Famed reporter Carl Bernstein: Bush administration has done 'far greater damage' than Nixon

Bernstein: Bush has done 'far greater damage' than Nixon

Mike SheehanPublished: Thursday January 25, 2007

Legendary Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein "took several hard shots" at the Bush administration in an online chat on Wednesday.

Editor & Publisher reports that Bernstein, who along with Post partner Bob Woodward led the journalistic scrutiny which ultimately resulted in President Richard Nixon's downfall, remarked in a washingtonpost.com chat session that "in the case [of] George W. Bush, the American system has obviously failed."

Bernstein elaborated, "[I]magine the difference in our worldview today, had the institutions -- particularly of government -- done their job to insure that a mendacious and dangerous president ... be restrained in a war that has killed thousands of American soldiers, brought turmoil to the lives of millions, and constrained the goodwill towards the United States in much of the world."

E&P says that during reflections on the recent passing of Watergate "plumber" E. Howard Hunt, Bernstein remarked, "In the current administration we have seen from the President [on] down--especially Vice President Cheney, Attorney General Gonzales, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld--a willingness to ignore the great constitutional history of the United States -- to suspend, really ... many of the constitutional guarantees that have made us a nation apart..."
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist added that the "worst" of it "has been the lying and mendacity of the president and his men and women--in the reasons they cited for going to war, their conduct of the war, their attempts to smear their political opponents.

"Nixon and his men lied and abused the constitution to horrible effect, but they were stopped," said Bernstein. "The Bush Administration ... was not stopped, and has done far greater damage."
Additional excerpts from the article, available in full here,