Ever the ambitious opportunist, Hillary Clinton accepted an appointment to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Impeachment during the Watergate scandal.[1] Liberal sycophantic sexists loyal to Bill Clinton deny she received this appointment on her own merit. They claim the position was offered to Bill first, and when he refused he suggested Rodham for it, which is highly unlikely.
The appointment was made by John Doar, a Republican counsel on the committee. Given Hillary's Republican credentials as Chairperson of the Wellesley Young Republicans, and her previous employment on Capitol Hill in 1968 in the office of the Ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Melvin Laird who became Nixon's first Defense Secretary, and the fact she had better grades than Bill at Yale Law School, the idea that the position was offered to Bill first appears to be just another leftover highly facitious claim manufactured by Clintonite sychophants in building the myth and mystique of Bill Clinton.
The FBI was seeking to apprehend Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayers after they bombed the Pentagon and the United States Capitol and the murder of a San Francisco policeman.[2] Dohrn, spokesperson for the Weather Underground terrorist group and author of its Declaration of War on America, was the first woman to make the FBI's Top Ten Nixon Most Wanted list. Nixon pressured the FBI for quick resolution. Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt, who became a turncoat known as "Deepthroat", authorized an illegal break-in of Dohrn's sisters' apartment, Jennifer Dohrn, seeking information on the fugitives whereabouts.[3] This became an impeachment charge against Nixon - misuse of the FBI and civil rights violations. Nixon argued it was necessary for national security in wartime. There had been ample precedents set by Franklin Roosevelt in World War II with illegal wiretaps and incarceration of American citizens of Japaneese descent based on racial profiling. We'll never know the answer to this question because Nixon resigned before any trial took place.
Ayers and Dohrn, who became celebrities on the left and were never prosecuted, resurfaced years later as personal family frieinds of Michelle and Barack Obama. Ayers and Dohrn introduced Obama to their friends and helped him rise from the Chicago City Council to the Illinois State House.
So why was it easier for Hillary to repudiate Nixon in 1974 when she joined the House impeachment committee staff, than to repudiate Barry Goldwater when NPR finally asked her to explain why she didn't in 1996? The Watergate scandal is only the tip of the iceberg. The impeachment committee looked extensively at Nixon's "incursion"[4] into Cambodia. Goldwater had been the original non-interventionist, anti-Vietnam War candidate in 1964 with his advocacy of tactical nukes to end the conflict quickly. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, who ran as peace candidates, averaged 120 dead American service personnel per week between the two of them for eight solid years. Many Goldwater supporters felt vindicated, as there certainly were no Democrats opposed to escalating the Vietnam conflict in 1964 when Goldwater was almost alone. Some Goldwater backers had more in common with the anti-war isolationists who backed Gene McCarthy and George McGovern than the Nixon-Johnson Silent Majority war hawks.
Some thought it a war crime when Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia, and an Article of Impeachment was formulated based on this. Nixon allegedly responded, "the president can bomb whoever he wishes".[5] In the ensuing legal arguments the law came down on Nixon's side and the impeachment Article was defeated. The War Powers Act and two standing Congressional Intelligence Committees were born out of these legal and constitutional debates. The impeachment committee settled on lesser charges based on a third-rate burglarly to pursue their pettiness and vindictiveness. Make no mistake, Hillary's involvement with the committee, and using it to promote her own career, was a big factor in bringing an impeachment inquiry against the Clinton's for their involvement in the Whitewater land deal. But legal and constitutional questions over impeacheability for the Clinton's activities prior to taking office caused the committee to settle on lesser charges based on sex in the Oval Office.
Categories: [Hillary Clinton] [1970s] [Corruption]