Shades of Nixon

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This just happened:

President Trump fired his acting attorney general on Monday after she defiantly refused to defend his immigration executive order, accusing the Democratic holdover of trying to obstruct his agenda for political reasons.

Taking action in an escalating crisis for his 10-day-old administration, Mr. Trump declared that Sally Q. Yates had “betrayed” the administration, the White House said in a statement.

The president appointed Dana J. Boente, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as acting attorney general until Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is confirmed.

Ms. Yates’s decision confronted the president with a stinging challenge to his authority and laid bare a deep divide at the Justice Department, within the diplomatic corps and elsewhere in the government over the wisdom of his order.

And it’s only going to get worse, folks.

7 thoughts on “Shades of Nixon”

  1. Hey, at least Clinton ain’t in the White House, right? I mean, at least Trump is better on “trade,” or so I read on several “progressive” websites before the election.

  2. Mr. Trump declared that Sally Q. Yates had “betrayed” the administration, the White House said in a statement.
    I’ve read elsewhere that Trump claimed she had betrayed the Justice Department. Which would make more sense coming from Donald Trump.. Naturally, according to Trump’s thinking it’s supposed to be us, the American people, who were betrayed. I guess Trump will just move on to the next acting Attorney General and hope that they won’t have a spine..Sooner or later he’ll hit upon a political invertebrate to serve his purposes.

  3. A few key differences:
    Nixon –
    Was highly intelligent,
    Well read,
    Knew the Constitution from every angle,
    And loved America.
    It was having maximum power – and the problems that stem from that – but being unable to stop the ever increasing criticism, that untethered his paranoia from reality, and caused him to become unhinged and dangerous.

    t-RUMPleThinSkin –
    Is not intelligent, but he IS a highly skilled grifter.
    Is not well read – I doubt he even read the ones ghostwritten for him. At least not fully.
    Wouldn’t know the Constitution from an IKEA instruction handbook.
    Doesn’t understand America well enough to love it, and all of its aspirational glory, but decidedly mixed historical and recent results, and the hard fought battles necessary to eke out any real progress for people who weren’t born (historically: white, Christian, male) rich and priviledged into powerful families. He just loves that here, unlike in many parts of the world, he could fo it “My Way,” and not end in jail for life, or tortured and killed by a rival War Lord.
    And he was well on his way to having an over-flowing cornucopia full of delusions, obsessions, and mental issues – including narcissism and paranoia – before he even decided to throw his bad toupee/hair-plugs/extensions and MAGA hat into the ring, and run for POTUS.

    Have we already entered a Constitutional Crisis?
    IMO: HELL YES!
    t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin is already defying the courts, and just fired the temporary AG.

    But don’t worry, there’ll be no Constitutional Crisis declared by the Republicans in Congress – at least not unless/until t-RUMP decides to gum-up their work of screwing everyone in social safety-net programs out of their earned-benefits from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security/Disability, and pensions, and out of their money, and finally destroying the middle class – all while lowering taxes on the richest of the super-duper Richy Rich’s, and their companies.
    And then, we’ll get President Pence in very short order!
    And he won’t fuck that up, because hurting all of these people has been a life-long dream of this very “Christian” man since he could remember (which, in reality, is not long at all for this life-long dim bulb!).

  5. “Betrayed” is an interesting, but not surprising choice of words, perfectly in line with the rigid, narcissistic image that we have of Trump. Paranoia is a first cousin to narcissism. I wonder how long before that reaches full bloom.

  6. Isn’t the AG supposed to operate autonomously, free of political influence, and according to the law? Firing somebody at justice for opposing an unconstitutional law says the AG & Justice Dept are satellite offices of the WH.

  7. priscianus jr: You raise a really good point, but for Comey and Putin’s interference, poor reporting by the media, and the inability of Republicans to show some care for the nation and admit that “listen, this bozo can’t be our leader, and, no, Hillary is not guilty of any crimes – sorry, we won’t allow this perversion of the justice system to stand.”

    Regardless, I’d say the idea that the nation *wanted* to take a sledgehammer to the system is refuted by Trump’s loss of the popular vote.

    To listen to his poor supporters can be heartbreaking. “He must be smart of he couldn’t be so rich” (HAH!) or that he’ll use his “business skills to create jobs” – I mean, come on, since the 80s, business skills = “how to maximize productivity with fewer, lower paid, workers.”

    Hillary’s loss can be explained quite simply:

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