Until the Last Dog Dies

By: William Rivers Pitt

"That man will try to overturn mountains. Perhaps he will be crushed by them. But he will never yield."

- Rosa Luxemburg

Richard Nixon is remembered for many reasons. The manner in which he bare-faced his way through the 'Checkers' speech, his plastic smile, his kitchen table summit, his visit to China, his secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, the Christmas carpet-bombing that followed…and, of course, the Watergate scandal that consumed Washington D.C. and ultimately drove him into exile, are all part of our collective history.

Seldom has there been so pathetic a spectacle in American politics than was witnessed during Nixon's farewell speech. He rambled like a meth addict who has reached the far limits of a bender, a sheen of sweat glittering above his lip in the glare of the cameras. Had a hole to Hell opened up at his feet as he walked towards his final helicopter ride, he would have leapt into it with a prayer of thanks.

Instead, he climbed the ladder, smiled like a man who has won the lottery, and flashed the famous victory symbol before being swallowed by the darkness. As he disappeared into the distance, that darkness engulfed the nation. It remains with us today, and will for all time.

At long last, we didn't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore. He was broken and bereft, a wretched shadow of his former self.

Some call Nixon a criminal, and others consider him a martyr. All, however, remember him for the one characteristic he displayed throughout the entire Watergate debacle and indeed throughout his entire administration: his unabashedly brazen desire to hold on to power.

Time after time, they had Nixon dead to rights. His own people were running like rats to Congress, spilling their guts about recording devices, hush money, break-ins, and Byzantine plots to destroy the Democratic Party before the election that lifted him on high. Archibald Cox, the first Special Prosecutor and perhaps the most noble man ever to serve the public, was hot on his heels.

The modern definition of 'brazen' in political terms was defined by the Saturday Night Massacre, and the events that immediately followed. Nixon demanded that Cox be fired for doing his job. Richardson and Ruckelhaus quit rather than perform the perfidious duty, and Cox was ultimately dismissed by a fellow named Robert Bork, who answered Nixon's call in the middle of the night to do the deed.

The next day, Western Union processed the highest volume of telegrams in their long history, delivering bag after bag of notes to the White House from outraged American citizens who demanded that Nixon resign. Still, he marched on.

Nixon viewed the opposition arrayed against him, put his head down, and said to hell with 'em. He wasn't going to quit. They didn't have the guts to impeach him. If the President does it, it is not illegal - the words from The Man himself.

Perhaps Nixon knew what history now records. Perhaps he knew that the moment he stopped pushing back, the moment his knee bent even a fraction, his enemies would have him and his plans would be in ruins.

It was not until the Supreme Court unanimously ordered that the Oval Office tapes under subpoena be handed over that the beast was finally and irretrievably brought to bay. Nixon packed his bags and headed back to California in disgrace. Ford went on to pardon him, and afterwards earned the distinction of being the most shot-at President since George Washington. Even housewives were after his blood for letting Nixon go free.

Since then, we have seen other Presidents who have manifested steely nerve in the face of overwhelming opposition.

Reagan grinned that grin and pretended not to hear the shouted questions of reporters during the Iran/Contra scandal. He managed to leave the office under his own steam.

Clinton dug in his heels and withstood a barrage of withering fire not seen since the Allies landed at Normandy, never letting us know what the true definition of 'is' is. Like Reagan, Clinton completed his term and showed himself out of the Residence.

Ronald Reagan and William Clinton were men who left massive footprints across the history of the White House. When compared to Richard Nixon, however, these titans are left in deep shade. Nixon is the high-water mark in our history. No one after, and few before, could even be contemplated as occupying the same league. Love him or hate him, it must be admitted by all that the man had sand. He was tough.

Not long ago, a man named George W. Bush was raised unto the office of President by five judges on the Supreme Court. Bush and his minions devised a plan that would reverse almost seventy years of policy and history. They knew they could do it, because they had control of the House and Senate. The road was ten lanes wide and clear all the way to the horizon.

Then one day, just when the momentum had begun to build, a Senator named Jeffords decided he could not be a party to the Bush plan. He called a press conference and renounced his GOP membership.

There were people who survived the Great Quake of '06 in San Francisco who could not be convinced, even weeks later, that the ground had stopped shaking. So it is in the wake of the Jeffords Quake of 2001, with one notable exception - the ground truly has not stopped shaking yet.

Suddenly, the ultraconservative Bush agenda was faced with a massive roadblock - a Senate controlled by Democrats who wanted nothing to do with his plans. Each and every piece of legislation proposed by Bush, every judicial nominee they put forward, became subject to review by people who were not on Bush's list of allies.

George W. Bush surveyed the landscape, took stock of his foes, and said to hell with 'em. He was going to have his agenda no matter what. Compromise was out of the question.

In doing so, he revealed himself to be the extremist many feared him to be. The claims made during the 2000 campaign that he was a moderate, a 'compassionate conservative,' were exposed as lies. There has never been a moderate who would not compromise. One who is beyond compromise is defined differently. They are called zealots.

The agenda Bush is attempting to push is the same one conceived in the heady days before Jeffords defected. A reasonable man might have surveyed the new landscape and made some changes to the program to ensure that at least something on his list became law. No such changes are forthcoming from Bush, and none should be expected.

No matter how strong the opposition, Bush is soldiering on. No matter how little his plans have to do with the needs, ideology or well-being of the American people, he refuses to be diverted. Some might call this bold leadership. Many others, however, call it brazen disregard for the facts at hand.

The surplus is gone. There is no money for education. There is no money for the military. The Democratic Party is preparing an assault upon Bush from virtually every point on the compass.

Rather than compromise, rather than yield to his foes, Bush has chosen to fight. He paints the demise of the surplus as a healthy thing for our country. His staffers have proffered inflated projections of economic growth to hide all that red ink. White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels described the generations-old protections offered by Social Security and Medicare as being "symbolic."

George W. Bush will not be swayed. In this, he resembled the much maligned man who tried and failed to fight the rising tide. Richard Nixon would be proud.