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Lamar Alexander Misplays the Nixon Card on a Defensive Obama White House
When Lamar Alexander ran for the 1996 GOP presidential nomination, his campaign was built around his trademark red-and-black plaid shirts, virtuoso performances of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" on any handy piano, and an entirely forgettable (but impeccably delivered) stump speech. In fact, the only time I ever heard the former Tennessee governor depart from his robotic script was when the topic turned to Richard Nixon.On a late-night plane flight across Florida, Alexander began animatedly reminiscing about his heady, youthful days as a staff aide in the 1969 Nixon White House, serving as gatekeeper for congressional relations chief Bryce Harlow. Long before Watergate, as Alexander recalled with abiding gratitude, Harlow advised him to go back to Tennessee and make his political career to avoid any ethical taint of being too closely associated with Nixon.
Now a two-term senator, Alexander invoked that formative period in a speech Wednesday, warning Barack Obama about the dangers of emulating, yes, Nixon. Speaking on the Senate floor, Alexander declared, "I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President Obama and his White House: Don't create an enemies list." It is hard not to see an ulterior political motive in linking Obama to the only president who resigned one step ahead of impeachment. Especially since Alexander also claimed that the Obama team's sharp elbows toward its enemies (from Fox News to the Chamber of Commerce) suggests a Nixon-style "animus developing in the Obama administration."
PD toolbar!
It is an ironclad rule in public life: If the name Adolf Hitler leaps to your lips in making a comparison, slam your jaws shut. While Alexander is about the last active Republican leader with Nixon street cred, the same principle applies. You better have some strong evidence of criminal wrongdoing if you are going to play the Nixon card.
This is not to deny that there are hints of a bunker mentality developing around the Obama Oval Office. But that is pretty much par for the course in any administration once the initial inaugural glow gives way to the dreary realities of governing. Nothing, for example, is unprecedented about the Obama White House's trash talking and stiff-arming Fox News. Franklin Roosevelt spent his time in the White House at war with the ultra-conservative Chicago Tribune, which, in a typical stunt during the 1936 campaign, published a staged front page picture of a worker sweeping FDR buttons into the gutter after a presidential appearance in the city. And John Kennedy famously canceled the White House subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune.
Stunts like this are a far cry from Nixon's enemies list. During his first year in office, Nixon angrily told aides, "Get the word out, down to the IRS, that I want them to conduct field audits of those who are our opponents." As a result, a Special Services Staff (the Nixon team was oblivious to implications of initials that resembled the SS) was established in the IRS to sift through the finances of administration critics. White House counsel John Dean – who later became the prime anti-Nixon witness at the Watergate hearings – wrote a blunt August 1971 memo about "using the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." The weapons that Dean suggested using included "grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc."
The formal enemies list – compiled from various memos already floating around the Nixon White House – eventually grew to about 200 names. From Democratic senators (George McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale) to prominent press figures (Mary McGrory, James Reston, Daniel Schorr, Jack Anderson) to celebrities (Bill Cosby, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand and, unbelievably, Joe Namath), this was a portrait in paranoia.
As the years passed, it also became the 1970s liberal equivalent of having served in the French Resistance. Before I could interview Lloyd Cutler in the White House when he was Bill Clinton's counsel, the veteran Washington insider insisted on pointing out the framed copy of the page from the Watergate hearings transcript featuring his name on the Nixon enemies list. Hunter Thompson, whose acid prose (a reference to both the tone and the drug) in Rolling Stone excoriated the president, was forever disappointed that his name was missing from the Nixon roll call.
All presidents have enemies – and they have levers to use against them. Common techniques include freezing out recalcitrant journalists, banning critics from White House social events and absent-mindedly forgetting to notify senators about grants to their states. This kind of petty gamesmanship is legal if not exactly laudable.
But the Nixon enemies list was an ethical low point for the presidency, not because of the names themselves but because of the illegal punishments like punitive tax audits that were sometimes used against them. It is a distinction between carrying a grudge and committing a crime. And more than almost anyone, Lamar Alexander – who early on sensed the tenor of the Nixon White House – should know the difference.
