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Ben Stein's Diary

God Bless Richard M. Nixon

By on 1.4.13 @ 6:12AM

His 100th birthday is coming up next week.

Thursday
One hundred years ago, as of January 9, in a small home in Yorba Linda, a suburb of Los Angeles, Richard Nixon was born in a house his father built.

Without family connections, without family money, with a natural shyness, he became a U.S. Representative when he was in his early 30s, and a U.S. Senator very shortly afterwards, and then Vice President to Dwight Eisenhower from 1953-61.

He lost a squeaker of an election that many observers believe was stolen by the Chicago Democratic machine in 1960 to John F. Kennedy. He then traveled the world, practiced law, wrote and came roaring back to win the White House in 1968, against a genuinely great man, Hubert Humphrey, and then win re-election by the widest margin in history against George McGovern in 1972.

He was always a controversial figure, falsely painted as a smear artist and a witch hunting McCarthyite by a media and academic class that loathed him with an abiding hatred.

During his campaign in 1972, serious wrongs were done by his people, and he connived to cover them up, and then tried to cover that up. For that, and for the residual hatred the beautiful people had always felt towards him, he was tormented, tortured, impeached, and finally made to leave office in August of 1974. My father at that time was his chief economic adviser and I was by then a very junior speechwriter for him. If you look carefully at the tape of his address to the White House staff the day he resigned, you can see me chewing gum and crying while my parents looked on, grief stricken, a few feet away.

I have looked up to Richard Nixon all of my life and still do, and I always will. And if I were to say why, I would say, as briefly as possible:

Despite every possible obstacle put in his path by his enemies, always with an obstructionist Congress, he brought us the EPA, desegregated the last holdout Deep South school districts, enormously promoted equal opportunity hiring for black people on federal projects. He was also the first President to send to Congress proposed legislation for universal health care. I wrote the message sending it to the Hill long ago when I was young. He was also the only GOP President ever to support the ERA. Also the last GOP President to have a balanced budget.

But far more than that, he was a peacemaker. He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POWs, saved Israel from having to use nuclear weapons to survive in the Yom Kippur War, signed the first strategic arms limitation treaty with the former Soviet Union, and, of course, opened up China. This last one made the Cold War unwinnable for the Soviets, setting the stage for the end of that entity, and opened up vistas of unimaginable prosperity for the Chinese people. He was by far the best friend that the friends of peace have ever had. He was by a million miles the best friend the Jewish people have ever had in high office anywhere in the Western world.

Friends here in Hollywood, close relatives, colleagues, have asked me for decades how I can still love Nixon, after Watergate, after his questionable comments about Jews on tape, and I have an answer.

I will never turn my back on Richard Nixon, the peacemaker. Blessed are the peacemakers, and God bless Richard M. Nixon.

About the Author

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (194) |

aware| 1.4.13 @ 6:24AM

Stupid little statist.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 8:00AM

Nixon gave us OSHA, Forced Busing, The EPA, the Judges who put Roe v. Wade on the books 40 years ago this month, Wage and Price Controls, the End of the Gold Standard, kissing Mao's, and Chou's Rear Ends in Peking. He supported Israel when he should have done like Eisenhower, and told them to get behind the Green Line and stay there. It brought on the oil embargo of 1973 and runnaway inflation. It has also allowed Israel to get away with nuclear blackmail for 40 years. In the end he was right to open up China but he should never have gone there. The idea of the President being the chief diplomat has been a disaster since Wilson went to Versailles. What the hell do we have diplomats for? Only Ben would think that support for the ERA was a good idea.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:38AM

You know Israel didn't get F-4 Phantoms until the 73' war, just burns you up doesn't it...

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 12:59PM

Eisenhower was concerned about Israel not being capable militarily at that point; he changed his mind later.

Thanks, Jack, for your support of child rape and torture and murder of young girls. Oh, and your Packers are going to lose.

Nixon saved Israel, and did a lot of wonderful things for our country, which he loved. But he DID give us Carter. That's a major problem. He also didn't develop NASA further, which he should have, and his chief economic advisor was an idiot. Oh, that was Ben's dad, right?

The President being Chief Diplomat is correct. He IS the Chief Diplomat. Worked pretty well for Teddy Roosevelt, if I recall, who won a well deserved Nobel as Chief Diplomat.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 1:18PM

Nixon saved Israel and then leftwing Jews were his main prosecutors. Like I have always said Republicans get nothing from supporting Israel. Nixon saved an exxpansionist Israel which with it's lobby controls our Congress and foreign policy. It has cost us trillions and mountain of blood to keep Israel in the stolen lands of pre 1967 Palistine. If Israel was forced back to the Green Line in 1973 there may have well been peace for several decades.

Rhoetus| 1.5.13 @ 9:36PM

NO there wouldn't Jack from Wi.

Jack in Wi| 1.6.13 @ 1:31AM

The Queens go down for the 53rd straight season without winning a championship. Meanwhile the Packers have won 8 in my lifetime or 7 in 53 years. There is a big tub of lard named Occam breaking up furniture in a mental hospital in Minnesota right now. Ha ha ha, poor Occam gloated all week. Who is gloating now?

Rhoetus| 1.5.13 @ 9:38PM

All the reasons Jack from Wi, that Nixon is on the same list of Traitors as Wilson, FDR, LBJ and Obama. May they all burn in Hell! ;-)

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.4.13 @ 9:58AM

I think it was historian Steven Hayward who said that just as Eisenhower consolidated the New Deal, so Nixon consolidated the Great Society. This Machiavellian politician did incalculable damage to conservatism.

Von Mises Jr| 1.4.13 @ 11:00AM

Nixon gave us FDR-style wage and price controls. But of course Ben Stein would love that since he thinks Hubert Humphrey was nirvana. Methinks Ben is a closet socialist.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 12:33PM

And, in hindsight, one has to wonder if Nixon going to China was really such a good idea, when you consider all of the stuff on our shelves marked: Made In China.

Tina B| 1.4.13 @ 1:19PM

Sad but true. It's one of those "it seemed like a great idea at the time," decisions. I know my seriously anti-Commie Polish immigrant daddy was very suspicious, though he supported Nixon overall.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 2:51PM

Have you been to Mr. Bowman's Column, from yesterday?

What are you waiting for?

Von Mises Jr| 1.4.13 @ 2:01PM

Many current and ex-Obama Czars are ecstatic.

Rene Chang | 1.16.13 @ 4:13AM

Nixon by going to China enabled two generatuons of US citizens o have cheap goods. It was the like of Walmart and Apple that took jobs to China.

Rhoetus| 1.5.13 @ 9:40PM

Closet? Seems "Perfectly Clear" to me. [Pun intended].

Rhoetus| 1.5.13 @ 9:35PM

Mr. Stein is the last Honest Liberal. Be kind.

Al Brooks, BleedingHeartlib | 1.6.13 @ 12:29PM

Nixon ended conscription, thank him for that; but I curse anyone who had anything to do with the Draft.
If LBJ happened to have died in terrible pain in '73: so much the better.

Appleby| 1.4.13 @ 6:29AM

I voted for Nixon twice, and was the last one in America to believe he was a crook. I don't think "cut and run" in Vietnam was a victory, and we all know that Ronald Reagan's "star wars" policy ended the Soviet Union in that incarnation anyway. I watched his funeral on C-Span and recall clearly the Clintons on camera smirking, laughing, mugging and acting like badly brought up teenagers throughout. God rest his soul, I believe Nixon did his best as long as he could, but I stopped believing politicians after him.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 8:07AM

Appleby: I voted fro Nixon twice as well. When he left office I had mixed feelings. He ended up as a major screwup looking back. If Watergate hadn't happened perhaps Reagan would never had been elected. I watched both he and his wife's funerals. Anyone who has the service conducted by Bob Dole and Billy Grahame has had a kind of empty life. Nixon seems to have been a hollow man in a gray suit. He had a lot of company, Agnew, Ford, Dole, the Bushes, and Romney.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:14AM

Damn Jack, you get stuck with that second hand Antabuse again???
I assume you voted "for" nixon, not "fro", you ended a sentence with a preposistion, and who the hell is "Billy Grahame"???
And someone who watches funerals on TV has alot of gall talking about empty lives...

Frank "100% Spell checked" Drackman

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 8:20AM

The typing and spelling Nazi strikes again. You and Occam can't make a sound argument with the facts so look for typing mistakes.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:28AM

Jeez-us Jack, did you attend an intergrated pubic school?
Unless you intended to imply that I'm a member of the National Socialist Party, you should have put quotation marks around "Nazi", like that, thats what you do when you're making an exageration, watch and I'll show you.
Jack unzipped his pants and took out his "Penis".
And by lazily leaving out the "you" in the second sentence you change the whole meaning of the sentence, and make it sound like me and Occam are actually in an argument with "The Facts".
Seriously, Leon Spinks is more glib than Thee.

