Of that list of Presidents the most honest man who held the office has to be President Carter. I don't think anyone would or could argue with that. One thing that President Carter did teach us is that being too honest can hurt what you are able to accomplish as President. Along with Carter but not near on the level he was, I would place President Nixon next on the list along with President Adams. Yet Nixon has been demonized during his whole political career by opponents, the press, and history in general. I don't see Nixon that way and most of you know that I don't. Most of you also know the reason I feel that way about President Nixon. Lord knows I have written enough blog entries here to let everyone know what I think and examples of how history and the American press and people have based the Nixon with untruths that seem to become fact as time goes on by.
Usually there has been something happen to trigger these Nixon posts and this is no exception. First though, a quick listing of things that President Nixon has had to suffer under by way of those who like to keep him demonized. Those that I am referring to consider and call the President such things as "a liar, a crook, dishonest, abused his office and power, " etc .... you all know the list by now. Nixon was a paranoid, lying crook who misled the American people for close to fifty years.
I won't spend a lot of time once again relating all of the accomplishments of President Nixon, but I will get right to the point and that involves President Clintons and President Obama. Oh, for get the Clintons, I have already written about the dishonesty and impeachable offenses that they did, like suborned perjury, committed perjury, lied many many times to the American people, set the office of the Presidency up for possible blackmail, removed FBI files and held them in the White House during the Whitewater investigation ... blah blah blah ...you get the idea about the Clintons.
President Obama, however has shown how times have changed from the early seventies up until today. There have been plenty of situations in the Obama White House that had they happened during Nixonian times, would have been way past impeachable offenses. But of all of the things that have happened during the Presidents administration, one really jumps out and a direct comparison to the Nixon administration can be made. I gave long thought before writing this. Nixon's legacy is burned into the minds of liberals and Democrats alike and into the history books, even though the majority of what is written about the President is false. Minds will never be changed about President Nixon, so why do I bother pointing out the obvious? I have not heard one news report make the comparison between the IRS emails, the Whitewater FBI files and the Nixon tapes. I somehow feel like SOMEONE needs to point it out ... might as well be little read, little old me. So here goes.
During the Watergate fiasco, Alexander Butterfield testified about a taping system that taped all conversations in the Oval office of President Nixon. Naturally, the Senate was intrigued by this idea and immediately sent a subpena to the White House asking that the tapes be delivered for review. President Nixon challenged the subpena to the Supreme Court and lost. He then did what would be expected of a man holding the office that he did. He complied with the Supreme Courts decision and sent the tapes over to the Senate. Okay, President Nixon did not at first send the actual tapes, but rather a transcript of the tapes with all topics such as National Security and personal family talks redacted out. Technically it met the requirements of the Supreme Court but wasn't exactly what the Senate wanted. A few more trips to the Supreme Court and eventually the Senate got what they had asked for. In other words, President Nixon complied with the law. As a matter of fact he more than complied with the law. He sent more tapes than were listed on the subpena listed. This was typical of the Nixon administration. Many people wondered why he hadn't destroyed the tapes? It would have been an easy thing to do and probably would have put an end to the whole Watergate scandal. That wasn't what Richard Nixon was made of though. He would not lie to the American people (i.e. the Cambodia and Laos bombings that saved thousands of American lives) he would not buy off the figures in the Watergate scandal, he basically did his job to the best of his ability. It wasn't good enough though as the press continued to chase him and a truly bipartisan congress (unlike the Clinton impeachment where the Democrats vowed they would never vote against the President no matter what facts were brought out) advised him to resign. Nixon did not with hold any evidence, did not destroy evidence but rather complied fully with the system that would drive him out of office.
President Obama however, has a very different scenario. It became known through a whistle blower that the Administration and the IRS had decided to make life hard on any conservative .group that may cause the President problems. The facts began to come out that the targets were hounded and penalized for not dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" in their tax reports. The idea was to drive these groups out of the business of standing for what they believed to be right and make a clear path for Democrats now as well as in the future. The President's appointed hed of the IRS, Lois Lerner, was called to Capitol Hill to testify on the matter. She gave an opening statement that portrayed her agency as she wanted it to be seen, then refused to answer the tough questions coming from the Senate committee. That in and of itself was dishonest. You either take the fifth and keep quiet or you cooperate and testify honestly. After a few months of wrangling with Ms Lerner, she resigned from her post without having answered any of the accusations against her, the IRS and the President. A few weeks ago the Senate subpenaed all of Ms Lerners e-mails during the time in question figuring that they would give answers to what really was going on. After a week or so of waiting, the Senate was told that all of the e-mails were gone. Apparently the hard drive on her computer crashed, the hard was destroyed and thrown away. There was no way to get back the emails that would tell the truth about what went on with the IRS targeting certain groups of American society. Let me say that again ... ALL OF THE EMAILS ARE GONE. How convenient.
It would be so nice to be able to ask, why didn't they destroy the emails? We can't do that however. Why didn't President Nixon burn the tapes? I think the answer to that is quite obvious. President Nixon had respect for the law and for the Office of the Presidency. President Obama, or Clintons for that matter, do not hold that same respect for the law. I wonder if they have ANY respect for the law.
This is just another example of how President Nixon's whole career was demonized and ruined by the same type of people who would have burned the tapes, and that kind of person is President Obama..
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