(no subject)

[novapsyche]

I attended the town hall meeting held by the ACLU of Michigan and Cooley Law School. I was treated to intelligent, cogent arguments about the nature of the NSA, the history of spying in the United States since WWI, and the idea of broad executive power.

I only took a couple of notes, but it's interesting that John Dean came out and said that Nixon was pretty much unconcerned about the Pentagon Papers being leaked until Kissinger came to him and said that he may be viewed as a weakling if he didn't challenge the leak. As Dean put it, Kissinger "hit the manhood button." And he said the tone of the White House changed from that moment on.

Dean also said that "Congress has become an aider and abettor" to the imperial presidency.

The only bad thing about tonight was that I had nothing of interest to say to Mr. Dean when I handed him my copy of Worse Than Watergate to sign. I mean, nothing politically important. I told him that I watched him all the time on Countdown, and he said that Keith Olbermann is the brightest of all of the anchors in television. And that was basically the end of our conversation. I should have thought of more to say.

Here's a diary at DailyKos that talks about the town hall meeting.

Comments

[brendand.livejournal.com]

Sounds really interesting. I really would have liked to have gone.

[nagisa-kaworu.livejournal.com]

I would have liked to have been able to have gone to that. I want to read Dean's book as well.

He really is the one who knows about "Tricky Dickie". First he was the "Mastermind of Watergate". Then when the shit hit the fan, he completely pulled a Quisling on Nixon. I still wouldn't turn my back on him.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I think you have a mistaken view of Mr. Dean. He said at the meeting last night that he was kept out of the loop about the "Special Investigations Unit," otherwise known as the Plumbers. He said that when he told Nixon that there was a cancer growing on the presidency, he expected that Nixon would root out the bad elements in his midst, but instead the cover-up went even deeper.