Frank "Perfect Punctuation Punctuates Perfectly" Drackman

Tyson's C.| 1.4.13 @ 8:41AM

Jack unzipped his pants and took out his "penis."

The period always is placed within the quotation marks.

You're an ill-tempered curmudgeon. The tone of nearly all of your posts is aggressively angry. You make AmSpec seem like it's written for angry, old white men. And, of course, angry, old white men is the targeted audience--angry,old white men.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 9:08AM

Angry? OJ Simpson, thats angry.
Lee Harvey Oswald, thats angry.
George Brett when he got called out after hitting a game winning homerun for having too much Pine Tar on the bat, thats angry.
its more like "amazed" that the Presidency can be won with only 37% of the White Vote.
Which is really what makes America great, I mean if it wasn't for White People there wouldnt be any Punts, Kicks, Extra Points, or Field Goals in this weekends NFL Playoff games.
Or Monday Nights BCS Championship game.

Oh yeah, well I'll have you know I just celebrated my 39th Birthday, for the 11th time.
And if being concerned that a 1/2 black socialist with a Muslim name and father doesn't have my Jewish Back makes me "Angry" then call me Superfly TNT, Mo-Fo!
There, how many angry old white men drop the "Mo-Fo" bomb?
and your chicken sucks BTW.

Frank "have I shown you photos of me and Baruch Goldstein?" Drackman

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 9:49AM

Dreckman,

I love ya but when you call in the Grammar Nazis, you should know it's like hosing down that yellow jacket nest in the corner of your house...shirtless!!

A little baking soda will clear that right up.

topcat52| 1.5.13 @ 11:05AM

Intergrated? Thats? wouldnt? Sometimes we all make mistakes, it doesn't invalidate any point being made. Only a lack of rational thought would do that. As for your sign-off, you are not Bob Hope.

Rene Chang | 1.16.13 @ 4:18AM

This 2argument" is a diversion. So why was Nixon hounded when LBJ got off for the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Reagan for Iran-Contra, JFK for the BAy of PIGs fiasco and GW Bush foir his infamous WMD.

GET real boys and don't get distracted so easily

Rene Chang | 1.16.13 @ 4:18AM

This 2argument" is a diversion. So why was Nixon hounded when LBJ got off for the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Reagan for Iran-Contra, JFK for the BAy of PIGs fiasco and GW Bush foir his infamous WMD.

GET real boys and don't get distracted so easily

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.4.13 @ 10:01AM

American spelling puts the period inside the quotation marks. English spelling has it outside.

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 10:11AM

Sorry Tyson's, I find Frank's humor exceedingly witty and droll. Quite sophisticated actually.
Don't you wish you had the intellectual capacity to come up with some of this stuff sua sponte?
He has to be a great surgeon because his hands don't slip when he's cracking wise over a supine patient, who unfortunately doesn't get the benefit of watching Frank unpluged in operating room 2.
I'd pay admission to watch Frank perform a penile transplant on you with his running commentary.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 12:36PM

umm how dare you call me a Surgeon, I'm the guy who makes sure the patient doesn't say "Ow!" when the Surgeon does his Surgeon stuff....
Oh I wanted to be a Surgeon, cause who remembers the Anesthesiologist from MASH? from ER? from my Penile Reduction last year????
And I think it was the first day of my Med School Surgery Rotation when I showed up for rounds 2 hrs late(@5am), went looking for a left handed scalpel, and sewed my glove into the Non-Kosher pigs feet we were learning to suture on...
"DRACKMAN!!!!! yelled the Chief Resident, there'll be an N-Word in the White House before You'll be a Surgeon!!"
dude was right...

Frank

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 3:31PM

O.K Frank, now where the hell did I get the idea you were a surgeon? Maybe it was OT, my bad, but still, I bet you're a gas (get it? gas, anesthesia) with the surgical nurses and docs, as you keep up your running commentary, while you pump your patients up like the Hindenberg.
I'd still pay admission to watch you crack wise over Tyson's penile transplant.
The surgical nurses must love you, boy!!!

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 4:49PM

Yea,

I'm sure his idea of Happy Hour is a gas (Heh) as well.

StanAmSpec| 1.4.13 @ 3:03PM

While a good writer and reader, I'm not good at grammar. But I'm pretty sure that the period is inside the quote if it is part of a quote i.e. "The article is about how great Stein thinks Nixon was.", alternatively: Nixon handled foreign policy well but many considered him a "statist".

The period is not part of the quotation so is placed outside of it.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 6:04PM

You really need to get a Hobby, AmSpec.

Why not go to Yesterday's Column by Mr. Bowman?

You won't be disappointed.

Cobalt| 1.5.13 @ 3:58PM

You the man, Stan!

I'll bet you are familiar with the work of William Strunk and E.B. White.

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:00PM

Jack, your spelling and grammar mistakes merely point out and elaborate the stupidity of your Nazi arguments.

Again, you are not fit to be around children. The Packers are going to be destroyed in 2 days.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 1:30PM

Occam: I am old enough to enjoy football without crying over a win or loss. I read the Israeli press all the time. Your country is a racist, criminal enterprise. Your gang has murdered 10 Palistinian children for every Israeli child killed. Of course all such killings are wrong. Just like starving 500,000 children, women and old people in Iraq was wrong. Of course you chaps think that you are God's gift to the world and everyone else is dirt. The only solution in Israel Palistine is full integration with full civil rights for, with full reparations to the Palistinians for all the murder, theft, and torture of the last 65 years. If you didn't like the neighbors, why did you steal the neighborhood?

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 3:10PM

Jack:
Israel is a palestinian nation. The U N plan was for two countries when the partition plan was adopted. The Arab states blew that when they attacked Israel and lost the first war, then the second. Do some research. Balfour declaration, British mandate, WWI, WWII.

And as you may guess or know, I am no great fan of Israel. Nonetheless, they have a right to their national existence whether anyone else respects that fact or not.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 5:26PM

What are the Israeli's going to do with the non Jewish majority in Israel Palistine? Are they going to kill them, or expell them. They won't give them a country or equal rights. No group spoke out more forcefully for equal rights for all in South Africa and the USA then the Jews of those countries. Is it too much to ask them to practice what they used to preach?

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 3:17PM

Jack, I know you save your crying for really important things, like when Justin Beaver broke up with Selana, but now you're just being like one of those women at a Black Funeral, you know, the kind that sort of scream, cry, and shout all in the same breath, and whatever you do, don't let them grab your arm, cause a Great White bites with less PSI...
"Your Gang"??? Umm last time I checked Israel hasn't dropped any Hydrogen Bombs on anyone(dammit!)like Our Peace Loving Country has(see Japan, Hiroshima or Japan, Nagasaki)
"Palistine"???? Jeez-us Jack, if I'd spelled that bad my Dad would have made me practice spelling drills for hours, instead of whatever it was that your Dad did, that scarred you for life...
And BTW Dumbass, look up what "Wisconsin" means, its an Indian Word, and I don't mean the kind that actually teach their kids things like how to spell, and that buggery is wrong....
And don't even get me started on starving people that choose to live in Deserts, Sam Kinnison said it much better, albeit, profaner.

Frank

Jack in Wi| 1.6.13 @ 1:34AM

Who was destroyed tonight Occam? It was the Queens by the Packers , as usual.

loulou| 1.4.13 @ 11:00AM

English is Jacksh*t in Wi's second language. Who knows where he/she/it originated.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 12:38PM

Have you been to Mr. Bowman's Article from yesterday?

"Would you like to play a Game?"

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 12:53PM

Lou lou honey another very intelligent comment. Are you obsessed with me and trolling for some action? I don't think I like stalkers like you, unless you are a hot young thing. Somehow I think you are some old battleaxe at the Jewish home for the elderly.

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:02PM

Why would it matter if she was Jewish, Jack?

Got a problem with that?

Tina B| 1.4.13 @ 1:28PM

Zing. There it rears its ugly head again. Good catch OT.

BTW, happy New Year, dear Occam's.

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 3:47PM

Tina B, nothing gets past our boys Frankie and OT.
Jack, you ole Nazi you, jeez-us, as Frank would attest, some of the best and hottest sex has been with Jewish girls.
Too bad you missed out, they would have gotten a real turn on with those jackboots of yours in bed, and your Hitler tat.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 2:55PM

Go to Mr. Bowman's article from yesterday.

NOW!

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 2:56PM

Both of you.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 4:59PM

My late brother had a nice Jewish lady for a mistress for years. She did not have such a good opinion of Jewish men, as I recall. Judging by the guys around here I can see why. There was a Jewish girl in college who had a body to die for, but a face that could stop a train. We used to argue politics all the time in a good natured way. She of course was a liberal. She was engaged to an Israeli and I think moved there. Perhaps she was your mother? I hope not, for her sake. When my brother was in college a Jewish girl who was a slight aquaintence came up to him and told him she wanted to make a gift of her virginity to him. He did his best to accommidate her. He was a dead ringer for Tyrone Power. Can you blame the girl, when you look at the faces and bloated bodies of a lot of Jewish guys. Inbreeding does not do a lot for the looks. There is a reason we Italians are so handsome. We are the most ethnically mixed group in the world.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 5:06PM

If she was young, Jewish, passable looking, and had a nice personality, I would have asked for a date decades ago when I was out bumming around. I have been happily married for almost 4 decades and haven't cheated on my wonderful wife ever. So old granny Lou Lou can troll some where else.

