Poll: Should President Nixon have been impeached?

[Craig234]

Based on what we knew at the time, was the impeachment of President Nixon justified?

 

[BoomerD]

Should have and would have been if he hadn't resigned when he did.

I also think Ford's pardoning Tricky Dick should have been an impeachable act of and by itself...

 

[Craig234]

We see some people in the 'impeach Bush' poll with flag icons saying 'no', so I was just wondering if they're against impeaching (republican) presidents for law-breaking in general, or if it's just Bush.

My first check of the poll was 1 yes 1 no, so it seemed we might have some Nixon defenders, but now it's 9 yes 1 no, still a small sampling.

I'd thought we were pretty well past the question on Nixon, but the posts on Bush make we wonder how many are out there who are not on the same page on impeachment.

I don't think Ford's pardon was impeachable, just wrong for the nation.

 

[BoomerD]

Gerald Ford...the only unelected President in US history pardoned Nixon for his crimes. IMO, that had to be pre-arranged...and as such, possibly a criminal conspiracy. And yes, VERY bad for our country.

 

[dawp]

That was when? 1974? I was 11 so I had other things on my mind at the time. Ford should never have pardoned the bastard. thing have gone strait to hell since that time.

 

[Deudalus]

Originally posted by: dawp
That was when? 1974? I was 11 so I had other things on my mind at the time. Ford should never have pardoned the bastard. thing have gone strait to hell since that time.

Umm, what he did was very wrong and he should have been impeached for it.

But I don't think you can blame hardly anything that has happened since policy wise on Nixon.

What happened at Watergate had jack shit to do with Carter's worthless ass, Reagan and his spending, Clinton's hummers, Mogadishu, Iraq, or any of a number of other screw ups.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Gerald Ford...the only unelected President in US history pardoned Nixon for his crimes. IMO, that had to be pre-arranged...and as such, possibly a criminal conspiracy. And yes, VERY bad for our country.

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I certainly thought Nixon should have been jailed at the time, after all, many of his associates were already being jailed, but its my later understanding that the Ford pardon was not pre-arranaged.

With the fairly recent death of President Ford, I and others have had the perspective of time to review and reassess the wisdom or lack thereof in the Ford Pardon. And if nothing else, I am no longer as convinced as I once was that Nixon should have been jailed. And at least we, as a nation, could, in the words of Gerald Ford say, our long national nightmare has ended.

Some 109 years before, our nation was in a similar position, a resolute Lincoln had finally won the civil war, and at the very pinnacle of success, he was assassinated by a Southern sympathizer. But even before Lincoln was assassinated, his council was to let the vanguished South up gently, while the council of many in his cabinet and in the legislative branch was to advocate vigorous and ever continuing punishment of any and all rebels. His Vice President, Andrew Johnson continued the Lincoln policy, was impeached for it, and escaped conviction in the Senate by a single vote. Today, we recognize the Lincoln approach was the right thing to do, even though it was a binary fork in the road, that later led to a Jim Crow solid South.

But sadly, we as a nation seemed to have learned all the wrong lessons from Watergate.
The legislative branch seems afraid to throw the nation into the two year gridlock it seems to take to remove an out of control President, while people like Cheney have learned to conceal evidence of wrongdoing from public scrutiny while neutering the watchdogs in the supreme court and justice department that were so effective in bringing down Nixon.

 

[Pabster]

No question, yes. And he would have been.

 

[BladeVenom]

Nixon was no worse than Clinton. The only difference is that Nixon took responsibility for what he had done, and his followers weren't the sheep that would excuse anything like Clinton's faithful flock.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Nixon was no worse than Clinton. The only difference is that Nixon took responsibility for what he had done, and his followers weren't the sheep that would excuse anything like Clinton's faithful flock.

+1

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Gerald Ford...the only unelected President in US history pardoned Nixon for his crimes. IMO, that had to be pre-arranged...and as such, possibly a criminal conspiracy. And yes, VERY bad for our country.

Ford was a man who sacrificed himself for the good of the nation. To hate him for that shows just how far down the rabbit hole we have traveled. It proves the political split in this nation cannot persist much longer without bloodshed.

How can we ever turn back this inevitability when we much prefer to dwell in petty hatred rather than move on and heal the nation?

 

[jackschmittusa]

Had he not resigned, his crimes were enough to warrant taking action.

