2017 May 4^th

Patrick Buchanan is still trying desperately to defend Richard M. Nixon. He has several books testifying to Nixon’s resurgence; he even speaks well of Spiro T. Agnew. Buchanan disparages the White House Correspondent’s Dinner and quotes a remark by one of its principals, “We are not fake news organizations. We are not the enemy of the American people.”  Buchanan says, “A standing ovation followed. The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press was repeatedly invoked and defiantly applauded as though the president were a clear and present danger to it.”

But Trump is a clear and present danger to a free press. He has said repeatedly that the press is the enemy of the American people. Doesn’t that make him a clear and present danger to a free press? Now he has suggested opening up the libel laws to permit politicians to sue members of the press if they publish negative stories about them even if the stories are true. Politicians can already sue if false stories are published. For Trump, if the stories aren’t full of praise for him they are “fake” news.

Buchanan has a history of resurrecting and then defending people best left in the gutter. Spiro T. Agnew is a good example. Agnew was on the ticket with Nixon when Nixon scored one of the most lopsided presidential victories the country had ever seen.  Agnew was credited with some memorable phrases in his speeches, but they came not from him but from his speechwriter; “Nattering nabobs of negativism,” was prominent among them.

On October 10^th 1973, Spiro T. Agnew resigned the office of Vice President in disgrace. He was accused of taking bribes when he had previously served as governor of Maryland. He resigned from his office, pled no contest and served a term of probation, the first sitting vice president of the United States ever to do that. It came just one year after his wonderful victory with Richard Nixon. Buchanan makes no mention of this fact in his column.

Now we know a lot about Richard M. Nixon’s path to the presidency and that he was even farther in the gutter than Agnew. We know a lot about this because we now have H. R. Haldeman’s private notes taken while he was getting instructions from Nixon and we have other information as well that was previously sealed.

Nixon was determined on achieving the presidency. He told his southern representatives to, “Lay off the Negro crap.” This attitude might have been one of the things that endeared him to Buchanan.

Then there was his traitorous interference in Vietnam: This includes the actions of Henry Kissinger using back channels to persuade South Vietnam to resists Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to bring the war to a close before he left office.  It also includes Madam Chennault, a very right wing republican, who would gladly push Premier Nguyen Yan Thieu to resist President Johnson’s deal with the promise that Nixon would have a deal more to Thieu’s liking if he just waited. Meanwhile, back in the rice paddies, Americans were being killed because of Nixon’s ambition and, Buchanan, writing only the history that pleases him, has nothing to say about it.