Saturday Night Massacre II

[McCamy Taylor]

Ever since Trump slithered into office, folks have been calling this the new Watergate--albeit a frenetic, greatly accelerated Watergate, suited for the short attention span and high desire for amusement that characterizes 21st century news consumers.

With the firing of FBI Head James Comey a mere 100 plus days into the Trump administration, we have reached a Watergate milestone. The Saturday Night Massacre. Here is the concise Wiki summary:

When Cox issued a subpoena to Nixon, asking for copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office, the president refused to comply. On Friday, October 19, 1973, Nixon offered what was later known as the Stennis Compromise—asking the infamously hard-of-hearing Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi to review and summarize the tapes for the special prosecutor's office. Cox refused the compromise that same evening and it was believed that there would be a short rest in the legal maneuvering while government offices were closed for the weekend.

However, the following day (Saturday) Nixon ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused and resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned – and the Saturday Night Massacre was complete.[3]

Nixon then ordered the Solicitor General of the United States, Robert Bork, as acting head of the Justice Department, to fire Cox. Both Richardson and Ruckelshaus had given personal assurances to Congressional oversight committees that they would not interfere, but Bork had not. Although Bork later claimed he believed Nixon's order to be valid and appropriate, he still considered resigning to avoid being "perceived as a man who did the President's bidding to save my job."[4] Nevertheless, having been brought to the White House by limousine and sworn in as acting attorney general, Bork wrote the letter firing Cox.[5] Initially, the White House claimed to have fired Ruckelshaus, but as an article published the next day by The Washington Post pointed out, "The letter from the President to Bork also said Ruckelshaus resigned."

The night before he was fired, Cox gave an impassioned news conference during which he said, “Whether ours shall continue to be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.”

On November 14, 1973, federal district judge Gerhard Gesell ruled firing Cox was illegal absent a finding of extraordinary impropriety as specified in the regulation establishing the special prosecutor's office.[5] Congress was infuriated by what it saw as a gross abuse of presidential power as did many Americans, who sent an unusually large number of telegrams to the White House and Congress in protest.[6][7][8]

Less than a week after the Saturday Night Massacre, an Oliver Quayle poll for NBC News showed that, for the first time, a plurality of U.S. citizens supported impeaching Nixon, with 44% in favor, 43% opposed, and 13% undecided, with a sampling error of 2 to 3 per cent.[9] In the days that followed, numerous resolutions of impeachment against the president were introduced in Congress.

Note that it took Nixon 10 months to hammer the nails into the coffin of his political career. Trump has him beat by seven months. In this equation, Trump is Nixon, Comey is Cox, Sessions is Bork.

Things to look for in the weeks to come. Comey becomes the Worm That Turned (on Trump). Trump and Russia fire back with lots of nasty innuendo about Comey. Pollsters repeatedly ask Americans how many want to see Trump impeached. Up until now its been about 40-50%. When the number who want him impeached becomes a majority, watch for the press to launch wall to wall "The Road to Impeachment" coverage.

Gotta wonder--did Pence tell Trump to fire Comey? Boy, that man must really want Trump's job.

And has Trump never heard the phrase "It's not the crime, it's the cover up"? Trump and Sessions are now guilty of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

[tblue37]

1. THERE you are! I have been missing your posts. nt

[tblue37]

2. Oh, and K&R, of course. nt

[longship]

3. Ruckelshaus was fired. He did not resign.

Last edited Wed May 10, 2017, 08:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Almost every account these days gets this wrong.

Here. John Chancellor reporting, who got it right.

I only wish there was an archive of Chancellor's entire broadcast. I remember it like it was yesterday.
He ends it by effectively saying, "I never thought that I would be reporting such events." It was an event where reportage rose above. John Chancellor nailed this! I will never forget this report.

The US House of Representatives first took up discussion of impeachment of President Nixon by the next weekend. It would be nearly ten months until Nixon's resignation. But this is the event that precipitated his collapse.

And Ruckleshaus did not resign; Nixon fired him, leaving Solicitor General Bork to do the dirty deed.

Here's another Chancellor clip, regretfully also incomplete: