Resolved: President Obama has had a pretty bad week. You might even say he’s had a horrible week. You could even say he’s had the worst week of his presidency. Dare we say, his week has been darned near Nixonian.
The comparisons are being bandied about that the IRS scandal over selective auditing of conservative groups, coupled with the continuing GOP cacophony over Benghazi, with a dash of First Amendment stomping on leaks to the Associated Press, are, if not impeachable, at least on par with Richard Milhous Nixon’s flaunting of presidential power and politics to silence enemies.
It may not be fair, but it’s there. No less an authority than Bob Woodward says Benghazi could be Obama’s Watergate.
“If you read through all these e-mails, you see that everyone in the government is saying, ‘Oh, let’s not tell the public that terrorists were involved, people connected to al Qaeda. Let’s not tell the public that there were warnings,’” Woodward said on MSNBC. “I have to go back 40 years to Watergate when Nixon put out his edited transcripts to the conversations, and he personally went through them and said, ‘Oh, let’s not tell this, let’s not show this.’ I would not dismiss Benghazi.”
The Republicans surely aren’t dismissing Benghazi, despite Obama’s insistence it is nothing more than a “political sideshow.” But, then again, Watergate was dismissed as a “third-rate burglary.” As history and Woodward and Bernstein have shown, Watergate was not just about the break-in at the famous apartment complex. It went much deeper with administration officials using the IRS to investigate presidential unfriendlies, developing an “enemies list” that kept track of who was for them and who was against, and using a team of aides dubbed “plumbers” to try to stem leaks coming out of the White House. All sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it?
Unlike Nixon, there is no proof that Obama was involved or directed his aides to break laws or even just toe the line of inappropriateness. In fact, principals in every one of the ongoing scandals are absolving Obama of knowing anything. But in a way, is that really any better?
The usual suspects on the left are coming to the defense of the beleaguered president, saying any comparisons to a president who walked all over the Constitution are simply outrageous. Even rational libertarians such as the Globe’s Scot Lehigh see very little that is “Nixonian” in the controversies swirling around the president. Neither does The Washington Post, which knows a thing or two about Watergate. The paper’s editorial board says the president needs some help from someone with the stature of a Hillary Clinton or a Robert Gates. GOP leaders want the rank-and-file to cool it on comparisons to Watergate as well.
Like Nixon, who offed aides such as H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Dean to try to save his presidency, sacrificial lambs have been identified at the IRS, the Justice Department, and the State Department to take responsibility for the bad actions of their agencies. Though there appears to be nothing impeachable in the scandals and Obama had no direct involvement, the president sets the tone for his administration and its actions. On that mark, there is a lot to compare.
–JACK SULLIVAN
BEACON HILL
The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld says a scathing auditor’s report about the redevelopment of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Base omitted the names of several prominent Democratic operatives who happen to be contributors to Auditor Suzanne Bump’s campaign account.
The state’s gambling commission wants to speed up the process for issuing a commercial casino license in the Southeast region.
MARATHON BOMBING
Dzhokhar Tasarnaev’s writings on the inside of the boat where he was apprehended are likely admissible in court. Howie Carr thinks political correctness was behind the delay in finding out about “the note in the boat.”
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The Boston Fire Department scuffle pitting the department’s leaders against its deputy chiefs landed in the City Council chambers yesterday. Kevin Cullen throws in with the rank-and-file over the brass, but, other than saying “the department does need to change in some areas,” he never actually tells us what the proposed reforms are that have so stirred the pot. Peter Gelzinis says the fire commissioner’s characterization of the revolting deputies as “dinosaurs” overlooks a peculiarly Boston trait: We like our dinosaurs.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
An Inspector General report says some known or suspected terrorists in the federal witness protection program have gone missing, been allowed to board flights without pre-approval, or were not investigated by the FBI despite reported suspicious activity.
An immigration group in the US House says it has reached an “agreement in principle,” The Hill reports.
The Senate confirmed Fall River native and MIT physicist Ernest Moniz as the new secretary of energy.
ELECTIONS
The Globe’s Jim O’Sullivan reports that states reps in Brighton and the North End as well as two Charlestown operatives loyal to Mayor Tom Menino are poised to back former Dorchester state rep Charlotte Richie for mayor. An interesting — and potentially important — development, though the headline calling them “big names” left us scratching our heads.
US Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez faces a barrage of questions, and has questions for rival Ed Markey, WBUR reports.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Two new hotels for the South Boston waterfront get the regulatory go-ahead.
TECHNOLOGY
More ways to bump into people on sidewalks: Google debuts more apps for Google Glass.
EDUCATION
The US Department of Education fined Yale University the maximum $165,000 for failing to report a number of sexual assaults on campus and accurately report crime statistics as required by law.
TRANSPORTATION
The MBTA’s Fairmount commuter rail line is drawing attention — but few riders.
Will Amtrak’s new WiFi upgrade help?
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
An engineering firm that studies the effects of climate change says within 75 years, some coastal towns along the South Shore will have residential neighborhoods and business districts underwater during every high tide.
The battle over wind turbines that either belong to towns or produce significant revenue for them is intensifying even though many are already up and running, CommonWealth reports.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Brockton police are stepping up their presence after a burst of killings the city this year, including four in the last four weeks.
ARTS/CULTURE
The Boston Symphony Orchestra lands Latvian wunderkind Andris Nelsons to be its new music director.
MEDIA
Dan Kennedy says while everyone’s attention is on the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party and other conservative groups, little heed is being paid to the agency’s actions in killing nonprofit journalism.