Rhoetus| 1.5.13 @ 9:41PM

I wrote in "John Hospers" in 1972.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 1.4.13 @ 7:27AM

Mr. Stein is entitled to his belief.

However, Nixon started a disease without cure within out borders which has wiped out . . . . millions of jobs and opportunities.

It has become so powerful it no longer goes after companies but individuals.

It apparently can't be stopped from its stated and growing malevolence towards the public.

It's called the EPA and its no longer necessary. The states have their own mini me versions of it and that's OK.

Nixon did a horrible thing with the EPA. He was also stupid with the small town burglar tricks. But the EPA will be his lasting shrine to the state.

Russel| 1.4.13 @ 8:14AM

You get up earlier than me Bill and got to the EPA first . A monster only rivaled in a Godzilla flick . Nixon gave us a few more dandies if I'm not mistaken . Wasn't the fore-runner to HHS , and an Education Dept . whopper his inventions too ?. He had such a need to please the libs , only W Bush could appreciate , who saddled us with another horrible monster , Homeland Security .

Stilton A. Cheese| 1.4.13 @ 8:36AM

If I'm not mistaken, the fore-runner(s) to HHS and Education were LBJ'a HEW (Health Education Welfare) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development)

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 8:54AM

LBJ created the HEW and HUD.

Jimmy Carter created the Energy and Education cabinet depts.

OSHA is a law passed by Congress, signed by Nixon, and administered by the Labor Dept for workplace safety. .I have dealt with OSHA, and it has done mostly good, but like any law there are excesses.

The EPA is out of control, especially under Dem appointees.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 9:48AM

Osha is redundant and wasteful. The insurance companies were doing a good job with industrial accidents by charging like hell if you had an accident. The District attorney would handle any criminal negligence.

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:04PM

OSHA and EPA are redundant and wasteful. You are not always wrong, Jack; your antisemitism and pro-sharia attitude is merely deranged, and something you share with Dr. Paul. You are a loathsome tick; but occasionally a broken clock is correct. (I love mixing metaphors)

Tina B| 1.4.13 @ 1:30PM

And in the South, "even a blind squirrel occasionally gets an acorn."

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 2:42PM

You two are wrong about OSHA. Tell the widows and children of dead and disabled miners in southwestern Pa and West Virginia how the insurance companies kept the mines safe. Insurance companies charging premiums AFTER the incident did not save the lives of the miners, nor make the mines safer. This applies to factories as well.

Cobalt| 1.4.13 @ 7:39AM

During Watergate, Hillary Rodham was fired from the House Judiciary Committee staff.

"Hillary's Watergate Scandal"

By Jerry Zeifman

http://www.freerepublic.com/fo.....5684/posts

Hubert Humphrey was the last good-hearted, though misguided, liberal.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 8:00AM

Sigh. My new year's resolution was to stay away from here for awhile. So much for that.

What didn't Nixon do? He didn't contest the 1960 election. He should have challenged the results from Cook county. How many dead people voted there? Properly counted Illinois goes to him, maybe we don't get immersed in the quagmire of Vietnam, maybe the Berlin wall doesn't get built, a lot of maybe nots. He did not do the country any favor by failing to challenge a seriously flawed election.

But notice what Ben praises him for. Did Nixon roll back any great society programs which were then fairly new and vulnerable? Did he go after the New Deal programs which even then were eating away at the foundations of the country? NO He like EVERY republican president in the post war period, ST. Ronald included couldn't be bothered with "mundane" domestic affairs. They had to go off and play far more interesting foreign games. They all were without exception neocons Reagan included. Want to know why we have all this debt today? Blame republican presidents and republican congresses who couldn't be bothered to make any real effort to attack democratic programs that are ultimately going to destroy this country, not the terrorists, not the communists, but the social programs that republicans made no real effort to deal with, Nixon included. Sorry Ben.

PolishKnight| 1.4.13 @ 12:39PM

I hate to make an indictment against Reagan, but Nathan has a point. Reagan seemed to only care about the USSR and didn't care about domestic policy other than lowering taxes and cutting some spending. He understand the importance of winning a war on foreign policy, but he didn't have the same mentality of winning the culture war domestically. For example: The war on drugs didn't "help" conservatism. But imagine if he put that effort into ending reverse Jim Crow (affirmative action) and the marriage penalty? He understands the merits of protecting his allies in foreign policy but he did little directly for his base. It's a mistake that Republican presidents since then have exacerbated including candidates such as John McCain begging for votes from LaRaza which wants to hand over the USA to Mexico.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 12:41PM

Ben only writes about Nixon because of his "Dearly Beloved" in Prison, who's also Not a Crook".

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:06PM

Nathan: you don't know Illinois politics. I do. If you had read your Royko, you would have known that the Daley machine was going to do a refount that would take forever and at enormous cost.

Hard to take on Domestic programs when the Congress is Democratic, Nathan.

Please keep your resolution. We would appreciate it. You add nothing here.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 1:20PM

Sir: He Nixon, had an obligation to try in Chicago, win or lose. With that mentality there's no Warsaw Ghetto uprising, I mean what chance did THEY have against the SS? And frankly for that matter what were the Vegas odds makers giving the Founders in their secession effort against the British, 20-1 against? Sorry if your cause is right you make the effort win or lose.

RR had the obligation to make the effort and he at one point during eight years had control of at least one if not both houses? I mean he got the tax cut through didn't he? If he could do that he could have done more. Sorry he was truly like his mentor, WFB, obsessed with the communist borg (which really didn't exist, not as WFB thought they did), a true neocon. To say RR was a "conservative" as we really understand the term is not remotely accurate. And honestly with the primary threat being those domestic policies which even then were undermining the foundation of the country, he had an obligation to make an effort win or lose to fight the battle.

I find it a continued source of amusement that standing with the Founders makes me a liberal. Go figure. Quote Madison, be uncompromising in your principles, and gee I'm the bad guy. sigh

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.5.13 @ 11:45AM

And Reagan was vilified every step of the way by the leftist media, Democrats, and Hollywood.

JimH| 1.4.13 @ 8:01AM

Domestically Nixon doubled down on LBJ’s welfare state expansion. His accommodation with the USSR and China guided by Henry Kissinger was based on the notion that ultimately we could not win against communism. If your kids are learning to speak Mandarin in hopes of getting a job, thank Dick.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:34AM

A-men, I'm learning Spanish to keep the job I've got now...

Frank

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 12:44PM

Have you ever considered getting a new job?

I'm thinking: Speech Writer for Joe Biden.

You couldn't possibly do worse than the guy he has now.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 1:00PM

New Job? Yes, but someone else is already screwing your wife.
HAHAHA What a Burn!!!! might wanta spend a little more time in the minors before bringing your lame-old-man game to the "Show"...

Frank

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:07PM

TLP: he's burned me, too. I don't know why.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 2:59PM

He's a Dick.

I wasn't digging him.

I was on his side.

Obviously, he's got a LOT of problems.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:08AM

Nixon was the first President I remember, his VP too, and how I wish I hadn't traded that Spiro Agnew watch for a Billy Grabarkewitz autographed baseball. The signature was fake, but the watch wouldnt run for more than 5 minutes. My Dad hated Nixon, umm "Hate" isn't really accurate.
You know how after the Israelis executed Eichmann, they cremated him, and dumped him in a Port-o-Pot in Gaza? It was like that.
Can't really blame him, Nixon sent many of my dads friends to their deaths, no my Dad wasn't a hippy, he was a B52 Pilot. Of course you can't expect someone who would tape record himself committing felonies to understand the complicated field of Strategic Bombing.
But I'll forgive Tricky Penis for starting the EPA, ending the Apollo program, and (great Trivia queston!)how do I phrase this? Being the only President, umm the only President who,
OK, during Nixons term(s) nobody was executed in the US, look it up, and I'll take a Double Jack on the Rocks...

Frank

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 8:26AM

Nixon stayed in the house of my cousin's wife when he was VP and she was a little girl. In fact he stayed in her bedroom. Her father was a high official of the local state party. She remembered him well. He got loaded on martini's and puked all over her room.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:32AM

Jack, I was kidding about you being drunk, but now I'm not so sure.
"The House of my Cousin's Wife"?? wasn't that an Edgar Allan Poe story?
and I'd get drunk and throw up too if I was stuck with any of your relations, no matter how distant, cause your family tree doesn't branch, nome sane?
And you voted for him twice??
The First Step, Jack, its a Doo-Zie

Frank
Why not just say "My Cousin's House"

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 9:54AM

Because it was in the house of my cousin's wife when she was a little girl. It was not my cousin's house , moron. Hitting the Mogan David bottle a little earlier then usual Frank?

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 10:16AM

Its "Gentleman Jack" BTW, and maybe I am imbibing a little early, got the day off, gotta keep that Day we Killed Jesus, I mean Sabath holy, Nome Sane?
And I don't even know where my Cousins live NOW, much less when they were little girls, you creepy old man.
Gentleman Jack, you don't really drink it as much as you recycle it...

Frank

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:09PM

Mogen David, or "Mad Dog."

Avoid the Yiddish, Cheesehead, and I'll lay off the Bratwurst.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 8:13AM

And finally Ben, look at what you wrote.

During his campaign in 1972, serious wrongs were done by his people, and he connived to cover them up, and then tried to cover that up. For that, and for the residual hatred the beautiful people had always felt towards him, he was tormented, tortured, impeached, and finally made to leave office in August of 1974.

I'm sorry but presidents don't get a pass here. They are the chief law enforcement officers of the country. As soon as he became aware of what Liddy and the rest were doing, he had absolute obligation to act. He's no victim here and never was. For a president to act above the law was grossly outrageous. When democrats behave similarly do you shed tears for them? He got what he deserved. And all his alleged "good deeds" don't make up for what he did, for what he put the country through.

At the end of the day he really wasn't all the great of a president. Domestically he acted as the liberal he was. He served with Eisenhower and Ike was absolutely a liberal on all domestic issues. Nixon was no different. I have a hard time understanding why "conservatives" feel a need to praise him and other republican presidents so much. The record simply doesn't merit it.

Cobalt| 1.4.13 @ 8:14AM

In 1971 Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard, "Nixon shock," and put an end to the Bretton Woods system of international finance.

You can argue whether or not the "Nixon shock" was a wise move, but it took courage for Richard Nixon to make this move.

It has been reported that at this time, Fort Knox held only one third of the gold neccessary to redeem all of the United States dollars held by foreign hands.

Russel| 1.4.13 @ 8:20AM

Bingo , that's another I forgot . He gave us the Federal Reserve , right ? . What a great piece of work THAT has turned out to be .

SUBVET| 1.4.13 @ 11:57AM

Don't forget on August 15, 1971 Nixon signed an exeutive order declaring that the US would no longer redeem its peper dollars for gold.

Rhoetus| 1.6.13 @ 6:39PM

SUBVET: And our undoing, now the politicians spend with no regard to either honesty or common decency. They are credit criminals of the worst sort.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:22AM

Oh yeah, if it wasn't for that Keen Legal Mind and Master of Politics Tricky Schlong, appointing Burger, Blackman, and Powell, who all voted for Roe v Wade, instead of 7-2, it'd have been 5-4 the other way, and there'd be like lets see,
40 years x umm on average a million abortions/year, thats 40 million, 1/2 of which are split tails, 1/2 of those x average fertility rate.
There'd be like 70 million more peoples in the US.
A little Ironic (Dontcha think?) that Blackman wrote the Opinion that resulted in millions fewer Blackmans being born...

Frank "Yay Abortion!" Drackman

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:13PM

Yup. We have "Saved Israel" on one end (something Humphrey would also have done, as he was a good mainstream 60s Democrat), and dogshit on the other.

And his Court appointments were dreadful.

Pecos Pete| 1.4.13 @ 8:33AM

Mr. Stein: Your loyalty is commendable.

However, as some comments above describe, Mr. Nixon was definitely not a saint. That's no different from all presidents. They all had good points and they all had (have!) bad points. For Mr. Nixon, in the grand weighting of good vs bad, the scales tip heavily toward the bad.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 8:35AM

Was this really Ben Stein?
No comment on how Amazingly Beautiful Tricia Nixon was? Good think Pat cheated on him...

Frank

Louis Jenkins| 1.4.13 @ 8:41AM

I'll go against the grain here. After looking at the current mess the US government has handed us, I kind of wish the Tricky Dick days were back. At least those were simple days. And as far as carpet bombing goes he finally got NV back to the negotiating table. Comparing apples to apples Nixon was a lower president, but when compared to Obama he was a cut above.

c. j. acworth| 1.4.13 @ 9:06AM

Comparing to Obama is setting the bar kinda low, isn't it?

Derek Leaberry| 1.4.13 @ 9:23AM

There were three major leftist zeitgeists in the 20th Century. The first, Wilsonian progressivism, lasted from 1913-1918 and presented the nation with a federal income tax, direct election of senators, an expensive war that was not ours to fight, and female suffrage. The second, FDR's New Deal of 1933-38, socialized the economy to a great deal with hundreds of programs. The last, which sprung from an odd combination of the 1957-58 recession which devastated the Republican Party for a generation and a general hubris over an economy overall growing at a pace that produced Galbreath's "Affluent Society", presented America with a twenty year reign of soft socialism and social engineering. Richard Nixon did not cause this last leftist zeitgeist but did nothing to fight it. Nixon surrendered to the zeitgeist. The Republican Party would have been better off had Hubert Humphrey won election in 1968 and been given control of a country stuck in a morass of Vietnam, slum rioting, college riots, stagflation and an increase in social degeneracy.

Derek Leaberry| 1.4.13 @ 9:25AM

I should have added that Wilson gave us the Federal Reserve Board to manipulate the economy with.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 9:45AM

Dammit, just because you CAN end a sentence with a preposition doesn't mean you SHOULD.
Its like people who say "Where is it AT" instead of just saying "Where is it" over a normal 80 year lifespan thats alot of time wasted saying "at" that could be better used jerking off, or throwing stuff at homeless people.
Frank "Slow Hand" Drackman

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 11:42AM

Frank:
Are you still predicting 35 - 0 Bama?

What about A&M v OK tonight?

Where is Ken, Old Texican?

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 11:54AM

umm SEC team vs what ever Conference Oklahoma is in...DUH
and yes, it'll be 35-0 Bama,
at halftime

Frank

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:14PM

Al:

this former 'Bama Doc (I renew my license every year as I may wish to retire and volunteer down there in retirement) predicts much pain in Indiana.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 12:59PM

I think we would have been far better off with Humphrey. They made the mess. They could either clean it up or have been destroyed. Nixon was a failure as a President and a human being. Humphrey at least was a pro-life Democrat. Nixon was for abortion, but didn't say so.

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:15PM

Yeah, I liked Humphrey. He would also have saved Israel in '73.

deehra| 1.4.13 @ 9:23AM

And I thought the 'blame Bush' meme was outdated..Now we're going back to Nixon, well okay then, I blame Millard Fillmore for everything.

David T| 1.4.13 @ 9:32AM

Richard Nixon's domestic policy was a shambles and he was clueless about economics. The country would have been better off if he had been a senator, maybe chairman of Foreign Relations.

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 9:44AM

Watergate, a 3rd rate burglary, where all Nixon had to do was pull a Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, or Obozo, remains one of the greatest historical spin jobs by the left of all times.
Of course, times were different then, and Nixon had not the benefit of watching true leftist sociopaths in action, FDR being the exception.
So to sum up, Nixon was villified and impeached for a bullshit break in. Bill Clinton raped women, committed perjury, and obstructed justice and remains a leftist hero. Oh, and left Americans to die in Somolia.
Hillary Clinton, who couldn't remember her own name during depositions of Travelgate and her $100,000 cattle futures windfall, managed to kill four Americans in Benghazi by failing to remember to respond to their pleas for help.
Holder and Obozo, as accessories to the murder of agents Terry and Zapata, as well as 4 Americans in Benghazi, are the true champions of left.
Yep, Watergate was some national disgrace, by gosh.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 9:49AM

Well Anthony, if Nixon hadn't tape recorded his incriminalating acts, and then give them to the Congressional Committee impeaching him, maybe he'd have served his whole second term, instead of resigning and running off to California like a little Bee-Otch, Yeah, I just called Nixon a Bee-Otch, cause he appointed that waterhead Gerald Ford, who now-a-days would be a poster child for traumatic brain injury, which allowed that Wetter Head Jimmuh Cartuh to win in 76' and would have won in 80'(he carried Georgia twice for Christ's sake!)if the Second Coming Himself, Ronaldus Maximus Reaganux hadn't come out of retirement...

Frank

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 10:40AM

Quite true Frank, if only Nixon had Rosemary Woods perform her dexterous hand job with the erase button, as opposed to the dexterous hand jobs done by the tandem team of Clinton-Lewinsky, history would have been different.
Serves Nixon right for not being a cigar smoker.
I bet Nixon could have done a mean Billy Clinton finger wag'n on national T.V. too!!!

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 10:48AM

Can you tell us exactly what is/are the "incriminalating acts" on the tapes?

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 12:48PM

Have you been to Mr. Bowman's Column from yesterday?

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:16PM

"incriminating." Frank gets excited easily.

TLP| 1.4.13 @ 3:03PM

He's a Dick.

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 3:12PM

I know he meant incriminating. I am asking him to state the incriminating acts on the tape.

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:17PM

Note that Ben thinks NHS would be a positive. Ben is an imbecile. He knows as much about Medicine as he does about tax economics---not much.

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 9:46AM

You count backing of the NEPA, ending the Vietnam War, and proposing National Health as positives for Nixon, while claiming that the Watergate coverup was just some peccadillo on Nixon's part?

Well, the times were what they were, a bit out of joint if you ask me, and SOMEBODY had to end the Vietnam War I guess, but the rest as testaments to Nixonian good character?

I beg to differ. From my admittedly remote perspective on Richard Nixon, he was a scumbag.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 9:53AM

You mean "Losing" the Vietnam war, which is what happened.
Give the Gooks credit, millions of pounds of Napalm, and they still wouldn't give up.
Even that VC the Saigon Police Chief shot in the head, if you watch the whole video he squirms around for a few minutes, pretty impressive after a 38 caliber lobotomy...
but hey, if we hadn't lost, how much more would American women be paying to get those Howard Huge length nails that only hookers and inner city Black Women used to get?

Frank "I love the smell of a Vietnamese Restaurant in the Morning" Drackman

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 10:04AM

I agree somewhat: we should have invaded the North. Nixon's bombing campaign should have been accompanied by a ground campaign, but the politics of the war were such that no Congress would have supported such things. The ending of the war was disgraceful, but I don't think Nixon should get most of the blame for that - it was Congress that voted to end financial support for the South, making a defeat inevitable, that bears the lion's share of the blame for the Vietnam defeat. People say the U.S. was out of the war in 1973, two years before the end, and didn't lose. I think that's only true in the most technical sense - it was our war and we made the defeat happen.

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 10:12AM

Also, if you read Thomas Ricks's book The Generals, he makes a compelling argument that the Vietnam War was also mis-fought militarily as well. Now Thomas Ricks is open to skepticism for his liberal politics, but having lived through Vietnam times and knowing a little about the military leadership of that time, I think his argument that the Vietnam War was lost not just in the halls of Congress but also on the battlefield is pretty persuasive. Ricks puts a lot of the onus on Maxwell Taylor and William Westmoreland, and I believe him about them.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 10:20AM

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, oh what a feast we'd have.
And Yeah, if Picket's brigade had walked a little faster, shot a little straighter, and dodged a little dodgier, maybe I wouldn't have to pick my own cotton....
Frank

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 2:35PM

So you think Taylor and Westmoreland were just peachy as commanders?

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 2:48PM

No, but General Abrams was.

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 2:50PM

Abrams: too little, too late.

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 2:49PM

Pickett's division could have been riding on dune buggies and they'd still have been destroyed as an effective fighting unit.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 10:44AM

Sir, sorry no. First of all we had no/none/zero reason for being there in the first place. Ike formulated the nonsense domino theory that if Saigon falls that ultimately New Delhi falls. Nonsense even then. The question that should have been asked was if Ho moves into Saigon is the safety of people Columbus OH threatened in the least? The answer would have been, NO. Not remotely. Ho was more concerned with China then he was with us. He approached Truman after the war and had helped downed American flyers. We had zero business being there, but similar to the nonsense about a borg like islam which doesn't exist, neocons like WFB saw a unified borg like communism which didn't exist either.

In 65 after Ia Drang McNamara went to VN and came home. He told LBJ we can't win period. Get out. Put more troops in we'll still lose, just more slowly. He was right. The statement that Ho was prepared to lose 1 million to take Saigon, we weren't prepared to lose 100K to stop him was correct. But again, we had no business there in the first place. Sorry. Neocons were wrong then they're still wrong and getting a lot of people killed in the process.

Occam's Tool| 1.4.13 @ 1:19PM

I think there are some Hindus in India who might disagree with you about Islam, Nathan.

But you won't understand until your female relatives are used as houris.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 1:59PM

Sir we've departed Iraq right? Are the muslim there primarily interested in "jihad" against us, Europe, the non muslim world? Play "Jeopardy" here, tic toc tic toc. Times up. Answer - NO. They are going after each other. They could care less about us these days because now that we're gone the shia sunni conflict is the primary concern. (Of course if the British had stayed out in the first place or drawn better maps the place would be WAAAAYYY better off but that's a different discussion.) So in terms of those muslims, how do they fit into the "borg" universal, take over the world jihad concept we have been sold? As we go around the world, we see more of the Iraq model than the we are the jihadists, resistance is futile, you will be assimilated model.

Much the same during the cold war. China and Russia? Border disputes, a lot of just plain, I hate you stuff. Ho and China? Fighting on the border, more than once? Jonas Savimbi who Reagan supported? Ghastly on human rights and worse than the "communist" he was going up against.

At the end of the day we need leadership who understands this better than the people in the past have so that we don't waste lives and resources in conflicts that don't really matter to us. In far too many instances in the last 70 years we were winning battles we shouldn't have been fighting in the first place.

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 2:44PM

I finally someone who appears to have read McNamara's book!

Nathan, you're a bright guy, but don't buy McNamara's manufactured after-the-fact remorse. He was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Vietnam War, and was one of the architects of that horribly misguided and deathly policy of measured escalation (they had some name for that but I can't remember it) that kept the war going for a decade.

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 10:52AM

The Vietnam war was lost in 1975 when North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam in full force, after the Dem Congress, led by Teddy the Swimmer, stopped all military aid to South Vietnam.
Maybe the current House should take a lesson from the Dem Congress of 1974 and refuse funding for Obamacare, Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Obama's golf games, and Michelle's vacations.

Butch| 1.4.13 @ 12:34PM

Second paragraph is dead on, CJW. Reid would refuse to take it up, and a government shutdown would ensue. Hard to politicize, because the only people who would be affected would be well-paid bureaucrats (if medicaid funding is continued).

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 12:57PM

The way to end those agencies is simply to furlough the employees at full pay and close down the buildings and sell them off as a cost saving measure. The salaries would cost no more than now, the lack of new regulations and the O & M costs would be to the savings side. WIN - WIN

SUBVET| 1.4.13 @ 12:06PM

Frank....we called them "slopeheads"

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 2:33PM

Don't forget "dinks" and "zipperheads."

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 9:51AM

...and Hubert Humphrey was a "truly great man?" Not by 1968 he wasn't. He might have been a forceful New Dealer in Rooseveltian times, but by the time of the 1968 election, he was just a pimp for LBJ and what was left of the New Deal.

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 10:01AM

We should judge ALL former republican presidents by a single criteria:

To what degree did they enable the progressive agenda to move forward?

Nixon - D
Bush Sr. - D
Bush Jr. - D
Ford - D
Reagan - B+

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 10:36AM

Reagan, F. Name me one, ONE cabinent level position he eliminated. One New Deal program he eliminated. One Great Society program he ended. One. Name one domestic program, "conservative" program, we remember him for. You can't. None of you can. Because folks sadly he wasn't a conservative. He was a neocon which means he was domestically a liberal.

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 10:46AM

nathan:
You see, that is the sad irony of Conservatism. It is not activist in the sense of rolling back existing laws, regulations and agencies.

Conservatives find themselves bound by their oath of office to administer the laws as they are. Unlike the Left which pursues its agenda regardless of law, Conservatism is constrained by the law as they find it. Even were Conservatives to pursue the elimination of agencies and repeal of laws, the votes are never to be found to accomplish those goals, worthwhile as they be. That is why we are doomed to remain dissappointed even when we elect Conservative office holders such as the many Congressmen in office today.

That Nixon expanded government is no surprise as he was not a Conservative, being such only in relation to Rockefeller, Romney and that ilk. He nonetheless guided this nation through the greatest domestic crisis it suffered since the civil war. For that, he deserves remembrance.

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 12:10PM

In addition, they should be judged by the conditions of the field on which they played. It's very difficult, for instance, to compare Reagan to Bush Jr. Reagan had a fairly solid majority party in the Senate from '80-84 but had a solid minority party in the House throughout his presidency. He was limited in how he could roll back growth-killing government spending and grow the private-sector economy. He wanted to govern as Calvin Coolidge but just couldn't.

Bush Jr., on the other hand, had solid majorities in the House from 2000-2006 and solid majorities in the Senate from 2002-2006. From 2000-2002, the Senate was deadlocked @ 50-50. Bush Jr. squandered an opportunity of a century to roll back and curve dangerous federal government programs and regulations. He also had an opportunity to enact (finally) a comprehensive energy policy but failed miserably. He wanted to govern as Teddy Roosevelt and succeeded.

It is too late to change Reagan's grade to A and Bush Jr's to F-?

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.5.13 @ 12:01PM

Remember, though, Bush did not have a filibuster proof majority.

Jack in Wi| 1.4.13 @ 5:12PM

Nathan
Nixon F
Ford F
Reagan B
Bush the elder D-
Bush Jr. F-----

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 10:32AM

Anthony: the fact that other presidents may have misbehaved too doesn't mean you let Nixon off the hook for what he did. Oh by the way you left someone out, Bush/Cheney. They violated their oath of office virtually every day, their "enhanced" interrogation methods were in fact torture which under the Constitution, American law, and international agreements were illegal. They should have been impeached and should in fact stand trial for THEIR illegal acts which were worse than Clinton's. And what makes it worse is that while destroying our image abroad and creating more bad guys who ultimately killed more Americans than the original 911, the methods according to any number of studies DIDN'T WORK. All for bloody nothing. Read "Torture and Impunity" to see how great those two and the rest of the administration were. And yet "conservatives" including Rush and Sean still praise these guys too.

BHO didn't happen in a vacuum. The gross misbehavior by his predecessor, praised to high heavens by "conservatives" most certainly paved the way for what you see now.

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 11:02AM

Only the fevered minds of Orwellian leftist word play could have managed to call waterboarding torture, and make it stick as part of their hegemic lexicon.
Now, if it took place in Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile, then perhaps you'd have a case for "enhanced" methods.
And speaking of international agreements, I believe Clinton violated a whole host of them when using his contraband Cubans on Monica.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 2:10PM

I'm reading this marvelous book on the Inquisition. They used waterboarding. Now Anthony, if you want to defend what the inquisitors did as just "enhanced" interrogation, feel free. But understand at Tokyo waterboarding was named in bills of indictment. During the Philippine Insurrection and Vietnam American troops were courtmartialed for doing it. We have a hundred years of precedents on this. Do I have to continue? But it was more than that. Read again Torture and Impunity by Alfred McCoy. Real torture took place and it was widespread and approved at the highest levels by Bush and Cheney. Other sources like Ghost Plane confirm it. If the stuff we did was done to our people we would have conducted trials on the people doing it. Because we did do trials. And for nothing. We got nothing of value out of it. NOTHING. We turned ourselves into the bad guys for NOTHING. West in the room doing the mock execution with the best of intentions got NOTHING. To the people of Iraq he was a war criminal, to Sean and others he was a hero. Bloody nonsense. It will take a generation to undo the damage those people did to this country if then.

Anthony| 1.4.13 @ 4:09PM

Ah yes, the Inquisition .... the old Iron Maiden. When torture was truly torture.
Let's see, McCain had his shoulders dislocated several times, and a few limbs broken, while he rotted in a 3X5 rathole.
The Japanese did unspeakable things to men, the least of which was to samurai their heads off. Yeah, I read war history books too.
I seem to remember Sheik Kalid Mohammad, after a few rounds of waterboarding, looking like our own Frank Drackman after a bad night, and singing like Monica after being pluged by Slick Willie's El Producto.
Now, you were say'n about Bush & Cheney??

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 7:08PM

Read my response again, PLEASE. The inquisitors waterboarded people. I maintain any method they used is by definition "torture". If you disagree with that, say why you do. Again, waterboarding was named, BY US, AT TOKYO, in bills of indictments against the Japanese during those war crime trials. IE to make this as simple as possible for you, at those trials WE defined WATERBOARDING as a war crime. Got it? Which means we said it's unacceptable under any and all circumstances. PERIOD.

Now follow me further. WE, not others, WE on more than one occasion, in more than one conflict going back over 100 years courtmartialed OUR MEN for waterboarding detainees. Which means WE, not others, WE defined waterboarding as torture. And did so decades before Geneva. Questions?

As for KSM, he, like most people under being tortured, gave us NOTHING. There's no credible evidence he told us anything of value. He gave us every name he could think of, you would too, but it was garbage. Anything to make us stop the abuse.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 7:15PM

Once again make the time to read Torture and Impunity and Ghost Plane.

What makes this all so horrible too is that most people we abused were innocent. As McCoy points out 80 percent or more of the detainees at Abu Ghraib did nothing, were innocent. Probably everyone in those pictures were innocent. Make a case if you will for abusing innocent people. One of the reasons for not torturing people is that too often you cannot reliably play Santa Clause. At Gitmo well over 60 percent if not 80 percent had no business being there. We as conservatives should be standing for individual rights. Defending torture is NOT a conservative position. And no, if you give me this well they were doing it to save American lives, then join Dianne Feinstein and the gun controllers because their mantra is "if it saves one life". You don't like it when they throw that at you when they want to take you guns from you. Well you can't defend torture and abuse on that basis either. We don't compromise on principles, sorry. EVER. Good intentions be damned.

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.5.13 @ 12:12PM

You are confused nathan. Torture of prisoners of war is against moral and international law. There is no moral equivalency, however, between prisoners of war and terrorists. The purpose of "enhanced interrogation" is not to extract battle plans or troop strength, or to get religious confessions. Its purpose is to save lives from cowardly terrorist attacks. This is what the Ron Pauls and Barack Obamas of the world don't understand, or perhaps don't want to understand, as ugly facts threaten to undermine their moral preening and self-righteousness.

cuban pete| 1.5.13 @ 1:58PM

"to save lives from cowardly terrorist attacks."
Very well said.
Thank you,
cp

nathan| 1.6.13 @ 3:16PM

Gentlemen: Situational ethics and "good intentions" in the same post. This is from WWII Quarterly in a story about Irma Grese, "Beast of Belsen". She was defiant to the end and admitted guilt freely and, in her mind, believed her acts were justified by the depravity of Nazism, in which she never stopped believing." HER good intentions gentlemen. Stalin re the Ukraine considered it "necesasary" to modernize/industrialize Russia quickly. HIS good intentions. The ethnic cleansing of those Cherokees in Georgia in defiance of SCOTUS ruling, "good intentions" there too folks.
The Inquistion. Those people, as horrible as THEY were, acted under the authority of the Pope himself, infallible in faith and doctrine. The ultimate "good intentions" if you will.

NO. In every case the actions were evil evil at the time they were done, regardless of the motives behind them. Torture is ALWAYS evil, ALWAYS not matter the reason. Both of you, give one quote from ONE Founder supporting your position. ONE. You can't. Madison wrote the Eighth Amendment for a reason.

And remember most of the people "enhanced" were innocent. The Canadian? Care to support compensation for what we put HIM through?

nathan| 1.6.13 @ 3:27PM

The Bible doesn't say folks, by their INTENTIONS ye shall know them, no, by their what? Altogether. By their ACTIONS and actions alone. If you do evil things you ARE evil regardless of the intentions behind the actions. The intentions behind ACA in the mind of the actors are oh so noble. You cutting THEM any slack? The intentions behind Congresswoman McCarthy, oh so noble, save lives, save the lives of CHILDREN FOR GOODNESS SAKES! Why aren't you lining up behind her you two. She just wants to save lives from "cowardly 'criminal' attacks". See I changed one word. Now you all supporting gun control?

NO. We don't compromise our principles. NEVER. Especially since that "enhanced interrogation" (we hear the duck quacking all over the place) doesn't work. It failed, we got nothing, What people like Matthew Alexander did (read the book I know there I go citing sources again works far better. You all are supporting a method that gets you nothing. West got NOTHING when he pulled that trigger. Defend HIS actions if you will. NO We don't compromise because it gets us nothing and there are better ways to defend this country.

cicero| 1.4.13 @ 10:36AM

In early 1974, I was asked to give a talk to a Junior League gathering. I was a very young lawyer at the time, and took any opportunity to garner clients. At the end of the evening, one of the ladies asked a throw away question : What is the greatest danger facing our country? My answer was ,"Government by fiat." Nixon not only did not try to roll back the regulatory state that was just beginning. He addedt to it, We now labor under a regulatory system that levels civil and criminal sanctions without oversite by our elected officials. This, and Nixon's attempt to rig the election by picking his own opponent were the real sins of his administration.

About that period thing with the quotation marks: I believe that the period goes outside of the quotation marks if the quote is conttained in the sentence, and inside the quotation mark if the entire sentence ia a quote.

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 10:57AM

Cicero
You can now see the Code of Federal Regulations online. I believe it exceeds the actual pages of the US code. Creates lots of work for bureaucrats, accountants, safety consultants, tax lawyers, corporate lawyers, insurance companies, shrinks/psychologists, and all others that feed off the government

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 10:40AM

Nixons' great accomplishment, for which he deserves remembrance, was to hold the line for America internationally while the country passed through its greatest domestic crisis since the Civil War.

All the domestic programs and agencies (mistakes all) pale against the international management brilliance he and his administration exhibted keeping this suffering, revolution torn nation in the game until, when a future date arrived, the fall of the communist international and its adherent states at long last became reality.

That American freedom survived to the present day, is due in no small part to RN.

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 11:05AM

Al Adab
I agree. With each passing year, I like Nixon more.

He ended the Dem LBJ war in Vietnam honorably only to have the Dem Congress lose it in 1975. He saved Israel in 1973, which has JackWi still in a fit.