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Walter Shapiro
Walter Shapiro, a PoliticsDaily.com columnist, has covered the last eight presidential campaigns as a columnist and political reporter... moreRelated Articles
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Comments (48)
kathy
5:42AM Oct 23rd 2009
Nixon was one piece of work. I'll give him one thing, he brought the men home from VietNam. I think that's all I'll give him. I watched a special about him about 25 years ago, and there were journalists who couldn't get a job because of Nixon. This was just wrong.
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(10)
(10) 
Truth
9:12AM Oct 23rd 2009
Walter,
When it's all said and done, Obama will make Nixon look like a paragon of ethics. Nixon didn't have a corrupt, complicit press making excuses for him every step of the way, like you and the rest of the media are for Obama. What would have happened if the media was as pathetic back then as they are now?
Nixon didn't take over the banking industry, or the auto industry, or pay off leftist unions with the ironic spoils of his Fascistic tactics.
Nixon didn't solicit the help of the mafia to win the election, like JFK, nor did he enlist the help of a filthy with corruption, Marxist, election rigging, bunch of racketeers like ACORN. Obama has already surpassed anything Nixon did wrong.
I don't recall Nixon signing away U.S. sovereignty in absurd treaties that are nothing more than globalist scams.
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare Nixon to Obama on foreign policy, would it. Even though Obama has the inestimable advantage of having access to the "Sage of Delaware", Joe Biden. Even if Nixon had had an intellectual stalwart like Biden, he wouldn't have gotten hoodwinked by the Russians like Obama did recently.
Yes, Wally, it was a dumb idea to bring up Nixon, on your part especially.
When it's all said and done, Obama will make Nixon look like a paragon of ethics. Nixon didn't have a corrupt, complicit press making excuses for him every step of the way, like you and the rest of the media are for Obama. What would have happened if the media was as pathetic back then as they are now?
Nixon didn't take over the banking industry, or the auto industry, or pay off leftist unions with the ironic spoils of his Fascistic tactics.
Nixon didn't solicit the help of the mafia to win the election, like JFK, nor did he enlist the help of a filthy with corruption, Marxist, election rigging, bunch of racketeers like ACORN. Obama has already surpassed anything Nixon did wrong.
I don't recall Nixon signing away U.S. sovereignty in absurd treaties that are nothing more than globalist scams.
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare Nixon to Obama on foreign policy, would it. Even though Obama has the inestimable advantage of having access to the "Sage of Delaware", Joe Biden. Even if Nixon had had an intellectual stalwart like Biden, he wouldn't have gotten hoodwinked by the Russians like Obama did recently.
Yes, Wally, it was a dumb idea to bring up Nixon, on your part especially.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (20)
(20) cjjanis
9:49AM Oct 23rd 2009
All this a day after the Bonner Boy and his GOP pals choose to shaft
the elderly and cut the pay that their doctors gets by 20%. Yet the
GOP playing politics give it to our elderly and now many will lose
their doctors. Bonner is one to talk! Remember when Cheney went down
to the house and took the office of dems, and kicked them to the
basement.
Boy the GOP is a bunch of cry babies, they sure can dish it out, but
taking it is another thing all together.
Enemies list like what Bush had? Like what happend to Don Siegelman?
So the GOP plan is to cry like pussies and make Obama look like a
thug? Well guess what I would love Obama to grow a big hairy pair and
give it to these GOP punks! All this talk about Chicago, let me tell
you we here in the windy city get things done! Its not called the
"city that works" for no reason. All this because Obama and his staff
have labeled Fox News and Entertainment what they are an opinion
talking machine for the GOP. Why should the President play nice?
Obama has tried and gotten nothing but stabs in the back. I want LBJ,
he was a man who took names and had no problem putting people in their
place to get what he wanted! This is too funny the GOP crying because
they claim the white house is calling their media whore Fox names?
Too funny! Bonner boy sure has a short memory? What about Joe Wilson
and his wife? Bush did the same thing and much worse. Who can forget
the right wing media fest on the White House lawn?
