House Judiciary Republicans Tried To Protect Nixon Too, And Got Crushed For It

[babylonsister]

POLITICS 12/12/2019 03:12 pm ET
House Judiciary Republicans Tried To Protect Nixon Too, And Got Crushed For It
Yet today’s House Republicans are not likely to break with Trump in impeachment votes.
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By S.V. Date


WASHINGTON ― If the chairs in the House Judiciary Committee meeting room could talk, the Republicans sitting in them Thursday probably wouldn’t like what they’d hear.

Nearly a half-century ago, their counterparts who protected then-President Richard Nixon suffered a hefty price for it just months later in the 1974 midterm elections: Five of the 10 members who voted against all three articles of impeachment saw their seats flip to Democrats. Four were defeated outright. The fifth retired, and the Republican hoping to succeed him lost.

“They were saying all summer long that there wasn’t enough evidence to say that Nixon knew” about the cover-up, said former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who was a lawyer on the Judiciary Committee impeachment staff in 1974 and is now running against President Donald Trump for the 2020 GOP nomination. “As soon as the tapes came out, they looked like idiots.”

In contrast, House Republicans as a whole lost only 25% of their seats that November ― still a staggering loss rate, but only half of that suffered by members of the Judiciary Committee.

But the history lesson of Nixon’s impeachment ― for covering up the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters to cheat in his 1972 reelection ― will almost certainly be ignored by today’s Republicans, both in the Judiciary Committee and the House generally.

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nixon-defenders-hammering_n_5df28f42e4b0ca713e5ae99c?vhk

[greymattermom]

2. They think Putin will hire them

in some fancy DC consulting firm.

[TwilightZone]

3. This time, the whole party is trying to protect Trump.

We'll see if they pay for it and if the results in 2020 are similar to those in 1974.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

4. Use words like BETRAYAL and COWARDS for Republicans.

On message boards, Facebook, in Letters To The Editor of your local paper. Present facts to back up your opinion.

I am drafting a LTE using those words. Short and to the point.

[Caliman73]

5. One cynical difference

50 years ago there was not a media system in place that showed only one biased viewpoint to brainwashed masses and pulled other mainstream outlets to the right in order to seem "objective".

Nixon absolutely HATED the press because they asked him hard questions and did not let him deny or spin the way he wanted to. These days Trump and McConnell just go on Fox where they get to say whatever they want with a fawning talking head. The rest of the media is "fake news". While many more people still trust other mainstream outlets over Fox and their ilk, the effect of Fox is still felt.

Republicans seem to have largely abandoned any pretense of having a debate about ideas. They are engaged in cheating and setting up a system where they can retain power with even their minority of voters through the use of dirty process tricks, election fraud, and media manipulation. While those things may have existed 50 years ago, the Republicans have had 50 years to improve their game.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. One major

difference was the Media. Albet,much of the Verbiage used by the Rethugs was just washed and rinsed Nixon era Verbiage.

[Caliman73]

7. Definitely.

Conservatism is for lack of better terminology, Unsustainable. Change is inevitable, otherwise we would still be living under tribal or monarchical systems of government. I understand the impulse to preserve a sense of cultural tradition but that is not what leaders within the conservative movement want. They want to preserve the power hierarchy. They want the wealthy to preserve their wealth and the racial and social caste system to remain as is. That is not a winning strategy when most of the population falls outside of the group that would see any benefit from that system.

They have to go with platitudes and tropes to fool enough people to create a voting bloc. When the media was less concentrated and coordinated to the right wing message, it was harder to do as politicians of any stripe would not be allowed to just speak nonsense like they do today on Fox and others.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. The major difference is we already picked off the vulnerable districts in 2018

It required a huge generic ballot edge to tip those suburban districts. We would need the same type of generic edge in 2020 to merely maintain, let alone advance. That type of 8 point gap is simply not logical or sustainable.

Just be thankful we have the House right now. I'd like to maintain it one more cycle. If a Democrat wins the presidency in 2020, then the House is immediately lost in 2022.

Long term big picture generalities will always destroy a reliance on specifics

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Depends on who wins.

Demographics are in our favor from now on. Dems will control all the Urban Areas and as for the Rural,that will be kind of a no mans zone. Trump created a Recession which is about to hit mid 2020.

[crickets]

8. In spite of the stark media differences, there are enough informed voters

that this history lesson is still in play, though to what degree is yet to be seen. 2018 was not a fluke.