The masterwork is about to be unveiled. Robert Mueller’s investigative team has inexorably (the wait has seemed like years instead of months) reached a turning point with the CNN report that the first indictments have been delivered. Make no mistake, there is a very good chance at push back. Expect there to be attempts to kill the probe by firing Mueller. If history is repeated here and the president tries to rid himself of his nemesis, our own recent histories of the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” of October 20, 1973 remains relevant. However, Bob Mueller, by striking first with indictments, may have outmaneuvered his target. This week’s unsealing of charges may prove to be decisive in maintaining Mueller’s momentum and creating a tipping point for impeachment. Here’s why.
Outrage
The outrage that was generated by the firing of Archibald Cox produced a cast of characters worthy of Shakespearean drama. The foul act ordered by then president Richard Nixon began with the abolition of the office of Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox. The news interrupted Saturday evening television around 8 pm eastern time. The action demanded by the president could only accomplished with the complicity of the administration’s Attorney General, Elliott Richardson. Richardson has been been deigned a hero of history for his refusal to comply. On his refusal, Nixon ordered Richardson’s Deputy, William Ruckelshaus to do his bidding. Ruckelshaus joined Richardson and chose to refuse. He, too, was both fired and became a hero of history. The outrage that followed, of course, led to Nixon’s impeachment trial and ultimate resignation in August of the following year.
What is often forgotten are the cowards who finally complied and backed Nixon, abandoning their conscience and the welfare of their country. No heroes, these historical collaborators hid beneath the cover of duty to their president and escaped, for the most part the verdict of history they so righteously earned. Who were they and what was their fate?
Trump’s Defenders vs. Nixon’s
As we enter this next phase, we really should prepare ourselves to be shocked and amazed. Along with Richardson and Ruckelshaus, Watergate gave us Robert Bork and Gerald Ford. Bork has become a right wing darling for his later hearings before the Senate which denied Bork a seat on the Supreme Court, in part owing to his craven choice to further Nixon’s claim on presidential authority and his refusal to turn over court ordered tapes a decade earlier. The tapes eventually undid Nixon, but Bork ‘s acrimonious hearings before the Senate created a new verb to our political dictionary—borked:
bork. v. 1987, "to discredit a candidate for some position by savaging his or her career and beliefs," from name of U.S. jurist Robert H. Bork (1927-2012), whose Supreme Court nomination in 1987 was rejected after an intense counter-campaign.
Gerald Ford, however, was a powerful member of the House of Representatives at the time, and a long time presidential apologist (recall Ford’s role on LBJ’s Warren Commission.) Upon firing Richardson and Ruckelshaus, and the subsequent action abolishing the Prosecutor’s Office by Bork, Ford immediately released a statement backing Nixon’s actions. Eight days earlier, Ford was nominated as Vice President, replacing the disgraced Spiro Agnew who resigned after pleading “nolo contendere” in a bribery scandal emanating from his years as Governor of Maryland. Ford would be confirmed by the Senate and House on November 27, 1973. Ford ambitiously and dutifully backed the President’s claim of executive privilege which ensured his ascendancy to the presidency under the 25th Amendment a year later. In general, the Congress continued veiled support of Nixon’s presidency until the House Judiciary Committee finally passed the first Article of Impeachment on July 27, 1974. Ford then used his power to pardon Nixon. No heroes there.
Expect a similar path after Mueller releases his indictments. Where are the Richardsons and Ruckelshauses who placed their careers on the line by resigning rather than serve a criminal president? Will Trump exert his powers of the presidency in an attempt to circumvent his investigator’s findings? Is Rod Rosenstein up to the task? Trump has signaled his intentions early and often. He has tipped us off that he intends to abuse his office to save his neck by introducing discussion of his pardoning powers and by paying for the legal fees of his White House staff to the tune of a reported $430,000. He has also taken the unprecedented step of inserting himself into the appointment of three very powerful Federal Attorney appointments by interviewing the applicants. The abuse of power inherent in these steps suggest an opportunity for heroes and villains, patriots and sycophants to emerge.
A Likely Scenario: Firing Mueller
There are likely scenarios that could provide the dissolution of this crisis. Firing Mueller, however, is a possibility based upon this president’s past words and actions and a study of history. Imagine the president firing the appointed special counsel as called for today by Michael Goodwin in an opinion column written for the New York Post. Goodwin argues that
Forgive yourself if you are confused about developments in the Russia, Russia, Russia storyline. In fact, there are so many moving parts that you shouldn’t trust anybody who isn’t confused. nypost
His mind numbing argument is peppered with inanities
1. Mueller, whose office is apparently leaking the “secret” news that a grand jury has approved charges against an unidentified defendant...
2. Robert Mueller will never be able to untangle the tangled webs with any credibility ….
3. ...events showed that any honest probe must examine the Obama White House and Justice Department.
4. Mueller served as head of the FBI for more than four years under President Obama and cannot be expected to investigate his former colleagues and bosses...
However, the cowards and sycophants that sit in Congress and who will place their party over their pledge to their country to serve it honorably, require little more than partisan “cover” such as that provided by Goodwin and Fox News. These are the self-same arbiters rejecting the warnings provided by their own senators Flake, Corker, and McCain, who have excoriated the current occupant of the White House yet are outliers in their party. Speaking out as they have has only widened the distance between them and their frightened and cowering colleagues. Fearful of being “primaried” due to their abandonment of the nation’s business, the Republican Party has shown itself not ready for primetime. Their cowardly abeyance to Donald Trump and their nod to his ‘wing man” Steve Bannon is no protection from either’s wrath. Their penchant to act as followers and ass kissers has inured them to the responsibilities of leadership. Known in the past as the “party of no”, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, rid of Obama, have surrendered to their own callow partisanship. They project only deference to the Executive Branch even as they are reminded so eloquently by John McCain that they are a coequal branch that needs to assert its equality with the other governing partners. Unable to agree among themselves and unwilling to work with Democrats they have provided Bannon with a spurious power over their futures by neglect. Abeyance to Bannon’s will will prove a self fulfilling prophecy for this Republican Congress.
The 2018 election is too far away to provide the relief required. This administration has shown neither the competence nor intelligence to govern. If the choice is made this week to fire Robert Mueller one wonders if there will be enough outrage to empower heroes on both sides of the congressional aisle to emerge. Getting rid of Mueller after he has handed out his first indictments could also prove problematic to both Trump and his minions in the House and Senate. Unlike the Nixon tapes, indictments cannot simply be forgotten. The findings that brought about charges will have to be disproved. Depending upon how close the Grand Juries assembled by Mueller are to further indictments, Trump may have waited too long to oust the Special Prosecutor. If this is the case, Trump’s incompetence could cost his family and staff their freedom. It could also cost him his presidency. Repeal and replace may yet be within his reach---and ours.