Nixon has won Watergate

[Astrad]

Barack Obama's imperial presidency is just what his controversial predecessor wanted.

This month, I spoke at an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Watergate scandal with some of its survivors at the National Press Club. While much of the discussion looked back at the historic clash with President Nixon, I was struck by a different question: Who actually won? From unilateral military actions to warrantless surveillance that were key parts of the basis for Nixon's impending impeachment, the painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

Long after Watergate, not only has the presidency changed. We have changed. We have become accustomed to elements of a security state such as massive surveillance and executive authority without judicial oversight. We have finally answered a question left by Benjamin Franklin in 1787, when a Mrs. Powel confronted him after the Constitutional Convention and asked, "Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?" His chilling response: "A republic, if you can keep it."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/25/nixon-has-won-watergate/2019443/

[KoKo]

1. Good read from Jonathan Turley...!

[cprise]

2. Ellsberg: All the crimes Richard Nixon committed against me are now legal

http://web.archive.org/web/20110611055548/http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/07/daniel-ellsberg-all-the-crimes-richard-nixon-committed-against-me-are-now-legal/