This may sound heretical to some, but these last few days I've been reading Monica Crowley's book, Nixon Off the Record, with great pleasure. For those who don't know, Crowley, now one of the many Republican talking heads on TV, was hired by Nixon in 1990, at the age of about 21, as a foreign policy aid and editorial advisor. He or she must have taped all their conversations over the course of four years, because the book is essentially a transcript of his reflections and observations on the 1992 presidential election and Clinton's first year in office. One of the odd things about the book is that Nixon himself comes off sounding very much like one of today's TV political personalities: if he were still around, there's no doubt in my mind that he'd have his own show somewhat along the lines of John McLaughlin!
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What a fascinating portrait of Nixon! He comes across as both a major megalomaniac and a pathetic shell of a man; greedy for the attention of the sitting president, annoyed when his advice is not sought and gleefully happy when it is; sorrowfully aware of his own insignificance, yet also delusional about his stature and importance. A bundle of contradictions. Most surprising of all, he does not come across as a right-wing zealot, but rather as a real politician who loved "being in the arena," and who treated politics as a sport, with great respect and admiration for the best players. In this way, he actually exhibits a grudging admiration for Clinton's success, and thinks Bush I pitiful for his failure.
That said, I think he would have been absolutely riveted by Monicagate, plastered to his TV as the events unfolded, which for him would have been a kind of final absolution of Watergate. Hell, he might even have released the missing 18 1/2 minutes!
The best parts of the book for me are his sharp-tongued, acerbic characterizations of Hillary Clinton: to be sure, he hated her. He continually refers to her work on the Watergate Committee, describes her as "ice cold," and compares her to the women who stood by the guillotine "knitting, knitting" as the French Revolution degenerated into Terror. One quote is more stinging (and better) than the next. By far the best one is his fantasy of Hillary down in Arkansas shredding papers as Whitewater went down. He was certain there was a massive cover-up, and compared it to Watergate saying "at least we didn't have a body." There is a definite misogynist tone to the comments. And yet, he also exhibits a tremendous sense of admiration for her many machinations: he knew she was the brute force and the brains behind the Clinton presidency, at least in the first part of the first term. For what its worth, I think if he were still around, he would be one of her most ardent supporters, if only for the amazing political turnarounds and triumphs she's been able to pull off. I think he would have seen her as a survivor, like himself, and would have been completely won over.
There is also no doubt in my mind after reading the book that Nixon would be horrified and appalled at what has been going on in Bush II's America. On one hand, I think he would be stunned by what Karl Rove has been able to achieve, forming the kind of coalitions that he himself once envisioned, but that is where it would end. I think he would be disgusted by the fundamentalist right-wing usurpation of the Republican Party -- something he warned against during the Reagan and Bush I years -- and by the "war" in Iraq. He argued ardently against nation-building in the early 1990s, and was against intervention in Somalia, Haiti, and even Bosnia. I think he would abhor Bush's capitulation to Putin and the slow turning away from democracy in Russia. Probably his interest would have come to focus much more heavily on China, and I think he would chide Bush II for not paying more attention to China and to fostering closer relations and stronger democratic reforms. He would no doubt be horrified by the way the Bush II administration let the entire world and all of America's allies fall to the wayside in pursuit of Iraq. About Bush II himself, I think he would be sickened by the total lack of any kind of presidential leadership, and the running of the country by Cheney and his cabal.
As many similarities as we might see between Bush II's administration and Nixon's, I don't think he would see them at all. And to some extent, he would be right. Part of the point is that Nixon could not get away with what Bush II has gotten away with; there was still a certain sense of integrity, honor, dignity in the office, certain limitations beyond which the president could not go, which Nixon himself acknowledged when he resigned rather than push, even further than he already had, a major constitutional crisis and the marring the office of the president with full-scale impeachment proceedings.
On the domestic front, Nixon had been very critical of Reaganomics, thought "supply-side" economics was a disaster, and would also balk, perhaps even more strongly, at Bush II's free-market ideology. He wasn't a real proponent of what he called "go go capitalism," though I'm not quite sure that he had any economic philosophy to speak of; he generally thought domestic policy "very boring" and believed that the market would always correct itself. (No doubt, domestic affairs were boring to him because foreign policy was where the president has free reign; foreign policy is the realm of the true imperial presidency). But he was a strong proponent of health-care, and he actually thought quite highly of Hillary's attempt to reform health-care in 1994, though he knew it would be a great big bungle. Conversely, Hillary praised Nixon as being the only president who actually gave a damn about health-care.
With all that said, one still can't excuse what he did. And one can't forget that he in many ways facilitated some of the more vile aspects the political culture of today. But you do get the feeling that Oliver Stone (of all people) was right when he suggested in his movie, Nixon, that "the system" was already out of control, and that in some sense Nixon was a casualty of something much bigger than himself.
All very interesting. Plenty more to say. At the end of Crowley's book you're left with the impression of Nixon as a cartoon character, which for all intents and purposes he had in fact become.