Day 499.
There are a lot of people trying to match the Russia Investigation with similarities to Watergate. Those of us who lived through Watergate can see some similarities in the way the presidents tried to stop the investigation. However, in reality, this scandal is far worse than Watergate ever was.
Watergate was a scandal that resulted because the president’s campaign got caught in a lot of dirt tricks, including the Watergate Break-in of the Democrat National Headquarters in the Watergate.
The people breaking into the Watergate were caught because a Security Guard did his job. Then, the real fun started. It turned out, and no one knew it at the time, that the defendants in the break-in were actually hired and paid by the committee to reelect the president.
It took a few years for everything to come out and it resulted in a special prosecutor to investigate the whole mess. The problem for Nixon wasn’t really the break-in, but the cover up that followed. And, the active participation of the president in the cover up.
Nixon had his infamous Saturday Night Massacre which finally resulted in his leaving office. That night he fired several Justice Department officials until he found one who would do his bidding and fire the special prosecutor. That was the beginning of the end of Nixon’s reign as our president.
Then, the tapes finally emerged in public and that was basically that. When it got to that point, several Republican lawmakers walked down to the White House and told Nixon to his face that if he didn’t resign, he would face impeachment. Nixon resigned shortly thereafter.
During the investigation, Nixon tried several tricks to keep from having to testify before the special prosecutor. He even tried a unique trick to keep the tapes from being released. He offered a compromise that he really thought would be accepted.
His plan was to have the tapes listened to by the White House and they would provide a “compilation” of the “evidence” on the tapes. They said that it could be believed because one Senator, a strong Nixon supporter, would be allowed to listen to the tapes when it occurred.
Only that Senator was legally deaf. Once he “heard” the tapes, he would read the compilation and assert that it was true and correct. Then, the tapes wouldn’t have to be released and everything would be “right as rain”. Naturally, the special prosecutor refused the “compromise” and it was shortly after that the Saturday Night Massacre occurred.
If you look at todays scandal, you can see a lot of similarities with Watergate. For one, instead of breaking into the headquarters of the DNC, it was a hacking of the DNC computers, which is basically the same thing. Only this time, the break-in was done by a foreign government.
If Slimy Donny had condemned the hack from the beginning, this might have all gone away from him. But, no he decided that the hack was a good thing because it placed “dirt” against Hillary Clinton into the public.
Now, he is trying to avoid talking to the special counsel. He has his lawyers trying to “limit the topics and the questions” he can be asked by Mueller and his team. They are trying desperately to keep the investigators from asking anything about Russia and his ties to the country.
He suggested that Mueller provide the questions in writing to him so he can have his lawyers answer them for him. He has even offered once to “sign an affidavit stating that he had nothing to do with the hacking or any collusion”. He figured that would end everything and he could skate away without any consequences. That rings very similar to having a deaf man listen to tapes and then certify the compilation created by the White House was accurate and correct.
But, even if you look at the similarities, there are differences that are completely frightening for our country. The first difference is the meddling of our elections by a foreign government. Then you have the presidential candidate declaring how wonderful that break-in was because it favored him.
Who can forget that infamous quote when Slimy Donny openly asked Russia to “find those missing emails”. And repeating over and over during the campaign how much he “loved” WikiLeaks.
The whole investigation that has led us to this point in time began not with the Steele Dossier, but rather with a tip from an Australian Diplomat who was told by one of Slimy Donny’s campaign staff that Russia had a lot of dirt on Clinton. That was at least two months before the hack was even discovered and several months before Steele notified the FBI about his findings during his investigation.
It was that talk that led the Australian Diplomat to notify the FBI when the emails began leaking from WikiLeaks. And, it was that “tip” that began the investigation we are trying to get through now.
We also have another problem that wasn’t present during Watergate. We have lawmakers in the Republican Party that are actively involved in helping Slimy Donny kill the investigation. It started with Devin Nunes, who worked on the campaign but it has spread to other authoritarians masquerading as Republicans.
It is this attempt to shut down the investigation that is really fueling the call for a “second special prosecutor”. That second special prosecutor would be responsible to “investigate the FBI and the Justice Department” because they are obviously biased because they insist on keeping this investigation going.
We never heard any such call from Republicans during Watergate. Even Republicans knew that the scandal was a constitutional crisis and took it very seriously. We know that Republicans have not taken this investigation seriously.
More than one House Member of the Intelligence Committee, which shut down its investigation and said there was no evidence of collusion, have said that they didn’t even look for any collusion. That includes Trey Gowdy.
Well, if you don’t look for collusion during your investigation, then you are not going to find any evidence of collusion, are you? It is astounding how blatant they are in acknowledging such a fact and pretending that it doesn’t matter.
Then we have the Cambridge Analytica case. They hacked private information from Facebook and let the trump campaign use it for their dirty tricks. Even though the Mercers are involved with the company, as well as Steve Bannon, they are a foreign-owned company and any information the trump team received should have been paid for by the campaign and that payment listed on their FEC filings.
