Nixon Aide Likens Bush Spy Program to Watergate Abuse

By Bennett Roth, Houston Chronicle

Apr. 1–WASHINGTON — Testifying at a Senate hearing on a Democratic resolution to censure President Bush, former Nixon aide John Dean said Friday that Bush’s domestic spying program was more serious than the Watergate abuses by his former boss.

Dean’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee drew a heated response from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other Republicans on the panel, who chafed at the comparison between the Watergate scandal and the debate over Bush’s warrantless surveillance program.

Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., has proposed censuring Bush, arguing that the president violated a 1978 law that barred federal surveillance of U.S. citizens without review by a special court.

The censure proposal has virtually no chance of passing. But it has taken on political significance because some Republicans say it indicates that Democrats will try to impeach Bush if they win control of the House and Senate in this year’s elections.

Dean said the spying program was part of a concerted effort by the Bush administration to increase executive power, and he maintained that censure was an appropriate way to rein in the White House.

“Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented,” Dean said. “Hopefully, the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it.”

Nixon resigned in August 1974 after the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against the Republican president.

Cornyn opposes censure Even before Dean spoke, his presence before the committee was questioned by Cornyn. He said it was “very odd” to allow testimony from a “convicted felon,” who is also trying to market a book.

Dean, a former counsel to Nixon, served four months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. He has a new book, Conservatives without a Conscience, which includes a reference to Cornyn and is to come out this summer.

Cornyn, who said the censure resolution was “without merit,” left the hearing before Dean testified. That prompted Feingold, who invited Dean to address the committee, to accuse Cornyn of launching a “hit-and-run” attack.

Don Stewart, spokesman for Cornyn, called Feingold’s remarks “silly” and said the senator had to return to the immigration debate on the Senate floor.

View from ‘the dark side’ Dean told the senators it was important that they hear “from the dark side.”

“Those of us from that perspective might have some experience that might not be available to a body like this,” he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said it was an “an apples and oranges” argument for Dean to compare the current debate over surveillance to the unlawful break-in at Democratic headquarters by Nixon subordinates.

He said censure would be a destructive measure at a time when lawmakers should be working with the administration to fashion legislation regarding the surveillance program.

Feingold, however, said the surveillance program was part of a pattern by the administration to push policies of questionable legality.

“If we in the Congress don’t stand up for ourselves and for the American people, we become complicit in his lawbreaking,” Feingold said.

bennett.roth@chron.com

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