LISTEN: John Dean on NPR. "Broken Government" == Republicans have destroyed USG

[L. Coyote]

John Dean: "Broken Government"
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/07/09/10.php#17364
51 minutes

Listen to this segment

* realReal Audio ***** http://wamu.org/audio/dr/07/09/r1070910-13707.ram
* wmpWindows Media *** http://wamu.org/audio/dr/07/09/r1070910-13707.asx

The former counsel to President Richard and key player in the Watergate controversy explains why he believes Republicans have damaged all three branches of American government.

John Dean was legal counsel to President Nixon during Watergate. He is the author of "Blind Ambition," "Lost Honor," "The Rehnquist Choice," "Warren G. Harding," "Worse Than Watergate," and "Conservatives Without Conscience."

[supernova]

1. He was on Bill Moyers last friday too

about this same topic. Good discussion and sad too. And Americans keep falling for repub rhectoric!!

[L. Coyote]

2. Oh, this is rich! Fred Thompson, as Watergate lawyer, was fed all his lines by Nixon's WH.

[indepat]

3. Damaged all three branches of government, its Constitution, its fiscal integrity,

its world standing and good name, its military, and a litany of other its could be added to the list for: the extreme RW has hated almost every principle this country was founded upon for as long as there has been an extreme RW and has opposed almost everything good. The proof is all around us for almost everything terribly wrong with this country and society has the extreme RW's fingerprints all over it and almost everything for the good of society has been vehemently opposed by the extreme RW.

[L. Coyote]

4. How long will it take to undo the fiscal damage. With Clinton we had cheap oil

and those days are over. We will not be able to undo another Republican treasury raid with the same ease as during the 1990s!

[indepat]

5. My thought is it won't be undone in my lifetime nor the lifetime of my children for the government

will almost certainly renege on the social security and Medicare obligations to babyboomers, either not pay, slash payments, or pay in dollars with little purchasing power a la the German mark in the '20s. That's what my intellect says, but hopefully I'm just a nattering nabob of negativism and the $7 to $10 trillion dollar fiscal folly perpetrated by 'pukes since the early day of the Gipper will just fade away into the sunset.

Edited to correct an error created by spell-check and add a final thought

[L. Coyote]

6. I'm more optimistic, given the natural wealth and human resources.

Clinton overcame the Reagan/Bush debacle. We can do it again, but this time it will not be as easy.

The highest priority has to be harnassing renewable energy, like wind and solar, to get beyond foriegn oil trade deficits.

[L. Coyote]

7. visibility kick