In Remembrance of the Saturday Night Massacre

This Monday marked the 52nd anniversary of the Saturday Night Massacre. For anyone unfamiliar with these events, a special prosecutor (Archibald Cox) had been appointed to investigate the Watergate break-in. Special prosecutor Cox subpoenaed the soon-to-be-infamous White House tapes as part of his investigation. Knowing what was on them, President Nixon asked him to drop the subpoena. Cox of course refused. Nixon could not fire the special prosecutor himself, so he ordered the Attorney General to do so. Attorney General Elliot Richardson refused to carry out an order that he knew was wrong, and resigned on the spot. Nixon then called William Ruckelshaus, the Deputy Attorney General, and ordered him to fire Mr. Cox. Ruckleshaus also refused, and also resigned immediately. Working his way down the chain of command, Nixon next called Robert Bork, who carried out the order, though he claims he planned to resign to avoid being seen as a White House toady but that Richardson and Ruckelshaus asked him to stay on. After executing Nixon’s order, Bork was driven to the White House and offered the next available Supreme Court seat. Whether this was a reward for services rendered, a de facto bribe to keep Bork loyal, or some mix of both, it appears perfectly indicative of the corrupt, power-hungry and self-centered mindset Nixon brought to his presidency. Bork followed Nixon’s subsequent orders and finished the job by abolishing the special prosecutor’s office completely. Nixon naturally did not have the chance to make good on this promise, but Gerald Ford considered nominating Bork when the next vacancy appeared, and Reagan eventually did so. Nixon’s grossly unethical use of power and the principled resignations of the top two officials at the Justice Department very arguably sealed Nixon’s fate - these actions pushed politicians and members of the public who were not yet convinced that Nixon needed to go off the fence. Formal impeachment proceedings began 10 days later.

All of this may feel somewhat... quaint. The notion that political appointees would choose to serve their country rather than the president who appointed them, the concept of Senators and Members of Congress being willing to support removal of a president of their own party no matter how how egregious their conduct, and even the idea that emperors presidents could face punishment for their misbehavior, all feel... antiquated; as if they have no bearing on the modern world. Nixon’s malfeasance even appears oddly tame compared to either Trump Administration (in fairness, Obama’s and subsequent presidents’ warrantless wiretapping of the entire country also comes to mind). What all has taken us to the point where what should be basic precepts of a nation governed by laws seem unrealistic, foreign, and out of date, is something we will need to understand eventually, but how we can get back to a point of actual accountability, limits on executive power, and the rule of law is a far more urgent question. Our institutions are no longer manned by people of the requisite integrity. Though the road ahead is long, replacing a few Senators and Members of Congress with independents would be an excellent start.

Yesterday was an anniversary deserving of commemoration. Special prosecutor Cox, AG Richardson, and Deputy AG Ruckelshaus all refused to bow to the unethical demands of an president unworthy of his office. Granted, there is an irony that must be highlighted here - resigning in protest after refusing an unethical order is an honorable thing to do, but both men would have done their country better service by staying on in their positions and forcing Nixon to either back down or fire them. In this way, ethical people doing ethical things can help advance the goals they were trying to resist. Anyone willing to resign or decline to run for re-election over principles should also be willing to stay and fight for those same principles. But this is more applicable to officials elected in their own rights, and however imperfect their good service, the fact remains that when faced with pressure from the most powerful man on the planet, all three of these men chose to stand by their duties; they chose honor over slavishness, institutions over selves, and in so doing, country over party. Their civic heroism should be remembered for as long as our country has need of it. But their honorable choices would have had no impact were it not for journalists and politicians reacting to Nixon’s obviously wrong actions and collectively forcing him from office. Had today’s partisan media produced split narratives and distortions of facts (or outright lies) defending Nixon’s choices (we can easily imagine “evil”, “wicked”, “corrupt”, “witch hunters”, etc.) and Congressional Republicans stood by him, Nixon unquestionably would have gotten away with his crimes. But they didn’t. Journalists reported objectively, the public turned decisively against Nixon, and members of his party joined the effort to remove him. Nixon’s impeachment was not a foregone conclusion. But the right people made the right choices, and with their actions, our system successfully defended itself from corrupt leadership. Congressional Republicans should have broken with Nixon earlier, but it is far better that they did so late rather than never. Just to repeat, it is never too late to choose country over party, ethics over political survival, or honor over servitude. (In fairness, it is also this author’s opinion that Congressional Democrats should have removed Bill Clinton from office for lying to Congress and the American People. They were derelict in their duties and we have all suffered from the precedent they failed to set.)

Let us remember Messrs. Richardson, Ruckelshaus, and Cox, and what they were prepared to do - and not do - for our country. Let us do what we can with the time given to us to honor them and everyone else who has worked to build this, our ever-imperfect and still-worthy Union. Let us work to replace some of the people in power, break the two-party duopoly, and give independents a voice, that we might achieve the rescue and rejuvenation of our more-perfect Union.