What Did Nixon Do?

My article from today's FrontPage Magazine:

What Did Nixon Do?

By Matthew Vadum

Although Richard Nixon left office under a cloud for trying to subvert the democratic process for his own political advantage, Barack Obama’s behavior has been far more serious in its corruption and blatant attempts to manipulate the electoral process by unethical and unconstitutional means.

Nixon, bad as he may have been, has been oversold as a villain. He serves as a convenient bogeyman for left-wing historians and journalists to spew self-serving narratives in which they paint him as a devil and themselves as victims. It would, therefore, do well to review some of the facts of what really transpired in the Nixon presidency and how they stack up against Obama’s unprecedented malfeasance:

First, the much-vaunted “enemies list” that was maintained by Nixon is more the stuff of myth than underhanded politics. In his 1979 book, Blind Ambition, Nixon White House counsel John Dean explained that the list consisted merely of names of individuals not welcome at White House functions. White House chief of staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman singled out about 20 people on the list for IRS audits and other official torments, “but no action had been taken as far as I knew,” Dean wrote.

So what did President Nixon actually do?

Richard Cordray's 'Heroes' Occupy Banks and Private Homes

John Berlau has an excellent article in today's American Spectator.

He writes that Richard Cordray, President Obama's nominee for director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is a longtime supporter of violent community organizers:

Cordray has long supported ESOP, formerly known as the East Side Organizing Project, an Ohio housing advocacy group that has distinguished itself by storming into banks and launching plastic "shark attacks" on the lawns of private homes. ESOP's leaders brag about what they call their "organized hits" on banks and other targets, which have included the home of the late Congressman and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp.

Moreover, Cordray

As Ohio treasurer and attorney general, Cordray lobbied for state and federal funding for ESOP and publicly praised funders of the group as "the real heroes." And in a highly unusual move for a nominee awaiting confirmation, Cordray returned to Ohio in October to be the keynote speaker at the group's gala dinner.