Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

2 years ago

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Mary C. Curtis

National Correspondent

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Some words you just can't let go.

"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white," Richard Nixon said to an aide, and then added, "Or a rape."

He said that in 1973, soon after the Supreme Court struck down laws that made abortion a crime. Nixon the moralist feared the new rules would foster "permissiveness." But he matter-of-factly made exceptions.

We're getting bits and pieces of what was in Nixon's brain. The most recent disclosures came Tuesday in more than 150 hours of tape and 30,000 pages of documents from the Nixon Presidential Library.

It wasn't pretty.

I'll leave it to others to dissect his loathsome anti-Semitism: "It may be they have a death wish. You know that's been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries."

Or, his enlightened views on Republican women running for office: "I don't do it because I'm for women," Nixon said in a phone call with then-RNC chairman George H.W. Bush. But a woman might "win someplace where a man might not."

Read elsewhere about Nixon's plans to save himself, if not the Constitution, as the Watergate scandal consumed his presidency.

President Obama – as many have pointed out – is a living repudiation of Nixon's noxious views on race.

When I heard Nixon's words on the necessity of abortion in certain cases, it was a kick to the stomach. I believe that all life is sacred. I know that when my son was born in 1982 of -- to quote Nixon -- "a black and a white," it was the greatest day of my life.

That day happened nine years after Nixon's words. To those who would say it was so long ago, it wasn't. To those who would say everybody felt that way, they didn't. The father, the grandmothers and aunts and uncles and cousins who doted over the addition to the family were filled with joy, not dread.

And years later, as I think over the good things I've done and the mistakes I've made, raising that little boy to be happy, healthy, kind and productive makes my life worth it.

No doubt in the future, we'll be treated to more twisted revelations from a man who didn't need to be president of the United States. What he really needed was psychiatric help.

Filed Under: Abortion, Race Issues, Woman Up

Tagged: Richard Nixon, RichardNixon

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