Obama needs to flex his power and do his will, and make his election
promise happen!
the elderly and cut the pay that their doctors gets by 20%. Yet the
GOP playing politics give it to our elderly and now many will lose
their doctors. Bonner is one to talk! Remember when Cheney went down
to the house and took the office of dems, and kicked them to the
basement.
Boy the GOP is a bunch of cry babies, they sure can dish it out, but
taking it is another thing all together.
Enemies list like what Bush had? Like what happend to Don Siegelman?
So the GOP plan is to cry like pussies and make Obama look like a
thug? Well guess what I would love Obama to grow a big hairy pair and
give it to these GOP punks! All this talk about Chicago, let me tell
you we here in the windy city get things done! Its not called the
"city that works" for no reason. All this because Obama and his staff
have labeled Fox News and Entertainment what they are an opinion
talking machine for the GOP. Why should the President play nice?
Obama has tried and gotten nothing but stabs in the back. I want LBJ,
he was a man who took names and had no problem putting people in their
place to get what he wanted! This is too funny the GOP crying because
they claim the white house is calling their media whore Fox names?
Too funny! Bonner boy sure has a short memory? What about Joe Wilson
and his wife? Bush did the same thing and much worse. Who can forget
the right wing media fest on the White House lawn?
Obama needs to flex his power and do his will, and make his election
promise happen!
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(-21)
(-21) azuredaze
7:24AM Oct 23rd 2009
Obama has grown up never being told "no" about anything. He is literally daring Americans, journalists, tv stations, and now the internet to say anything negative about how he rules the country for fear of reprisal from him and his administration. He wants to be the dictator of America,and rule every aspect of our lives. He's taken over banking, the auto industry, forbidden drilling by our own country in favor of allowing other countries to drill here. He's working on taking over the health care industry which is our very life line and now, he wants the internet to be subject to scrutiny by the White House. When you tell Obama "no", he just turns around and goes a different route to get what he wants anyway, and he gets very testy and arrogant if anyone stands in his path. Obama is using America as his play ground for power..his power, not for the people who live and work here. He needs to go, as does his bunch of thug cronies that kiss up to his every breath while destroying our nation. VOTE THEM OUT as fast as humanly possible.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (28)
(28) cypress674
12:09PM Oct 23rd 2009
I am no fan of Nixon, but Obama's behavior as Commander in Chief of our military places him in a far worse category.
Obama has been too busy fighting his private wars against free press, free enterprise and citizens' rights to decide how to spend the money they earn. That's why he has no time left to consider strengthening our national defense or reducing the threats we face from Iraqi and Afghan terrorists or hostile regimes in Iran and North Korea. Its much easier for him to blame Bush for anything that goes wrong anywhere in the world rather than do something to safeguard our country.
Obama has been too busy fighting his private wars against free press, free enterprise and citizens' rights to decide how to spend the money they earn. That's why he has no time left to consider strengthening our national defense or reducing the threats we face from Iraqi and Afghan terrorists or hostile regimes in Iran and North Korea. Its much easier for him to blame Bush for anything that goes wrong anywhere in the world rather than do something to safeguard our country.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (19)
(19) vicbar88
7:45AM Oct 23rd 2009
I just can't understand why any criticism of our new President or administration is strictly off limits. Remember the old saying "IF the Shoe fits" Every other president has had to take it as part of the job so why not this one? Is it because of race? I think so. Now one party can use the race card to justify their dismissal of anything that does not fit their agenda and label any opposition as racist or hate motivated. This only divides the country more and clogs the flow of Government even more. People had better wake up from their warm fuzzy dreams and fantasies of what a perfect world should be versus what it actually is. We all already know what would be nice but only a few understand that human Beings can only go so far and perfection is something that Human beings will never achieve no mater how hard they dream and wish and rely on snake oil salesmen. Men of their word are far different than men of many words.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (21)
(21) bonbon
12:54PM Oct 23rd 2009
because in a dictatorship, one is not allowed to say anything against their leader.
it can lead to death
just ask Suddam Hussien LOL
don't you get it.
a dictaorship does not one day walk in and say, I am your leader.
most of the time, they do it very sytamatically
go get a book on Hitler, one that chronicles his rise to power.
