Revisiting the Executive Privilege Issue

The media has all but wet itself going over and over the issue of "Deep Throat" and Watergate. While they do that, I'd suggest us - as citizens - revisit the issue in terms of the fact that right now, George Bush enjoys even more executive privilege than Richard Nixon ever had while after Watergate, we decided that no one person should ever have that overarching control again.

The Downing Street Memo should also come up in your thoughts, because this gives us an indication of just one area in which this president has greatly abused the truth and power he wields. But there's more evidence: the energy plan Dick Cheney cooked up with his pals at Enron and Unocal and others (now there's an energy plan you want in a time of finite quantities and unlimited rate hikes), the way we heard that the Medicare drug plan was "cooked" by the White House and Congress to hide true costs and to benefit drug companies far more than senior-age consumers, the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo that this administration refuses to be held accountable for.

How many Dick Nixons do we need?

And regardless of how media folks like Bob Schieffer and others insist that "this" White House has nothing on Nixon in terms of secrecy, that appears to be patently false.