He dealt with China to break the commie monolith which helped the demise of the Soviet evil empire.

There is no way Nixon would have spent 8 years in Iraq and Afghan, or lose both wars like Obama has.

As a comparison, look at Carter's fiasco in Iran, not supporting the Shah, and allowing Khomeni to take over. We have been dealing the terrorism supported by Iran since 1979.

He was brilliant on the foreign policy.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 2:24PM

Sorry both Iraq and Afghanistan were lost before BHO took power. We were never going win either one. The surge for example produced nothing of lasting value. Again go back to what McNamara said after Ia Drang. The war was already lost then, not in 68 not in 75.

The shah was not legitimate, never was. Mossedegh was and was overthrown because the British were upset with his policy on oil which sorry folks belong to Iran, not the British. Read the history on Ike's misbehavior here, Khomeini didn't like Mossedegh because of his allegedly being a "communist". So what? The shah ripped off the country, Savak was ghastly regarding human rights and the Shah paved the way for Khomeini. Not Carter. Leave Mossedegh in place and most of this doesn't happen. Ike should have been impeached on this. He wouldn't take actions to roll back the New Deal but he screws around on this stuff. Thanks a lot.

You all need to see history as it really was. Most of you don't which is why so many of you give support for neocon policies now which are going to fail down the road just like they did decades ago.

Jack London| 1.4.13 @ 2:32PM

Well said Nathan. The others here know little of our own history and that of the world - it's shameful ignorance.

CJW| 1.4.13 @ 2:52PM

nathan,
you are a predictable bore with nothing to add, except the USA is bad. Commie Jack agrees with you, that should be proof enough. You are the only one who sees history as it really was.

You are not worth responding. Save the reply, not interested.

nathan| 1.4.13 @ 7:27PM

Like most people here, you call me names. Interestingly enough I don't see you telling me where I'm wrong. I quote books, quote the Founders, other than name calling, what pray tell do you and others quote? If I'm wrong, and I make a mistake now and then, document it. We know McNamara went to VN after Ia Drang, that story was in Vietnam magazine, ever read it? We know he said, war's over, call it a day. If you disagree, cite a source, name a book, cite an article, and let's go from there. But you and others NEVER DO. And again I quote Madison at length, you and others never cite a single Founder. Why pray tell not? And since when does quoting Madison make me a "commie" in your terms?

Again, we know Ike help overthrow Mossedegh who hadn't threatened us, who did nothing to us. Defend that if you will. I can't. Defend the Shah stealing his country blind. I can't. Defend his gross human rights violations enabled by president after president. Pictured this, Khomeini and Ike on the same side re Mossedegh. That doesn't bother you in the least? it should. Less name calling more facts would be nice please kind sirs?

Norman Conquest| 1.5.13 @ 12:07PM

Mossedegh? Who the f*ck cares about some wog that was deposed, rightfully so, 60 years ago? You should be able to come up with something more recent than that to bash the US for.
By the way, Nathan you history buff, that oil is the lifeblood of the world economy. Do you think that perhaps it had something to do with Mossedegh's overthrow? Enjoy driving your car and forget about some long-gone Middle East dictator.

nathan| 1.6.13 @ 3:37PM

He was was he? Tell the class what he did to us. Attacked us? Threatened to attack us? No. (My comment was in response by the way to the nonsense about Carter "losing" Iran for failure to support that paragon of human rights, the shah. Try following along.)

Ever heard of Kelo VS New London? Conservatives (any real ones in the room) believe you can't take private property and give it to another person. Now in the case of Iran, whose oil was it? Ours? No. It belonged to the Iranian people. If Mossedegh and his government want to charge more for THIER oil, tell the class on what authority Ike, the British or anyone else could tell them not to. Think of it like this, in less than 40 years, we're going to be the biggest oil producer in the world, and probably export a fair amount of it. We may very well decide to raise the price of what we export. Now if say China decides we are charging too much for OUR oil, are you going to give them the right to do to us what we did to Mossedegh? NO. And you see connect the dots here, we ovethrow the legitimate government of Iran (using street thugs by the way) and then put a kleptomaniac human rights abuser and help keep him in. That sir is an unprovoked act of war by any definition. And now they don't love us and you and others want to blame them? Really? Amazing.

PolishKnight| 1.4.13 @ 12:25PM

Trashing the Republican label via misconduct and then resigning in shame and then passing the marriage penalty and affirmative action to then deprive the core republican electorate of economic equality meant that the nation that survived would be controlled by the left as the last election and vote debt ceiling shows.

His "victory" in preserving America is about the same as his "victory" in Vietnam: A scene of soldiers being chased to the roof to grab the last helicopter and then those helicopters being pushed off of crowded aircraft carriers. A miserable failure.

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 1:00PM

PK:
The scene you remember took place in 1975 after Nixon was gone. The Dem congress refused to comply with the terms of the agreement of 1973 and fund the South Viet military when they needed it most. The blood of millions in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia is on their hands, not Nixons'.

PolishKnight| 1.5.13 @ 9:19PM

Fair enough, Al Adab, but question for you on that: Let's assume that Watergate hadn't happened and Nixon had stayed in office. Would congress still have refused to fun the South Viet military? Would it have mattered and they would have lost anyway? At that point, the US military involvement had been going on for 10 years (about the same amount of time as the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

The lesson of Vietnam appears to be that the American people have a hard time with wars that last longer than 4 years (a single presidential term). After that, they get antsy.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 12:58PM

Umm actually just read Ben's piece and looked at the photo..
Nixon Really did that "Double Peace Sign" gesture?? I thought it was just something I saw in "MAD" magazine. No wonder we lost the war, amazing the Chinks and Russ-kies didn't call his Ski-Jump Nose bluff...

Frank

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 1:03PM

Frank, It is Churchills' "V" for Victory gesture. He used it often.

As to the 35 - 0 Bama halftime score, I'll take a piece of that. Laguvulin or Laphroigh? And what about A&M v OK tonight?

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 1:50PM

The Cornball Brothers from A&M will be the difference in a relatively easy win, 31-23.

size38pants| 1.4.13 @ 1:32PM

I will never forgive him for making me crawl across Washington-Idaho-Montana-North Dakota-Minnesota at 55 MPH for family visits from 1976 - 1987 (?). And the federal penalties leveled at states for lax compliance during some of those years was sickening.

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 2:39PM

Yeah, it was similar but flatter crossing Illinois-Missouri-Kansas in those times.

Al Adab| 1.4.13 @ 4:41PM

Guys, Nixon left office in August 1974. That was Ford and Carter.

Peppermint Tea | 1.4.13 @ 2:24PM

Benji's father was Nixon's economic advisor?

Well, Tricky Dick cut the last link to the gold standard by closing the gold window and making the reserve currency dollar totally fiat. It's worked great so far, but never in the history of the world has it worked forever. When it collapses, we can thank Barry and Dick.

And the EPA.
And wage and price controls (Benji's Dad in on that one?)
The pretend peace with Vietnam.
And the liberal Supremes.
And picking a crook (Agnew) and a knucklehead (Ford) as VP.
Detente and Kissinger, when Reagan showed a threat of Star Wars could break the empire.

Dick had his moments. Resigning (not bombing Iraq like Clinton.) Picking a fight with Kruschev in the Tea Debate and winning from a losing hand--note that Kruschev didn't send missiles to Cuba when Dick was VP. Taking down Alger Hiss and pissing off the ruling class of his day. Claiming the silent majority was on his side and then proving it.

But overall, he was not to be trusted, or admired.

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.5.13 @ 12:18PM

Peppermint, your hyperlink doesn't lead anywhere.

Vance P. Frickey| 1.5.13 @ 6:53PM

My main objection to RMN's administration was elevating Henry Kissinger to the pinnacle of power - not because of Cambodia (where the North Vietnamese Army had a very large operation never spoken of by Kissinger's or Nixon's critics), but for setting "Mutual Assured Destruction" in concrete during the SALT talks. We conceded too much to the Soviets and gave them NO incentive to follow the rules of nuclear disarmament, so they broke them with abandon. And in the Sprint ABM and its follow-on, "Upgrade," we had a working antiballistic missile system thirty years before Star Wars acquired initial operating capability - but Nixon and Kissinger traded that away, too.

Dr. Stein, I'm sorry, but your assessment of Richard Nixon's legacy is far too rose-colored. His and Kissinger's realpolitik very nearly cost us a Third World War in 1983 (when Andropov's Projekt RYAN allowed him to imagine a nuclear threat from Reagan's rhetoric, and Nixon's detente gave him the tools to believe he could get away with a pre-emptive strike).

Geopolitics gives no second-place ribbons. We were lucky in 1983; we could have been PREPARED.

Haysoffice| 1.4.13 @ 2:30PM

WOW! I was becoming convinced that Nixon really was a great president until Mr. Stein listed Nixon's domestic achievements. EPA? ERA? First attempt at universal health care? Gimme a break. At least, Nixon was a good foreign affairs president.

