Watergate, Watergate everywhere!

It's ironic that back in 2008 as Executive Director of the Denver Group and an off shoot organization called Democrats For Principle Before Party, I did a group of TV commercials comparing Barrack Obama to Richard Nixon,attempting to warn Democrats of the dangers Obama would present as president to the  Democratic agenda since it was apparent even if the media decided to look the other way,that he was every bit as underhanded, duplicitous, dishonest ,unprincipled and untrustworthy a presidential candidate as Richard Nixon. Nothing he said publicly could be trusted or taken at face value.  Obama even had his own Helen Gahagen Douglas in Alice Palmer a woman who helped Obama get his start in politics who he later double crossed to win his first election.

In his first four years in office Obama lived up to the billing. But now, incredibly Republicans of all people are drawing unfavorable comparisons of Obama to Richard Nixon, comparing almost every accusation now being made against Obama and his administration to Watergate.

You know Republicans are desperate ( or terminally dumb) when they insist on reminding the American people that the worst abuse of power by a president and his administration in American history, a secret subverting of the constitution, abusing the office and powers of the presidency and running a criminal enterprise out of the White House which resulted in almost every member of a presidential administration going to prison for multiple felonies was committed by Republicans.

Nevertheless they can't stop comparing the latest unsavory revelations going on with Obama and his administration to Watergate.

Comparisons of Benghazi to Watergate are so laughable they are an insult to the memories of those killed because it is obvious that Republicans like Dana Rohrabacher, Lindsay Graham, John Boehner and others making the comparisons  are trying to use them as political fodder. The recent release of emails show that while there were changes made to suggested "talking points"  immediately after the Benghazi attack, they were all made by the CIA and had no political motive behind them.  In one instance the CIA changed the word "attack" to "demonstration" and removed a reference to Al-Qaeda. Supposedly because while they suspected Al-Qaeda they had no proof at the time.

 John Boehner, grasping for straws and making himself and his party look foolish again, seized on the emails to say see? the White House lied. They said only a word was changed and here we have two words. Maybe even six or seven words.

And all authored by the CIA. With the bottom line being that these changes by the CIA amounted to a big nothing. Nothing about these talking points given on Sunday morning talk shows by Susan Rice had even the smallest consequence regarding anything of importance or value.  If the Republicans think its so important they can have those in the CIA responsible for making the changes appear before their phalanx of congressional committees to explain it. They wont do it because there is no political hay to be made by doing it.

None of this is to defend Obama who manages to sink to new lows almost on a daily basis, but none of those lows even remotely approach the neo-fascism and criminal conspiracies to undermine the constitution and American freedoms that was the administration of Republican conservative Richard Nixon and the series of scandals known as Watergate, named for the apartment and office complex in Washington that contained the offices of the chairman of the Democratic Party that Republican operatives burglarized with the knowledge  of then attorney general John Mitchell, looking for dirt on Democrats. The ensuing cover-up which ensnared almost the entire Nixon administration in obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence was to cover up even worse abuses committed by these same people against American citizens.

We heard Lindsay Graham say the other day that Benghazi was worse that Watergate. Orin Hatch has said that the IRS scrutiny of conservative groups applying for 501(c)4 status was worse than Watergate (though none were denied the status they applied for). And the Justice Department secretly gathering phone records of AP reporters for a leak investigation was worse than Watergate.

 On the last charge it was certainly the kind of thing Nixon would have done. But the difference is, Nixon and the Republicans did it illegally with illegal wiretaps  and for personal reasons while Obama is just, well the usual unprincipled and grossly unqualified  garden variety self promoting  politician and president he's been since day one.

But Republican obsession with comparing Obama's miscalculations or incompetence with Watergate is now getting comical.

At the end of the commercials I did in 2008 for Democrats For Principle Before Party, in comparing Obama to Nixon, the question used most to disparage Nixon, was asked in the commerical about Obama:  Would you buy a used car from this man?

No more than Id buy a used scandal from a Republican.