By David Iglesias
Posted Friday, June 13, 2008, at 12:03 PM ET
I was a teenager during the dark days of Watergate. I didn't fully understand the significance of the constitutional crisis until I was much older—like last year. After all, it isn't every day the president resigns after committing "high crimes and misdemeanors" and to forestall his own impeachment. Over the years, Watergate's ghosts have not exactly haunted me, but they have always been at the gauzy edge of my consciousness—like a distant lightning storm on the New Mexico horizon that never gets closer but never quite goes away, either. Former Watergate felon John Erlichman, one of Nixon's men, lived in Santa Fe—the town in which I graduated from high school and lived for many years. I do not ever recall seeing him about town, though. Watergate was ancient history to me.
The ghosts of the old scandal practically leapt up and touched me, however, this past spring, when the House of Representatives filed a civil action against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. The lawsuit resulted when the pair refused to testify before Congress concerning the seemingly politically motivated U.S. attorney firings in the winter of 2006. Miers and Bolten rooted their refusal to participate in the claim that executive privilege precluded them from doing so. The brief stated in its first paragraph, "Not since the days of Watergate have the Congress and the federal courts been confronted with such an expansive view of executive privilege as the one asserted by the current presidential administration." That sentence set me back on my heels. Watergate—really? I bought the DVD version of All the President's Men and marveled at how little Redford and Hoffman looked like the real characters.
The House of Representative's lawsuit invoked the Watergate crisis because among the historical detritus of Watergate lies the landmark Supreme Court case of United States v. Nixon. This decision was the first to actually address a claim presidents had been making since the days of George Washington: that the president doesn't have to give Congress everything it demands. Other presidents have certainly claimed executive privilege. Harry Truman, for example, blocked administration officials from testifying before Congress on security matters after the Hiss-Chambers case. The question in Nixon had to do with the scope of executive privilege and where its boundaries might lie.
More from the Slate.
Posted Friday, June 13, 2008, at 12:03 PM ET
I was a teenager during the dark days of Watergate. I didn't fully understand the significance of the constitutional crisis until I was much older—like last year. After all, it isn't every day the president resigns after committing "high crimes and misdemeanors" and to forestall his own impeachment. Over the years, Watergate's ghosts have not exactly haunted me, but they have always been at the gauzy edge of my consciousness—like a distant lightning storm on the New Mexico horizon that never gets closer but never quite goes away, either. Former Watergate felon John Erlichman, one of Nixon's men, lived in Santa Fe—the town in which I graduated from high school and lived for many years. I do not ever recall seeing him about town, though. Watergate was ancient history to me.
The ghosts of the old scandal practically leapt up and touched me, however, this past spring, when the House of Representatives filed a civil action against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. The lawsuit resulted when the pair refused to testify before Congress concerning the seemingly politically motivated U.S. attorney firings in the winter of 2006. Miers and Bolten rooted their refusal to participate in the claim that executive privilege precluded them from doing so. The brief stated in its first paragraph, "Not since the days of Watergate have the Congress and the federal courts been confronted with such an expansive view of executive privilege as the one asserted by the current presidential administration." That sentence set me back on my heels. Watergate—really? I bought the DVD version of All the President's Men and marveled at how little Redford and Hoffman looked like the real characters.
The House of Representative's lawsuit invoked the Watergate crisis because among the historical detritus of Watergate lies the landmark Supreme Court case of United States v. Nixon. This decision was the first to actually address a claim presidents had been making since the days of George Washington: that the president doesn't have to give Congress everything it demands. Other presidents have certainly claimed executive privilege. Harry Truman, for example, blocked administration officials from testifying before Congress on security matters after the Hiss-Chambers case. The question in Nixon had to do with the scope of executive privilege and where its boundaries might lie.
More from the Slate.
1 comment:
Watergate was one of the most embarrassing moments of the USA Government. Now for those who remember the hearings on TV, most of the Nixon crooks are in charge of the White House. With bribed Law Makers of both Parties it's like a kid in a candy store. Those who weren't on the take are now getting kick backs. Cheney used the Nixon plan but up graded it and put in corrupt Judges, Justices and all other Depts. History will show this as the worse of the US Government for many many generations to come. We haven't seen half of what this Administration has done in the pass 7 years. But we have seen how Democrats are part of the Bush Criminal Team.
Post a Comment