BEFORE IT MAKES A BIGGER MESS THAN IT ALREADY HAS!!

[FarLeftRage]

4. Yeah, I understand...

But, there are no "may have outdone"... * over did nixon and then some...no make that a whole lot!

* is far worse than nixon and ray-gun combined times a hundred harding, buchanan and grant all by themselves here.

[dajoki]

3. read between the lines...

he's ripping * as good as anyone.

[mabus42]

5. outdone nixon? maybe...

while i agree with john dean, i do believe his comparison of bush to nixon may have been detrimental to the cause. my thoughts are that russ feingold and friends really needed to try and drum up some more public support of censure in an effort to legitimize his plan to censure the president. i do want to see bush raked over the coals for illegal wiretapping, detaining "enemy combatants" without charging them, and making public the information for which he rationalized going to war with iraq. But one congressman's assertation's are not enough to do this - we need to get other legislators to think for themselves (versus thinking about which corporations will sponsor their next reelection campaigns) and actually start listening to what americans really feel about invading other countries under false pretenses.

[dajoki]

6. Welcome to DU mabus42...

i agree with everything you said. but why do you think dean's comparison will hurt the cause?

[NativeTexan]

7. Good points. And Dean is now just a citizen, and one............

......with not only experience in this area, but a reference point to boot.

WELCOME TO DU!!

[newyawker99]

8. Hi mabus42!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: