Peter Lavelle: Richard Nixon vs Hillary Clinton – the story of two crooks

Richard M. Nixon is the only American president in history to resign the office. He did so in disgrace and faced a number of criminal charges. Nixon broke the law, lied about it and engaged in a cover-up. In a nutshell this describes what has gone down in history as the Watergate scandal. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is accused of breaking the law, lying about it, and is engaging in a cover-up. This is a story of two crooks, though with very different outcomes.

Nixon was rightfully forced to resign, but it remains to be seen if the same laws and approach to due process will seriously and adequately address Hillary’s legal and ethical transgressions. Republican nominee Donald Trump has stated Hillary’s scandals are worse than Watergate. He is probably right, though for very different reasons.

Here are some of those reasons:

During Watergate the Department of Justice resisted and overcame political pressure from the Nixon White House. The DOJ was one of the true heroes of Watergate. Standing on principle, the DOJ refused Nixon’s heavy-handed demands. Hillary on the other hand has a very friendly and corrupt DOJ under the helm of Loretta Lynch. During Watergate a grand jury was convened and special prosecutors called. Lynch has refused both. And the person in charge at DOJ of reviewing John Podesta’s email hack/leak is an old law school buddy of his. During Watergate the Justice Department stood firm, today the department protects Hillary.

The Watergate investigation reveal how the White House attained slush funds to pay off White House staff caught in the web of the scandal. They were not insignificant sums, but also hardly fortunes. Juxtapose that to how Hillary used the State Department as her own (and Bill’s) private feeding grounds. The Clintons have made themselves quite rich being mere public servants. Nixon demonstrated how politics could be corrupted; the Clintons have demonstrated how they can corrupt the State Department and the Justice Department with impunity. The Clintons, compared to Nixon, should take out a patent on how to “pay to play deluxe.”

Nixon went to great lengths to cover-up the illegal deeds of his White House. This was his ultimate undoing. However, there is scant evidence he ever put the country’s national security at risk. Hillary, on the other hand, has repeatedly imperiled national security though willful disregard of office procedures protecting the electronic correspondence of government official (and lied about it). We may never know how many people and/or foreign governments have read Hillary’s official and personal emails. Nixon was never accused of treason; Hillary’s callous behavior shows that she should be.

The Justice Department, the FBI, and the Congress probably never would have investigated the Nixon without the indispensable reporting of an aggressive media. Nixon hated the media for a good reason – the media was the public’s watchdog. Today the corporate media is in Hillary’s pocket. Not only does the liberal media support and protect Hillary, we know now because of Wikileaks many are in collusion with her presidential campaign. The greatest disgrace of this presidential election cycle is a very pliant media in service of those in power. Nixon is probably turning in his grave with anguished jealousy.

Enforcement of the law by courageous men and women, with the aid of the media, exposed and ended corruption at the highest levels of government during the Nixon administration. Today we have a government willfully corrupted by the Clinton Machine. And the media won’t tell you much about it.

At the end of the day Nixon had too few friends, while Hillary Clinton has too many like minded friends.

Peter Lavelle is host of RT’s political debate program CrossTalk. His views may or may not reflect those of his employer.