When we should have impeached we haven't, and it has had long lasting harmful effects to the nation.

[Skidmore]

We gave Nixon as graceful an exit as could be given and allowed a deal to be brokered to avoid a state trial. The legacy was Ford, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Buchanan, and hordes of nasty neocons and many other scandals and crimes committed with impunity by those who skated punishment for high crimes and misdemeanors. * and Cheney deserve to be impeached and they are far worse than Nixon. Thirty plus years later we are still experiencing fallout from not holding Nixon and his cronies responsible for their crimes. Thirty plus years hence we will undoubtedly be dealing with the criminal element that has escaped punishment in this illegal administration. What better reason can be found to impeach that the lesson history has taught us for when you fail to do your constitutional duty to hold administrations responsible for wrongdoing?

[madokie]

1. the crimes of the raygun regime were many too

and by many of the same traitors

[postulater]

2. We need a deck of 52 playing cards

and hunt them all down like we did with Iraq.

[MuseRider]

3. Yup

but we never seem to learn. We keep pardoning people who are the worst criminals in government or we let them back in later. To heal the nation they say. Hmm? I say throw everything we have at them, prosecute and do whatever the law says we should do. Now THAT would heal the nation. Where did they ever get the idea that we, the nation, feel healed watching the fat cat crooks who hurt us get away with it?

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Yes but they never got a BJ...

We are a nation of Hypocrites! The world sees it clearly! Too many times we have taken the easy way instead of the right way.

[MissWaverly]

5. Lack of accountability = escalation of abuse

I think the problem is this, that once something is not dealt with, then it becomes acceptable, now we hear that they deliberately
drove down the value of the dollar in 2004 to promote jobs and improve trade deficit in an election year. Everything they do
is either about winning an election or pleasing a crony. There is no rule of law or common good anymore.

[Baby Snooks]

6. And don't forget the Bushes...

Hidden away in the shadows of Nixon was George HW Bush. He more than anyone else sums up the legacy of Nixon. He rode the coattails of Ronald Reagan to Washington. And the neo-cons rode the coattails of George HW Bush. Reagan and Bush may have left Washington. But the neo-cons remained. And 27 years later, are still there. Their grey eminences. Hiding behind the curtains. And the coattails.

And Bush's power was formidable even during Carter's administration. His CIA ruled the roost. And spread disorder for the new Bush order.

The fall of the Shah served two purposes. It got rid of the Shah. And it focused attention on a failed policy of Carter's that carried Ronald Reagan to victory. The problem was it was not a policy of Carter's. It was a policy of the CIA's. George Bush's CIA.

Carter's policy towards Iran, based on his position on the Shah, was based on CIA "intelligence" about the Shah that was probably about as "viable" as the CIA "intelligence" about Saddam Hussein.

With the Shah, it was torture chambers and a populace screaming for liberation. With Saddam Hussein, it was weapons of mass destruction and a populace screaming for liberation. There were no torture chambers. There were no weapons of mass destruction. And both times there was a populace that was to be plunged into the Dark Ages of Islamic fundamentalism in a Faustian conspiracy the sole aim of which was to control the oil reserves of two countries.

And given the appalling commment by Madeline Albright about how the deaths of 500,000 children were "worth it" obviously Bill Clinton's policy was not his but the CIA's as well. You only need to look at Hillary Clinton's position as a senator to know what her policy will be as president. It will just continue to be the policy of the CIA.

As "patriotic" as Valerie Plame may have ended up being, the reality is she was part of the same CIA. The CIA does not protect the American people or serve the American people. It creates disorder, provides the propaganda to convince Congress to support war, and when that fails, it simply replaces governments through coup d'etats and assassinations. Often replacing democracies with dictatorships.

The aim of the CIA is simply to create the conditions through which this maniacal vision of "one world order" may be achieved. The maniacal vision of the Bushes. And the maniacal vision of the neo-cons. They became empowered through Nixon. But they rose to power through Bush. And there they remain. In power.