Vance P. Frickey| 1.5.13 @ 7:01PM

Your objection to the EPA's record under Nixon puzzles me.

What do you miss from Lyndon Baines Johnson's Administration, being able to walk across the crap on Lake Erie, or having to put out the fires on the Cuyahoga River? Massive fish kills, or oil slicks not being news for their regularity and ubiquity?

My personal non-favorite thing that EPA took away from us is the regularity with which feces decorated the waters of the United States. Nixon does deserve credit for the founding of the EPA; Congress deserves the blame for the degree to which EPA has turned its regulatory mandate to a sort of tyranny over the American landowner - they had over forty years in which to change that.

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 2:56PM

Um, Yea.

How's that taking us off the gold standard workin' out for us?

President Nixon created the Ben Bernankes of the World.

Thanks for nothing!

StanAmSpec| 1.4.13 @ 3:04PM

It's just plain disturbing that Stein thinks that support for the EPA, ERA and nationalized health care are highlights of Nixon's career.

His story is a good one, but his reality was not.

Frank Drackman| 1.4.13 @ 3:26PM

I can forgive Tricky Penis for Watergate, the Federal Reserve, those rediculous White House Palace Guard Uniforms, losing 40+ B52s by flying them straight into the teeth of the North Vietnamese Air Defense night after night, but..............
1973, The American League introduces the Designated Hitter.
And Nixon did NOTHING!!!!!!!!! not even a mention in his stupid Memoirs that even include howmany dumps he took a day...
So this next baseball season, when you a pitcher holding the wrong end of the bat because he hasn't hit since T-ball, thank old Millhouse.

Frank

Bob Grant| 1.4.13 @ 3:39PM

He lost me at "sock it to ME"...

Bill8472| 1.4.13 @ 5:32PM

Nixon's reaction to the designated hitter rule probably came during the missing 18 1/2 minutes.

Vance P. Frickey| 1.5.13 @ 6:44PM

Thanks for showing us the intellectual caliber of most of the objections to Richard M. Nixon's administration. I'd forgotten just how vapid the people who made Watergate into such a big deal were....

sdfhlk | 1.5.13 @ 1:23AM

Happy New Year,NBA ,NFL 2013

Norman Conquest| 1.5.13 @ 9:53AM

Thank you Ben Stein. What Ben Bradlee and his vile rag the Washington Post did to President Nixon was a putsch, pure and simple. The fact that the man who their golden boy, the odious Kennedy, had defeated (although that is subject to question)for the presidency at the beginning of the decade had become president and fulfilled Kennedy's plan to land on the moon was too much for them. Nixon had to be "gotten".

Stevemmn| 1.5.13 @ 11:11AM

Nixon was railroaded out of office for misconduct that Democrats regularly got away with. In fact, the Nixon administration was a group of choir boys as compared to the deeply corrupt Obama administration. No one was killed by Watergate in sharp contrast to the blood this administration has on it's hands.

But Nixon was not a conservative. Nixon instituted wage and price controls and an oil allocation scheme that only created shortages. and drove up the price. His attempt to accommodate the Soviets had a promising start, but ultimately ended in failure.

Vance P. Frickey| 1.5.13 @ 6:32PM

Whatever deficiencies Richard Nixon may have had, he comes out very well compared to the man who holds his office now.

The liberal press has made heavy weather out of his connivance to keep Watergate back in the shadows, but they have kept quiet when their hero, Barack Obama, flatly told Congress to mind their own business when his own Justice Department gave assault weapons to Mexican drug gangs, then invoked "executive privilege" to avoid explaining to the people why he did it.

The contrast between Richard Nixon (condemned by the media and all "right-thinking people") and Barack Obama couldn't be clearer - Nixon ran such a clean house that he allowed Congress to hound him out of office. Obama... has behaved just as you'd expect a product of the Chicago Democratic Party to behave.

The liberal press engaged in much hand-waving about Nixon's allegedly shadowy friends (Bobo Rebozo, et cetera). Yet, they have nothing to say about slumlord millionaire Valerie Jarrett, who sits at Obama's right hand in the White House.

Forget Bush. I miss Nixon, too, compared to Obama.

Rhoetus| 1.5.13 @ 9:32PM

I was personally introduced to Mr. Nixon in 1966 by Bob Cline during his campaign for the US Congress. I was 14 and was active in Republican politics since 1964. Goldwater & Cline in '64, Reagan & Cline in '66. Cline's intro was that I was a very informed 14 year-old. It still makes me humbled. I am sad that politics has nearly destroyed individual freedom in America, that Nixon was a big part of its destruction. While I pray that God is merciful we must disagree about the Nixon Administration.

Jeff R| 1.6.13 @ 8:09AM

"Despite every possible obstacle put in his path by his enemies, always with an obstructionist Congress, he brought us the EPA, desegregated the last holdout Deep South school districts, enormously promoted equal opportunity hiring for black people on federal projects. He was also the first President to send to Congress proposed legislation for universal health care. I wrote the message sending it to the Hill long ago when I was young. He was also the only GOP President ever to support the ERA. Also the last GOP President to have a balanced budget."

Honestly, Ben, outside of desegregation of schools and balancing the budget, I don't see the other domestic accomplishments you list for Mr. Nixon as, in fact, accomplishments. The EPA - really? Given what its become? Given how Obama is using it as a tool to harass domestic energy producers, among other abominations.

Nixon was in many ways a liberal, albeit, more moderate than, say, Humphrey. Perhaps Nixon was more a Scoop Jackson Democrat.

A greater man and president by far: Ronald Reagan.

Michele San Pietro| 1.6.13 @ 9:28AM

In my opinion, he was a great President, although not as great as Ronald Reagan.

Rhoetus| 1.6.13 @ 11:42AM

Nixon was one of the greatest con-men that ever became President.

Rhoetus| 1.6.13 @ 11:43AM

Rules for Conservatives @
http://www.saveamericanow.us.com

Troon62| 1.6.13 @ 8:18PM

Can we cut Ben a little slack? His father and he played serious roles in RMN's administration. Both were serious, principled folks who did their all to advance America's cause. Yes, Mr. Nixon was flawed in many ways. But, it is far too early to issue a judgment on his presidency. While I disagree with many of his domestic initiatives, I think his lasting legacy will hinge on foreign affairs. His overture to China and his ending of the Vietnam War were enormously important to this country. I admire Ben for his defense of Mr. Nixon.

Mnestheus| 1.7.13 @ 4:51AM

If only Richard Nixon had been , like Ben Stein, born the son of a leading economist, he night have grown up to be an even greater horse's ass than was the case, and equipped with a better speechwriter, have done more harm still.

bopberrigan| 1.7.13 @ 8:02AM

Ben, You should use Tricky Dick, as well as GW, as prime examples of what happens when you play footsie with the Libs. It never ends well..

WaffenSS| 1.8.13 @ 11:04PM

What happened to Bebe Rebozo? Anybody remember THAT event?

stmichrick| 1.8.13 @ 11:39PM

Granted, Richard Nixon was a big government Republican whose paranoia with the media and inferiority complex towards Ivy Leaguers did him in. I do not believe him to be the most dishonest President; that title is shared by President and Mrs Bubba and the current occupant of the WH. I've enjoyed his books and political insights, with his most noteable accomplishments playing China against the Russians and struggling mightily to win in Vietnam before the funding was pulled out from under him. And he caught a real Commie spy, Alger Hiss.

Most of all I love him for his enemies.

Rene Chang | 1.16.13 @ 4:08AM

Although I have never been a Nixon supporter, I marvel at the attempts now to do him justice after the crime to impeach him.
Was his 'crime' any worse than that of other presidents? LBJ committed the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Reagan the Iran-Contra fiasco, JFK the Bay of Pigs and G W Bush the infamous WMD.
Yet Nixon alone was hounded until he had to resign. It is my hypothesis that he offended many in the China Lobby and the Military Industrial Complex for rapproachement with China, ending the Vietnam War and negotiating the SALT treaty with USSR. Many vested interests lost great deal of money, but poor Nixon was guided by what he thought was good for America. He was a patriot and as Ben Stein says, a Peacemaker. Read my book "Watergate - The Political Assassination" with an open mind to try to understand what actually happened at Watergate. Why were the culprits arrested at their THIRD attempt at break-in? I was never happy with the official story about Watergate. The ultra right had setup a coup but got away, by letting the liberals and Democrats run with the ball. Is it not a bit late to honour a great US president who lamented the death of some 45,000 US service men and women but had nothing to say about the three million Vietnamese he killed by bombing them to Kingdom come.

thinkingabovemypaygrade| 1.18.13 @ 1:13PM

I had forgotten some of the things Mr. Nixon accomplished...tho it was my first experience really watching the media slash and burn him for both real and imagined exploits.

But I think that current and recent college students are taught that Mr. Nixon is a junior "satan".

So sad.

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