Watergate figure Dean at hearing on Bush censure

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

John W. Dean, Richard Nixon's White House lawyer, told senators today that President Bush's domestic spying exceeds the wrongdoing that toppled his former boss.

Bush, Dean told the Senate Judiciary Committee, should be censured and possibly impeached.

"Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented," Dean said. "Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it."

Republicans and their witnesses rejected the comparison between Watergate and Bush's wiretapping program, and attributed Sen. Russell Feingold's censure resolution to posturing in a year of midterm elections.

And

In fact, only two Democrats have co-sponsored Feingold's resolution: Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California. The rest have distanced themselves from the proposal, with many saying the resolution is premature because a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of the eavesdropping program has not concluded.

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This whole censure thing amazes me. Not the resolution itself, mind you, I'm really happy that Feingold's massive juevos continue to be a force with which to be reckoned. No, what gets me is how the two parties are reacting to it. I guess the GOP response is no surprise, but it's a wonder that they don't realize that conservatism itself, as the dominant American political philosophy, is now on the line--Bush's criminality and incompetence threaten to discredit right-wing ideas for at least a decade if not more. Why are Republicans so willing to drown with their leader? But if the Red State guys make me wonder, the Blue State guys piss me off. At this point, as the war in Iraq continues, perhaps indefinitely, after Katrina has made clear to the whole country that the Bush administration is simply incapable of providing us with "homeland security," and on and on, it ought to be clear that opposing the White House is nothing but a winning strategy. But, no, Senate Democrats continue to play it safe, which means, for them, losing, and are running away from Feingold's resolution as though...well...a good simile evades me, just fill in the blank with something really bad. What a bunch of pathetic losers. We'd all be much better off if both parties were disbanded and replaced by parties with real liberals and real conservatives. Ah, the stuff of dreams.

You know, it's ironic. The Republicans are dismissing the censure resolution as midterm electoral "posturing," but at the same time Democrats are criticizing Feingold because they feel his resolution is going to hurt their chances for taking back Congress in November; they think he's posturing for a Presidential run in '08 at everybody else's expense. Obviously, it can't be both. Here's my take on it. This has nothing to do with electoral politics: Feingold is pushing this because it's the right thing to do. I guess the politicians in Washington are so jaded they just can't believe that one of their own would do something on principle alone. Sickening.

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