Shadows Of Nixon

Well, it seems that the Department of Justice is opening an investigation related to the president's secret domestic spying program. One big problem, though. The investigation isn't into the president's apparently illegal actions, but rather into the leak of those actions to the media.

Once again, the Bush Administration shows clearly that it expects to be able to operate with impunity and with no regard to the laws of the land, and is only concerned if it gets caught doing it. President Bush is once again trying to frighten the American people into passive acceptance of further limits on their liberties, invoking the specter of an attack worse than Sept. 11. Something worth reading to put this in some interesting context is Joe Keohane's recent piece in The Boston Globe recalling Sinclair Lewis' fictional portrayal of the rise of a fascist dictator in America. There are some disturbing parallels.

Another disturbing parallel comes from that master of all things disturbing, Vice President Dick Cheney. While traveling with reporters, Cheney mentioned that the president needs his authority to be "unimpaired" in terms of conducting national security. Cheney somewhat foolishly made comparisons to the Watergate era, saying that since then, the president's powers have been reigned in by Congress and the courts.

Of course, he doesn't mention that Congress was snapping the presidency back to its position before Nixon and others tried to vastly expand the powers of the office. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney seem to be taking a Nixon maxim to heart: "When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal."

But I don't think Nixon was right then, and I don't think Bush and Cheney are right now. Unfortunately, with Congress dominated by Republicans, they won't call in the president to answer whether he committed a crime. Instead, they seek to punish those who would expose such crimes to the American people.