| | | I think a President today who deliberately violated an embargo imposed by Congress, trying to keep it quiet, would run exactly the same risk of discovery.
The NSA developed a formula, many years ago, for how long something can remain a secret, based on past secret operations. One person can keep a secret only so long as they tell no one else. But once more than one person knows a secret, it's a very predictable matter of time before the secret becomes public. The more people who originally know the secret, the shorter the period of time the secret is kept.
Humans have an urge to disclose themselves and what they know, which is surprisingly little affected by penalties for disclosure or what sort of background the people involved have. It's really hard to believe but it's true. So yes, a President violating US law today is just as likely to be found out as they were 35 years ago.
It was simple arrogance which made the White House think they could deliberately violate American law and lie to Congress, combined with gutter morality which made breaking the law seem reasonable.
This is the difference between a company like Chevron and firms like Exxon and Halliburton.
Chevron has certain ethics and people who don't follow them aren't given responsibility. If people with responsibility at Chevron don't follow Chevron ethics, they're gone. Chevron's board doesn't pretend not to know about lapses in judgement and doesn't pretend to have a bad memory.
Haliburton and particularly Exxon have frequently screwed everyone else in the oil business by egregious behavior. One example was the Exxon Valdez. Their Captain was drunk, but that was not the major problem. Once the accident happened, it quickly became clear that Exxon had never purchased most of the Clean-Seas equipment required to clean up the spill, which they certified each year was at the site. That sort egregious lying in return for little particular benefit is typical of how they operate. This led to an industry-wide moratorium on new oil and gas exploration in Alaska. Isn't that terrific?
Richard Nixon hired people to burglarize the Democratic Party headquarters - which was outrageous, and even worse for no particularly good reason. This is symptomatic of people who lack good judgement.
Some people have good judgement and others do not. If the President thinks his job is merely making public appearances, it makes very easy for people without good judgement to operate in an increasingly malignant manner. This is just basic organizational behavior. Your organization reflects you and your values, even of you don't want them to. |
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