then take a good look at what is happening right here, right now. Here in this THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, this GREAT NATION, of which I have always been proud, and never needed a reason to be proud.
take a good look, compare the two, and you will see why,
if they do not work to stifle those who are speaking out, how will they ever then succeed in overthrowing our government, and instating their marxist regime.
when you surround yourself with marxist Mao Tse-tung loving commies, you do it for a reason.
it can lead to death
just ask Suddam Hussien LOL
don't you get it.
a dictaorship does not one day walk in and say, I am your leader.
most of the time, they do it very sytamatically
go get a book on Hitler, one that chronicles his rise to power.
then take a good look at what is happening right here, right now. Here in this THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, this GREAT NATION, of which I have always been proud, and never needed a reason to be proud.
take a good look, compare the two, and you will see why,
if they do not work to stifle those who are speaking out, how will they ever then succeed in overthrowing our government, and instating their marxist regime.
when you surround yourself with marxist Mao Tse-tung loving commies, you do it for a reason.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (16)
(16) AngelBaby
11:57PM Oct 23rd 2009
Hey look BoomBoom got off her stripper pole long enough to post some more of her insignificant trash talking drivel.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-6)
(-6) rthompson1329
7:53AM Oct 23rd 2009
the current president is very thin skinned, shallow, fame seeking and insecure. he will and does use any and every excuse to be out of the white house and in the lime light. He is our first celbripres.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (23)
(23) regalcrusader
8:14AM Oct 23rd 2009
yesterday the administration tried to block the white house pool reporter from fox. the other pool reporters announced that they would not accept such tactics and the white house backed down. comperable to nixon and his enemies list....i think so.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (24)
(24) moderate
10:48AM Oct 23rd 2009
Proof?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-11)
(-11) bonbon
8:03PM Oct 23rd 2009
proof, dear moderate
is all over the airwaves today.
EVERY MAJOR NETWORK HAS ADDRESSED THIS ISSUE.
CBS news admitted FOX NEWS is the most watched network. so now I suppose CBS is lying.
CBS stated how the White House attempted to block a reporter. so now I suppose CBS is lying.
I believe you and every Obot here owes each one of us who have been trying to get our message out, a HUGE apology, we were not lying.
like it or not the White House is actively trying to strip us of our right and privilege to exercise FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
and if they succeed, then they will go after, and strip us of all our rights.
so you can bet your ass, we are right about everything else as well.
when you work this hard to keep the media, under your thumb, and to take away our most basic rights, you are doing it so you can take over our GREAT NATION.
AND FOR NO OTHER REASON.
AND IF ANY O BOT KNOWS IT OR NOT, THAT MEANS YOUR RIGHTS AS WELL.
is all over the airwaves today.
EVERY MAJOR NETWORK HAS ADDRESSED THIS ISSUE.
CBS news admitted FOX NEWS is the most watched network. so now I suppose CBS is lying.
CBS stated how the White House attempted to block a reporter. so now I suppose CBS is lying.
I believe you and every Obot here owes each one of us who have been trying to get our message out, a HUGE apology, we were not lying.
like it or not the White House is actively trying to strip us of our right and privilege to exercise FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
and if they succeed, then they will go after, and strip us of all our rights.
so you can bet your ass, we are right about everything else as well.
when you work this hard to keep the media, under your thumb, and to take away our most basic rights, you are doing it so you can take over our GREAT NATION.
AND FOR NO OTHER REASON.
AND IF ANY O BOT KNOWS IT OR NOT, THAT MEANS YOUR RIGHTS AS WELL.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (8)
(8) AngelBaby
12:15AM Oct 24th 2009
The only thing BoomBoom (AKA bonbon)is right about is that she is a
babbling idiot who climbs off her stripper pole from time to time to
post her irrelevant, insignificant, laughable trash.
babbling idiot who climbs off her stripper pole from time to time to
post her irrelevant, insignificant, laughable trash.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-4)
(-4) Truth
4:28AM Oct 24th 2009
angelbaby?
And you're talking about other people being strippers?