For those that condemn Ford's pardon, let me say that when it happened, I was furious too. In fact, too many people were. Without the pardon, there would have been a witch hunt of huge proportions. Much of the government would have made it a primary focus. The media would have joined the circus as well. It would have been a distraction so large, that if nothing else, would have weakened our position in The Cold War. I have come to change my initial opinion of the pardon, and now believe it was the only way to have gotten the government and the media to actually work on what was really important to the country.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Nixon was no worse than Clinton. The only difference is that Nixon took responsibility for what he had done, and his followers weren't the sheep that would excuse anything like Clinton's faithful flock.

huh?

 

[herm0016]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Had he not resigned, his crimes were enough to warrant taking action.

For those that condemn Ford's pardon, let me say that when it happened, I was furious too. In fact, too many people were. Without the pardon, there would have been a witch hunt of huge proportions. Much of the government would have made it a primary focus. The media would have joined the circus as well. It would have been a distraction so large, that if nothing else, would have weakened our position in The Cold War. I have come to change my initial opinion of the pardon, and now believe it was the only way to have gotten the government and the media to actually work on what was really important to the country.

I agree with this, being from fords home town, and seeing him talk. I also believe that it was the right thing for the nation. to let watergate go, to get us back on track to take on issues that are important to the whole country. Ford was a man of great conviction. He did what was unpopular because he knew that it was best. I wish i could vote for a man like him today.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Nixon was no worse than Clinton. The only difference is that Nixon took responsibility for what he had done, and his followers weren't the sheep that would excuse anything like Clinton's faithful flock.

huh?

Nixon was a criminal mastermind burglar stealing for political advantage from the opposition party to gain political advantage and Clinton lied under oath about having sex, the lying part of which is also a crime. Don't you see how easily any idiot could equate these things?

 

[herm0016]

Originally posted by: Craig234
We see some people in the 'impeach Bush' poll with flag icons saying 'no', so I was just wondering if they're against impeaching (republican) presidents for law-breaking in general, or if it's just Bush.

My first check of the poll was 1 yes 1 no, so it seemed we might have some Nixon defenders, but now it's 9 yes 1 no, still a small sampling.

I'd thought we were pretty well past the question on Nixon, but the posts on Bush make we wonder how many are out there who are not on the same page on impeachment.

I don't think Ford's pardon was impeachable, just wrong for the nation.

what the heck do flag icons have to do with anything??? i guess you are a bigot too. how come its ok for you to say something like that, but its not for me to say, i think everyone with a computer monitor icon is a communist. generalizations ftl.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: Pabster
No question, yes. And he would have been.

Absolutely.

I don't see how this is a partisan issue, really. Many Republicans at the time were disgusted by what Nixon did - unlike some of Bush's people who supposedly took issue with what he was doing, they resigned for their principles. And Nixon was taken to the woodshed by Hugh Scott, John Rhodes, and Barry Goldwater- all Republicans.

Honestly, we could use more men like John Rhodes in Washington today.

"For me, this is a sad day. I admire Richard Nixon, for the many great things he has done for the people of America and the people of the world. But the most important aspect of our entire system of government is equal justice under the law, the principle that no person -- whether he be rich or poor, black or white, ordinary citizen or president -- is above the law. Coverup of criminal activity and misuse of federal agencies can neither be condoned nor tolerated. . . . When the roll is called in the House of Representatives, I will vote 'aye' on impeachment."

- John J. Rhodes, R-AZ, 1974

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Nixon was no worse than Clinton. The only difference is that Nixon took responsibility for what he had done, and his followers weren't the sheep that would excuse anything like Clinton's faithful flock.

+1

Because large-scale corruption (going all the way to the top) and trying to rig an election is no worse than getting a BJ in the Oval Office?

And somehow believing otherwise makes one a sheep? :roll:

Nixon was a crook and a disgrace to the Office of President of the United States. He intentionally abused that office and acted contrary to the public interest. This isn't a partisan issue, a measure of political alignment, or even a dispute among historians.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: Pabster
No question, yes. And he would have been.

Yep, it was a bad day for our country when he was pardoned.

I have no doubt similar crimes were performed by other presidents and went undetected though.

 

[dphantom]

Of course he should have. He broke the law just like Clinton.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: dphantom
Of course he should have. He broke the law just like Clinton.

And jaywalkers should get lethal injection like child-raping mass murderers.


