August, 2018 archive

William Ruckelshaus, who resigned rather than fire Archibald Cox during the Watergate investigation, feels a skin-crawling sense of deja vu. A snippet:

Nixon was brought down by his disrespect for the rule of law. The hundreds of letters that I received after my refusal to fire Cox enshrined this thought in my head for the rest of my life.

It’s hard to believe that, 45 years later, we may be in store for another damaging attack on the foundations of our democracy. Yet the cynical conduct of this president, his attorneys and a handful of congressional Republicans is frightening to me and should be to every citizen of this country.

I remember the evening of the Saturday Night Massacre to which Ruckelshaus refers in his article. I had been following the Washington Post’s Watergate coverage via a mail subscription. (I had gotten quite fond of the Post, which was available in Williamsburg and Charlottesville, where I attended school)

I was watching the breaking news with my parents when my father disappeared from the room. My father had almost certainly voted for Nixon,* but he was by no means a rabid Nixon supporter. I realized later that he had reached a Nixonian breaking point and had been dispatching telegrams (remember telegrams?) to our Congress Critters protesting Nixon’s actions.

___________________

*I have long been convinced that Richard Nixon’s presidency would be remembered much more kindly than it is, but for two things: his duplicitous strategy to prolong the war in Viet Nam and the bizarre combination of paranoia and hubris that culminated in Watergate.

Via Job’s Anger.

It turns out that the Republican candidate for the Second District House seat had his staffers collect signatures for an independent candidate; it is speculated that he wanted to dilute the Democratic vote, as this “independent” calls herself a Democrat.

A certain percentage of questionable signatures on nominating petitions is normal. Sometimes persons sign the petition don’t want to, but also don’t want to say “no” to the persons asking them to sign, so they sign “Mickey Mouse” or some such thing. Sometimes signers think they are being funny. And a certain percentage of the populace are jerks.

But this is definitely getting interesting.

Four paid Taylor (Scott Taylor, Teaparty Val) staffers gathered signatures in a two-day blitz shortly before the deadline for turning in ballot petitions. It also was two months after Brown, of Hampton, dropped her bid for the Democratic nomination in the wake of her indictment on federal corruption charges.

(snip)

Virginia Beach resident Tony Flores said he learned his name was on a Brown petition when someone with the local Democrats called his parents – whose names were listed on the same petition as his – to ask if they had really signed it. That petition was gathered by another of Taylor’s paid staff.

Flores said that he did not sign the petition, nor did his parents and three friends whose names were on the same petition as his.

The Virginia Beach Commonwealths Attorney is a big wheel in the local Republican Party, so, to his credit, he has moved to have special prosecutor from the other side of the state appointed to look into this matter.

Much more at the link.

Via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.