Nixon on the Clinton Scandals
By Joseph Farah
From beyond the grave, the late President Richard Nixon
-- himself something of an expert on White House
scandals -- is shedding light on why this president,
William Jefferson Clinton, seems to get away with
soooooo much.
In Monica Crowley's new book, "Nixon in Winter," he
shares his thoughts and insights on Whitewater, the death
of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster and the
inability of Republicans to go for the jugular in punishing
political scandals by the opposition.
Nixon, like others who have called the mysterious Foster
death "the Rosetta Stone" of the Clinton scandals,
intuitively understood the centrality of the alleged
suicide.
"I think that what we have here is a major political
problem," he told Crowley days after the July 1993 death.
"This death must cut right to something else, like that
land deal, or their taxes, or something. There's a reason
why they are being so secretive and maybe even -- well --
obstructing the investigation."
Nixon saw an opportunity for the Republicans to exploit
the situation.
"He wanted Whitewater pursued as vigorously by the
Republicans as Watergate had been by the Democrats,
Clinton held as accountable for misdeeds as he had been,
and all presidents held to the same high standard," writes
Crowley. "Again, Nixon made the mistake of believing
that other presidents would be held as accountable as he
had been."
By December 1993, Nixon was already deeply frustrated
over the Republicans' failure to nail Clinton.
"This is a mess," he said. "There is so much corruption
involved here that they are up to their eyeballs in it,
particularly Hillary, since she handled all of their
finances. The Foster suicide smells to high heaven, but
they probably won't reopen that investigation. The taking
of the files (from Foster's office) was definitely
obstructing justice."
Nixon resented the fact that his attorneys were still
fighting Watergate-related "crap" 20 years later. He knew
that it was critical to seize the moment in the
investigations.
"Anything the Clintons turn over now will have been
totally sanitized," he warned. "If our people don't step up
to this, so help me ..." he said, clenching his fist. "Of
course, I can't say anything, for obvious reasons, but they
had better go after them on this."
Nixon also warned that it would take an aggressive
prosecutor to make something stick.
"I see that Bob Fiske is going to be the special prosecutor
on Whitewater," he said. "I don't know much about him,
but if he turns out to be a (Howard) Baker type, we're
doomed. We don't need a softy or an elite intellectual
type on this: we need a tough son of a bitch. But I still
don't think anything will come of it. His friends in the
press will protect him no matter what. We didn't have
that advantage."
Nixon feared the Republicans would "flush the thing
down the tubes. They did it with (Commerce Secretary)
Ron Brown and (Illinois Rep. Dan) Rostenkowski," he
said. "Those guys are guilty as hell and corrupt up to
their eyeballs, and they're all still at the trough. It's our
own people's fault; they are just not up for the big play.
My critics used to say that Watergate was a gift to them;
here we have a gift from the Clintons, and no one is up to
using it."
"The point has to be made that unlike this situation, no
one ever profited in Watergate," he continued. "Here you
have financial gain and abuse of power. I remember when
they went after (Commerce Secretary) Maury Stans for
$1,000; meanwhile, Ron Brown takes millions, and
nothing is done. And here was Hillary, on the
impeachment committee, screaming about the eighteen
and a half minutes, and now she's in Little Rock
shredding."
Once again, Nixon returned to the most important
difference between Watergate and the still fledgling
Clinton scandal -- a dead official. Commenting on the
press bias, which concluded early that Whitewater was
"nothing like Watergate," Nixon said: "I say, 'It's worse. In
Watergate, we didn't have profiteering, and we didn't
have a body."
Today, Nixon must be spinning in his grave as his
beloved but hapless Republicans continue to flub
investigations into wider profiteering schemes, more
bodies and even questions of national loyalty and
security.
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