FDL: Bush And Executive Privilege: Nixon’s Revenge, Part XXVIII

[deminks]

I found this article earlier, and now I can't get into FDL. So I linked to the cached version here:

http://209.85.141.104/search?q=cache:H28umhbSxDIJ:firedoglake.com/2008/07/17/bush-and-executive-privilege-nixons-revenge-part-xxviii/+nixon+ted+olson&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

It's been clear for some time, really, that the Bush administration is Nixon's Revenge incarnate. Digby and Lance Mannion, among others, have remarked on it. And Rick Perlstein's majestic Nixonland is 896 pages of incontrovertible evidence of it.

We've seen it in many areas -- particularly the aggressive assertion of executive powers in setting up military tribunals and designating citizens "enemy combatants," as well as various surveillance powers asserted not merely under the so-called Patriot Acts but more notably in its flouting of FISA: the Bush White House has displayed all the signs of attempting to reacquire powers lost to the executive branch (or rather, first asserted and then knocked down) in the 1970s. Vice President Dick Cheney -- a former Nixon hand -- has played a significant role in this; and it's a virtual certainty Bush's onetime Solicitor General, Ted Olson -- a GOP legal activist who got his start in the Nixon era -- has as well.

And of all the powers lost during the Nixon era near and dear to their charpit hearts, executive privilege is the Big Kahuna. Becuase under its umbrella, the presidency becomes virtually unaccountable and, by extension, its power nearly illimitable.

Which is why Bush's bizarre assertion of executive privilege is a big deal -- much bigger than anyone in the media seems to realize. As Looseheadprop quite precisely explained yesterday, there really is no legal basis for the claim whatsoever. And yet here they are, claiming it -- just daring Congress to begin issuing contempt citations.

Republicans have been trying since the 1980s to reclaim broad executive-privilege powers, and it seems they may be on the verge of finally succeeding, depending on whether Congress lets them get away with it. Considering the outcome of the FISA fight, there is a realistic likelihood they will.

Indeed, the man who led that charge in the 1980s was none other than Ted Olson.