The Bush and in general politics (at least on the right, and in the US that is the majority of politics) has moved more and strongly to the creation of a Fascist State. I do not think there will be mass killings like we saw in Nazi Germany and Stalinist USSR, but then again it may be an inevitable. How many Arabs have dies in the name of national security? And was that not the reasoning for killing the Jews? The Kulaks?
Frost: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.
NIXON: Well, when
the president does it that means that it is not illegal.
FROST: By definition.
NIXON: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.
FROST: So, that in other words, really you were saying in that answer, really, between the burglary and murder, again, there's no subtle way to say that there was murder of a dissenter in this country because I don't know any evidence to that effect at all. But, the point is: just the dividing line, is that in fact, the dividing line is the president's judgment?
NIXON: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress. We have to have in mind, for example, that as far as the CIA's covert operations are concerned, as far as the FBI's covert operations are concerned, through the years, they have been disclosed on a very, very limited basis to trusted members of Congress. I don't know whether it can be done today or not.
If it was not clear, the counsel for Nixon put it plainly"The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment."
— James D. St. Clair, Richard Nixon's counsel, arguing before the Supreme Court
This view is the current running philosophy of Bush administration thanks to the efforts of Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to President Bush, and his Justice Department.
“The past few years have seen many of the most sweeping claims of executive power advanced by Gonzales overturned, repudiated, or dismantled. Under the circumstances, the Senate should probe carefully whether an Attorney General Gonzales would understand and act within these legal limits as the White House undertakes the many difficult challenges the war on terrorism still presents.”
Deborah Pearlstein Nov. 23, 2004 The American Prospect