It's only fitting that Tricky Dick's re-election committee was C R E E P.

Check out the felons on the prominent CREEP member list

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Deudalus

What happened at Watergate had jack shit to do with Carter's worthless ass, Reagan and his spending, Clinton's hummers, Mogadishu, Iraq, or any of a number of other screw ups.

And nothing that Carter did had anything to do with Nixon's wholesale felonies. He wasn't hauled before Congress for the Watergate breakin. It was for the coverup that followed, and... < clue >... he was caught leading it on his own taping system.

Before that, he had authorized illegal surveillance and breakins against a number of those on his "enemies list," in much the same way as the current Traitor In Chief.

Nixon was every bit the criminal that George W. Bush is, and he was a lot smarter. Smart does not mean good, and it is only our good fortune that Nixon and his gang didn't have access to today's computers and the Internet when they were the criminals in charge.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
Nixon was no worse than Clinton. The only difference is that Nixon took responsibility for what he had done, and his followers weren't the sheep that would excuse anything like Clinton's faithful flock.

+1

You guys are hilarious, but scary.

First, if you don't know why Nixon's crimes - such as obstructing justice by arm-twisting the CIA into lying that the investigation needed to be blocked for national security reasons, using the powers of the president to raise funds for buying off criminals' silence - then I can hardly get you to understand.

But to say Nixon *took responsibility*? Go wash your mouths out with soap.

The man did everything he could to evade responsibility, including the steps mentioned above, including playing on the hearts of the American people and abuse their respect and trust in the office of the presidency, including trying to fight the release of the evidence on tape all the way to a 9-0 decision he lost with the Supreme Court, to not resigning until his top three allies in the Senate came to tell him to resign because impeachment and removal were certain, *after* the house committee voted to impeach -

And after all that, when he resigned, he did not take responsibility for any act, he said in the speech that he was innocent, and was resigning to better defend himself.

You guys are so ignorant and biased it's scandalous.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
Had he not resigned, his crimes were enough to warrant taking action.

For those that condemn Ford's pardon, let me say that when it happened, I was furious too. In fact, too many people were. Without the pardon, there would have been a witch hunt of huge proportions. Much of the government would have made it a primary focus. The media would have joined the circus as well. It would have been a distraction so large, that if nothing else, would have weakened our position in The Cold War. I have come to change my initial opinion of the pardon, and now believe it was the only way to have gotten the government and the media to actually work on what was really important to the country.

I disagree that the government couldn't have functioned; instead, it sent a message to the next Republican president, Reagan, to go ahead and do things like Iran-Contra crimes.

What, exactly, would have been the harm on the cold war as you mentioned? It's not as if pardoning Nixon freed our resources for the secret cold war-ending project. It was an era of pretty much nothing at the time while the USSR was slowly in decay, until shortly thereafter when Gorbachev came in and ended it.

Would we have missed such wonderful Ford policies as his secretly telling Indonesia it was ok with us for him to invade East Timor, where 250,000 were quickly massacred? Darn.

Sorry, but I think it's your hindsight that's flawed on this one. Our nation did stand up to the abuse or presidential power with his resignation, but needed to really uphold the law.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: herm0016

Originally posted by: Craig234
We see some people in the 'impeach Bush' poll with flag icons saying 'no', so I was just wondering if they're against impeaching (republican) presidents for law-breaking in general, or if it's just Bush.

My first check of the poll was 1 yes 1 no, so it seemed we might have some Nixon defenders, but now it's 9 yes 1 no, still a small sampling.

I'd thought we were pretty well past the question on Nixon, but the posts on Bush make we wonder how many are out there who are not on the same page on impeachment.

I don't think Ford's pardon was impeachable, just wrong for the nation.

what the heck do flag icons have to do with anything??? i guess you are a bigot too. how come its ok for you to say something like that, but its not for me to say, i think everyone with a computer monitor icon is a communist. generalizations ftl.

First, admittedly my comment is a generalization, and as such, not universally true - but there is a very high correlation between the flag icons and the stereotype.

You need to learn the difference between an accurate stereotype - not that many liberals object to 'tree huggers' because we do care about the environment even though some would disagree - and ones that are either inaccurate or offensively harmful. I didn't say flag icon people like to eat babies.

Sorry, but flag icon people are much more likely against Bush's impeachment than average people. Do you really think that that statement is either inaccurate or unfair?