Nixon’s Counsel Says Obama Is No Nixon

[Lakhota]

The current slate of controversies consuming the White House has some people comparing President Barack Obama to former President Richard Nixon, but a former top aide to Nixon thinks that's ridiculous.

John Dean, who served as White House counsel under the disgraced former president, said that anyone applying the Nixonian label to Obama is "challenged in their understanding of history." There's no legitimate comparison, Dean argued, between the Internal Revenue Service's improper targeting of conservative groups, the Department of Justice's subpoena of Associated Press phone records or the investigation into the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya and the scandals that ultimately led to Nixon's undoing.

“There are no comparisons. They’re not comparable with any of the burgeoning scandals,” Dean told the Boston Globe.

Dean was present in the Oval Office when Nixon suggested using the IRS to target his foes.

More: Nixon's Counsel Says Obama Is No Nixon | TPM LiveWire / By TOM KLUDT

I've always been a John Dean fan - and I believe he's exactly right. He should know...

 

[Lakhota]

And Dean is in a position to know. Nearly 41 years ago, Dean was with Nixon in the Oval Office on a Friday afternoon when the president wondered aloud about utilizing the powers of the IRS to target his political opponents.

“How come we haven’t pulled [George] McGovern’s file on his income tax?” Nixon asked Dean.

Dean has recently been reviewing White House tapes, including some that have not been transcribed, in preparation for a book he is releasing next year on the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation. He said the use of the IRS for political purposes was more aggressive than most realize.

“It’s way beyond anything I thought was going on,” Dean said of Nixon’s use of the IRS. “He used the IRS just as a tool to attack his enemies. He minces no words. It’s repetitive. It is a tool that he thinks is there for him to use if he wants to politically.”

Of the current IRS matter, Dean said: “This is not even close to Nixon’s uses and abuses of IRS.”

More: President Obama says critics comparing him to Richard Nixon should "read the history" - Politics - The Boston Globe - By Matt Viser

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

True. Obama is much worse.

 

[Lakhota]

True. Obama is much worse.

And you have no "credible" facts to prove it, right?

 

[Katzndogz]

True. Obama is much worse.

Nixon had a scandal. obama has a scandalabra.

 

[whitehall]

Scuze me while I choke on my coffee. Obama has to be in more trouble than we thought when lefties have to dig up old Nixon lawyers to say "Hussein is not a crook".

 

[Lakhota]

STANDING BEFORE reporters Thursday, President Obama declined an invitation to compare the recent scandals weighing down his administration with those that forced President Nixon to resign in 1974. So allow us to do the work for him: There is no comparison.

Nixon, in a series of crimes that collectively came to be known as Watergate, directed from the White House and Justice Department a concerted campaign against those he perceived as political enemies, in the process subverting the FBI, the IRS, other government agencies and the electoral process to his nefarious purposes. Mr. Obama has done nothing of the kind. Nor is there much to support a lesser “unifying theory” of this week’s scandals, which is that together they prove Mr. Obama guilty of a grand overreach of federal power.

More: Obama may be facing scandals, but he's no Richard Nixon - The Washington Post Editorial Board

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Liddy should have whacked John Dean the little mousey rat fuck

 

[buckeye45_73]

True. Obama is much worse.

Damn you beat me to it...i love hackhota threads way too easy to destroy

 

[whitehall]

One thing about Clinton/Obama lawyers is that they know they might end up like Vince Foster.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Nixon was anti-Communist, Obama not so much

 

[JohnL.Burke]

Bob Woodward has compared the Benghazi scandal to Watergate. He should know.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

True. Obama is much worse.

And you have no "credible" facts to prove it, right?

Sure we do, Spamajawea, you're just a liar. That's what dishonest and dishonorable people do. They lie.

 

[Lakhota]

It sooo hilarious that wingnuts believe they're smarter than John Dean and The Washington Post Editorial Board and many other legal/political scholars.

I suggest wingnuts read up on Watergate.

 

[Lakhota]

Bob Woodward has compared the Benghazi scandal to Watergate. He should know.

That's funny. Thank you. Woodward is an idiot who's entering his baby food and diaper years. Without Mark Felt, aka Deep Throat, we would have never heard of Woodward.

 

[whitehall]

It sooo hilarious that wingnuts believe they're smarter than John Dean and The Washington Post Editorial Board and many other legal/political scholars.

I suggest wingnuts read up on Watergate.

How is John Dean so smart? Vince Foster was a pretty smart guy and his corpse ended up driving to an obscure D.C. park where he was found with a gun in his hand.

 

[Lakhota]

It sooo hilarious that wingnuts believe they're smarter than John Dean and The Washington Post Editorial Board and many other legal/political scholars.

I suggest wingnuts read up on Watergate.

How is John Dean so smart? Vince Foster was a pretty smart guy and his corpse ended up driving to an obscure D.C. park where he was found with a gun in his hand.

And your point is...?

 

[JohnL.Burke]

It sooo hilarious that wingnuts believe they're smarter than John Dean and The Washington Post Editorial Board and many other legal/political scholars.

I suggest wingnuts read up on Watergate.

Yea, I'm going to send Bob Woodward (who compared Benghazi to Watergate) an e-mail about reading up on Watergate. Sure will. In the meantime could you please send a message to Bill Clinton on how to sexually harass women?

 

[buckeye45_73]

True. Obama is much worse.

And you have no "credible" facts to prove it, right?

Have you seen anything other than huffpo and msnbc?

Using the irs to investigste and screw over political opponents is as dirty as it gets

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Woodward called Obama a "Madman" too