You showed your lack of intelligence and class in one short post. Good work!
They say "write what you know". If you follow that advice you will write about stripper poles, or say absolutely nothing.
And you're talking about other people being strippers?
You showed your lack of intelligence and class in one short post. Good work!
They say "write what you know". If you follow that advice you will write about stripper poles, or say absolutely nothing.
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(2)
(2) ucefcu1
9:54AM Oct 23rd 2009
The White House has come out against a news organization (one where I occasionally watch the news hour and not the opinion shows and find them fairly well balanced), sends his minions out to the other channels for them to spew their hatred of the news organization and won't appear on the channel and yet this idiot doesn't think it is an "enemies list". I am a Democrat and find these actions very troubling and an abuse of office. 1984 is happening 25 years too late!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (15)
(15) Mike
10:09AM Oct 23rd 2009
Walter:
Yes it's true that Obama is not the first President to try to antagonize his critics, and Nixon stooped to an unbelievable low, this administration DOES show signs of being on the same path as the Nixon administration. They have not reached that point yet, but they are certainly headed in that direction.
Yes it's true that Obama is not the first President to try to antagonize his critics, and Nixon stooped to an unbelievable low, this administration DOES show signs of being on the same path as the Nixon administration. They have not reached that point yet, but they are certainly headed in that direction.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (17)
(17) MARK
10:37AM Oct 23rd 2009
From all I've read, my conclusions about Obama are...he's a Marxist radical, an agitator, a race-baiter, a pathological liar, corrupt ,mediocre,incompetant, anti-Constitutional, pro-Maoist, a narcissist and an unexperienced, delusional, misguided dreamer.....but he does wear nice suits.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (21)
(21) dumbasademocrat
11:28AM Oct 23rd 2009
Pretty soon Obama will make Nixon look like Elenore Roosevelt ! The tide is starting to roll Comrades.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (13)
(13) marshall
11:39AM Oct 23rd 2009
Nixon was the best Pres in my lifetime. Before him we were in constant fear of nuclear attack from the USSR and China. His diplomacy ended that. He was attacked daily by the left because he was an anticommunist and he tried to win a war he didn't start and refused to surrender. No president has ever been assaulted by the media the way he was, not just news shows but just about every variety show. Most of his guilt for Watergate was really him trying to protect his friends, something unheard of in todays backstabbing politics.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (14)
(14) daballofire
12:00PM Oct 23rd 2009
Obama is paranoid, has a fierce temper, thin skinned and has a chip on his shoulder - a bad combination for a guy with no experience doing anything worth doing. Nixon had plenty of experience but also was paranoid, had a temper, thin skinned and had a chip on his shoulder too. So Obama is Nixonian without the experience, in his actions at barring Fox and taking them on publicly and creating an enemies list.
Obama has gone even further in telling Americans to their face on TV he will hunt them down if they disagree with him and he told his left wing supporters rat out and to turn dissenters over to the White House by sending them offending Emails of the guilty dissenters. No President would ever get away with this and Obama will not either. Who would have thought Obama's MSM he has in his pocket turned on him yesterday by forcing him to let Fox interview his INSANE PAY CZAR. Even they are starting to realize that this doctor could just as easily take away their free speech rights as Fox's,
He is heading down the Nixon road of getting the majority of Americans actually hating him, wanting to impeach him him and forcing him to resign in disgrace. He just needs some encouragement by Americans who will eventually hate him as much as they hated Nixon.
Obama has gone even further in telling Americans to their face on TV he will hunt them down if they disagree with him and he told his left wing supporters rat out and to turn dissenters over to the White House by sending them offending Emails of the guilty dissenters. No President would ever get away with this and Obama will not either. Who would have thought Obama's MSM he has in his pocket turned on him yesterday by forcing him to let Fox interview his INSANE PAY CZAR. Even they are starting to realize that this doctor could just as easily take away their free speech rights as Fox's,
He is heading down the Nixon road of getting the majority of Americans actually hating him, wanting to impeach him him and forcing him to resign in disgrace. He just needs some encouragement by Americans who will eventually hate him as much as they hated Nixon.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (14)
(14) 
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