Tomorrow is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the
Supreme Court decision against Richard Nixon's White House that released
The Pentagon papers to the world. Today we have another Republican president in another war against the
New York Times for
another news piece.
While there are many similarities between each campaign against our fourth estate, there is one glaring difference. Bush didn't even attempt to use the power of prior restraint litigation.
If there was even a scintilla of truth to the claim that our national security has been greatly harmed by making public another spying program without congressional oversight and Bush failed to use all of the powers in his possession, isn't Bush guilty of treason?
Just like Nixon, Bush was well aware of
Bank Data Is Sifted by U.S. in Secret to Block Terror well ahead of the story being released. But unlike Nixon, even though Bush has one of the most aggressive and anti-constitution Justice Departments in history and a far friendlier Supreme Court, he didn't send Alberto Gonzales running to stop the story before it hit the presses.
Why not? These are very different times from the Nixon era. Even if an attempt to kill the story failed in the court it would allowed his precious spying program to go on without being on the front pages of a national newspaper for far more than the fifteen days that the court gave to Nixon on his failed attempt to keep The Pentagon Papers out of the public eye.
Bush's Supreme Court is far different from the court that Justice Potter Stewart was a member of when he explained in a 1974 speech, that the "primary purpose" of the First Amendment was "to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches" That the present court is unlikely to come to a quick decision that;
Every moment's continuance of the injunctions against these newspapers amounts to a flagrant, indefensible, and continuing violation of the First Amendment...Such a holding would make a shambles of the First Amendment.
--MR. JUSTICE BLACK, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS joins, concurring.
In present day America the first amendment is being threatened on a daily basis by all three branches of the Republican controlled government. While any attempt to keep another spying program from seeing the light of day would have been litigation based on lies and deceit, Bush's chances would have been far better than Nixon's but he didn't even try.
Instead Bush just waited for the weekend to pass and then Bush and many of his Republican minions began a public relations campaign against then news agency that continues to break stories about one illegal spying scandal after another. All it amounts to is just another vendetta against someone who has the strength of character to tell the nation the truth.
A campaign to discredit the New York Times in the public eye! That is all Bush wanted out of this scenario. He didn't care if terrorist heard about a program that he himself went onto national television to talk about. Bush dosen't believe for one second that this news is a threat to national security. He just saw it as an opportunity for a little relief from a thorn in his side.
This does not now nor did it ever have anything to do with national security. It's just Bush politics as usual, enhanced by the years of fear he has struck into many American's hearts. Bush's ability to convince some that safety is more important that civil rights have made it possible for him to play this dangerous game.
Bush has had a measure of success in his attempt to turn the newspaper of record into a bad place in many American eyes. While a bit of reality has been trickling out of the media, there hasn't been enough resistance to the lies from the press.
It should be obvious by now that both the Bush administration and the Republican leadership are only good at one thing, distracting the public from real issues that concern Americans. If there is one thing America should have learned from the scandals of Richard M. Nixon, it is that both government and presidents cannot be trusted without oversight.
But this week many people are accusing a newspaper of treason and Bush has softened some to the idea that criminal penalties are in order. Another dangerous step taken by an administration determined to remove all of America's civil rights in the name of freedom.
There is one similarity between Bush and Nixon in what appears to be exclusively a Republican thing. To tell the nation that information about the goings on in government is bad is certainly a sign of a very corrupt leadership.
When you are dirty, you don't want the nation to see the dirt, you need a few dirty tricks to keep up appearances.
Both Nixon and Bush hated public information and could not stand to see their dirty laundry in the public eye. Bush just lives in a better era to discredit all of the laundromats. That must be the Republican definition of progress.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Both Nixon and Bush took an oath to uphold that Constitution. Both failed, in Bush's case, failed miserably. Bush has never shown any sort of interest in upholding the Constitution.
The time is long past due for another similarity between Nixon and Bush. A disgraceful ending!