Caesar Nixon George W. Can Do No Wrong

In his final days in office, while facing inevitable impeachment, conviction, and prosecution, Richard M. Nixon had planned to use the US Marines to secure Washington DC for "reasons of national security" and institute martial rule.

How do I know this?

My father-in-law was an Air Force squadron leader at the time, and he was ordered to stand "on high alert" for a possible move against the president.

Fortunately for us, there were more true patriots in the US Military than there were Nixon toadies.

In 1977, Nixon "explained" to David Frost that he, like Abraham Lincoln, had the power to go beyond the US Constitution "in times of war."

Frost responded...

FROST: But there was no comparison was there, between the situation you faced and the situation Lincoln faced, for instance?

NIXON: This nation was torn apart in an ideological way by the war in Vietnam, as much as the Civil War tore apart the nation when Lincoln was president. Now it's true that we didn't have the North and the South?

FROST: But when you said, as you said when we were talking about the Huston Plan, you know, "If the president orders it, that makes it legal", as it were: Is the president in that sense? is there anything in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights that suggests the president is that far of a sovereign, that far above the law?

NIXON: No, there isn't. There's nothing specific that the Constitution contemplates in that respect. I haven't read every word, every jot and every title, but I do know this: That it has been, however, argued that as far as a president is concerned, that in war time, a president does have certain extraordinary powers which would make acts that would otherwise be unlawful, lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the nation and the Constitution, which is essential for the rights we're all talking about. LINK

During that interview, Nixon also said...

NIXON: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate.

Hm.

Where have I heard that recently?

Oh, yeah. George W. Vacation is obviously channeling the ghost of Tricky Dick. How often have you heard him (or one of his flying monkeys) compare the war on terror to WWII lately?

And then there's this...

Bush Says Election Ratified Iraq Policy
No U.S. Troop Withdrawal Date Is Set

By Jim VandeHei and Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 16, 2005; Page A01

President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.

"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me." LINK

Nixon would be proud of George W. Vacation.

George W. has managed to obliterate the bright line between what Lincoln did during The Civil Freakin' War (when the courts were suspended) and what Nixon only dreamed of doing...

War Plans Drafted To Counter Terror Attacks in U.S.
Domestic Effort Is Big Shift for Military

By Bradley Graham

COLORADO SPRINGS -- The U.S. military has devised its first-ever war plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the United States, envisioning 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipating several simultaneous strikes around the country, according to officers who drafted the plans.

The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters, outline a variety of possible roles for quick-reaction forces estimated at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of civilian response teams.

The possible scenarios range from "low end," relatively modest crowd-control missions to "high-end," full-scale disaster management after catastrophic attacks such as the release of a deadly biological agent or the explosion of a radiological device, several officers said. --snip--

Military exercises code-named Vital Archer, which involve troops in lead roles, are shrouded in secrecy. --snip--

Civil liberties groups have warned that the military's expanded involvement in homeland defense could bump up against the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which restricts the use of troops in domestic law enforcement. But Pentagon authorities have told Congress they see no need to change the law.

According to military lawyers here, the dispatch of ground troops would most likely be justified on the basis of the president's authority under Article 2 of the Constitution to serve as commander in chief and protect the nation. The Posse Comitatus Act exempts actions authorized by the Constitution. --snip--

The command's sensitivity to legal issues, Gereski said, is reflected in the unusually large number of lawyers on staff here -- 14 compared with 10 or fewer at other commands. One lawyer serves full time at the command's Combined Intelligence and Fusion Center, which joins military analysts with law enforcement and counterintelligence specialists from such civilian agencies as the FBI, the CIA and the Secret Service. LINK

Exactly what Nixon wanted.

Feel safer, America?

The US Supreme Court promptly (and correctly) ruled in 1866...

Martial rule can never exist where the courts are open, and in the proper and unobstructed exercise of their jurisdiction. It is also confined to the locality of actual war. The suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus does not suspend the writ itself. The writ issues as a matter of course; and on return made to it the court decides whether the party applying is denied the right of proceeding any further with it." LINK

When Cicero said, "Inter arma silent leges" (In times of war, the law is silent), he was actually employing sarcasm: "Caesar can do no wrong."

We all know what happened to Caesar.

And Nixon.

I, for one, will be standing in front of the first tank that rolls down an American street if/when George W. Bush suspends the US Constitution and institutes martial rule.

And I don't think I'll be alone.

File this under: George W. Nixon.