There is no mention of that information being paid for by the campaign, and there is no FEC filing that shows the company was actually involved in the campaign. Now we have the CEO of the company caught on tape explaining how they use “dirty tricks” to help candidates win elections.
The committee never even talked to anyone from the company. Even if they claim that is not proof of “collusion with Russia” it is still a violation of our elections laws and proves collusion with foreigners. And, therefore it is a crime. But, by their own admission, Republicans on the committee were not interested in uncovering any incidents of breaking the law.
At no time during Watergate did we hear such stupidity coming from the Republican side of the aisle. They took the investigation seriously and allowed the facts to take them where it led them.
Our slimy leader has taken to his favorite habit of attacking everyone who he considers to be “against him” on his twitter feed. That is the mark of a true coward. Tweeting information is one thing, but hiding in your bedroom under the covers and tweeting attacks against honorable men and women is an act of cowardice.
Now we come to the biggest difference between the two scandals. Many people thought that Richard Nixon was a slimy character. He always seemed angry. He attacked the media, just like Slimy Donny, and was willing to use tricks to stay in power.
Even still, Nixon actually accomplished things during his first term as president. This guy hasn’t accomplished anything but chaos. And, despite the fact that he was involved in the break-in and the cover-up, he still had an understanding that in the end he was a public servant.
When the shit really hit the fan and those Republican lawmakers walked down to the White House and gave him his ultimatum, he resigned. He at least had enough respect for our country and the constitution to realize that the end was at hand.
I don’t know if it is true, but I like to think that he ultimately resigned out of love of country and our constitution. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to be the first president to be forced out of office through impeachment. In either case, he quietly went away.
I have no such delusions when it comes to Slimy Donny. This is a man who has flaunted the law at every turn in his life. If you actually read his book The Art of the Deal, you will see just how much disdain he has for the law. If it doesn’t benefit him, he will do everything he can to break it and get away with it.
He and his organization have cheated sub-contractors by refusing to pay them for their work. They have snubbed civil rights laws in order to make more money for themselves. And, they have been sued more times than anyone can even pretend to count.
He cannot be trusted to keep his word, even when he signs contracts. He cannot be trusted by any of his wives since he brags about his sexual “accomplishments” and his sexual predatory behavior.
He has shown no integrity. He has shown he has no morality. He has shown he is the type of person you wouldn’t buy a used car from because he is so slimy.
It is not coincidence that he fired McCabe at 10:30 pm on a Friday night. That is what cowards do. It is no coincidence that he also filed a motion to have his case in the Stormy Daniels scandal moved to Federal Court so he can stop the lawsuit at the same time.
It is no coincidence that his lawyer called for the firing of Mueller in the same vein as the firing of McCabe. It is no coincidence that right after that he started tweeting about the special counsel by name for the first time.
It is no coincidence that all of this happened right after we learned that the special counsel has issued subpoenas for financial records from his company about any ties to Russia.
The net is starting to close in around our slimy leader. And, he is really feeling the heat. So, he has his politburo members in Congress calling for a second special counsel to discredit the FBI and the Justice Department in order to kill the Russia probe.
He has ramped up his attacks against those involved in the investigation and still calling it a witch hunt. He is beginning to act as irrationally as Nixon acted in the final days of his presidency. It was reported that Nixon would get drunk and walk around the White House and talk to portraits of past presidents.
Instead of getting drunk, our slimy leader hides beneath the covers of his bed and pretends to be a tough guy by tweeting out attacks. Instead of talking to portraits of dead presidents, he lashes out against anyone he considers to be on his “enemies” list.
The real danger that potentially faces our country is this. If this investigation reaches the point of Watergate, will Republican lawmakers walk down to the White House and lay down the gauntlet, or will they walk down to the White House and promise to protect slimy leader.
If they do the first, will Slimy Donny do what is right and resign, or will he try to blow up our constitution to save face and remain in power. And, if there is an impeachment trial in the Senate, and that trial convicts him, will he walk out of the White House or refuse to leave and bunker down?
No matter what action he takes, what will his hard-core supporters do? Will they simply stay quiet or will they cause trouble?
There are a lot of similarities between Watergate and this scandal. There are also a lot of differences. The biggest difference and the biggest danger is that in Watergate we had someone who broke the law but loved the country enough to leave when it was obvious he should.
This time we have someone who does not love our country. Believes that he is truly above the law. We also have members of our Congress on the Republican side that don’t care if Russia meddled in our election. They don’t care if it will happen again. All they care about is what they consider their “meal ticket” and trying to protect Slimy Donny at the cost of our democracy and our country.
That is the real difference between Nixon and Slimy Donny. And, that is the real danger that we may face in the near future. I really hope that it never gets to that point. But, the short history of this administration shows that is more likely than when we suffered through Watergate.
And, the shirts keep marching along.
Lean Left World 