It may come as a surprise to my many good
spirited and upbeat readers that legislative bodies have long memories,
particularly for vindictive matters.
Richard Nixon was the most
hated man in the 20th Century by the Left. He was accused of having
defeated Senator Helen Douglas (I knew her daughter) by lying about
Douglas's 'Red' connections and slandering her. (Nixon's charges
against her were entirely accurate.) Nixon was defeated in the 1960
presidential race because of ballot stuffing in Illinois and Texas but
bided his time carefully and was elected President in 1968 against
Hubert Humphrey after Bobby Kennedy, the logical candidate, was murdered
by an anti-Israeli Palestinian.
The Democrats controlled the
House and Senate but did not have 60 votes in the Senate, until Nixon's
second term (which he won by victory in 49 states). In the 1974 off-year election the Democrats gained 60 seats in the Senate, enough to
impeach Nixon, which they proceeded to do, first by forcing Nixon's VP
(Spiro Agnew) out of office and replacing the VP with a fellow
senator. We know the affair as Watergate which was run by leaks from
Mark Felt the acting head of the FBI who was a Democrat who hated
Nixon.
The next time Congress had a chance to punish a
Republican president whom they hated was after the 1985 election
when they had majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in
seven years but not 60 Senate votes. They failed to carry a successful
attack on President Reagan (known as Iran-Contra).
Congressional Republicans never forgot.
By
1995 the Republican party gained control of both houses of congress for
the first time in 44 years. They began investigating the Democratic
President Bill Clinton. By 1998, when they saw that they had two more
years of Congressional control, the Republicans brought impeachment proceedings
against Clinton. With only 55 Republicans in the Senate they couldn't
succeed with the impeachment but they got their revenge.
The
Democrats gained control of both the House, Senate and Presidency in
2008 and have begun their on-going revenge. So far they have attacked the
previous president, Bush, by attempting to close Guantanamo Prison,
renaming the Bush War on Terror, trying five Bush indicted terrorists
as criminals, re-opening a Justice Department probe of the CIA
interrogation procedures and attempting to punish Bush's ally Karl Rove
(failed effort). The Democrats don't have a solid 60 Senate
votes so their power is limited.
Legislatures have memories and they can be vindictive.
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