| 02 June 2005 Union The Dutch trashed the new constitution even more thoroughly than the French did. Over sixty-one percent of them voted against the European Constitution. Commentators on that side of the Atlantic claim this is the most significant event since the end of the Cold War. It means all sorts of things, I imagine, including deep-rooted calls to primal nationalism that the ruling elites do not understand. But I suspect that a simple nod to the brilliance of Bill Clinton will suffice. It is about the economy, stupid. As of April, the French unemployment rate was surging past ten percent, the highest in five years. The Dutch, who trashed the initiative yesterday, are reputed to have one of the lowest rates in Europe at around five percent. But if you include those working-age citizens on “disability,” which is around ten percent of the workforce, the numbers are at least as bad as they are in Germany . The German unemployment rate is over ten percent. The economic engine of central Europe is sputtering, unable to process the wreckage of the old East. For those that have not given up on working altogether, the idea of a flood of out-of-town guest workers is a chilling prospect. Rather than the spirit of unification, there is rising suspicion. The Euro was strong last year, but jitters about the future Europe are affecting the currency. No wonder the people refuse to believe their leaders. If I recall my history with any accuracy, the American Constitution was in deep trouble when it was brought to the states for ratification. Opponents thundered that the document, as drafted, would open the way to tyranny by the central government. They darkly referenced the recent billeting of British troops in their homes, and the confiscation of personal firearms. A "bill of rights" codifying personal liberty was demanded by delegates at several state ratification conventions. Tiny Delaware is America 's Luxembourg . In the ten minutes it takes to hurtle across the state, you may see a license plate of someone who actually lives there. The motto stamped on the metal is: “The First State ,” since Delaware held the initial convention to ratify. Their refusal would have scuttled the American Union as effectively as the French skewered the European one. Delaware ratified the Constitution only with the understanding that the Bill of Rights would be added later Americans take great pride in their Constitution, which has the benefit being short and to the point. Perhaps a “Bill of Rights” addressing the concerns of the people of Europe might help. And perhaps it won't. The latest Constitutional crisis on this side of the Atlantic is continuing. It is about the relationship of the three co-equal branches of government. Of late the discussion is about the composition of the Judiciary, and the tension between the Executive and the Congress in who gets to sit on the bench. It is another facet of the great conflict about the Executive's power to make war. Lyndon Johnson began the debate with his slight-of-hand on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which opened the massive military build-up in Southeast Asia . The power struggle continued through the behavior of the agencies of the Executive Branch in the prosecution of that war, expanding their activities to include “all enemies, domestic and foreign.” That may be why the Deep Throat revelations resonate so vividly today. Dick Nixon won the 1972 election with an absolute majority of over sixty percent- almost exactly the same percentage as the Dutch majority that rejected the European constitution. The Nixon ticket carried every state in the Union except Massachusetts . W. Mark Felt was already starting to direct young Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to the money trail that led to the impeachment of Richard Nixon when the election was held. But great constitutional issues aside, governments are run by human beings. As the last chapter of the Deep Throat saga plays out, it is helpful to remember that the banal and venal can never be banished from the great parade of history. Felt's family is quite up-front in their desire to cash in on their patriarch's fame, or infamy, as the case may be. That was part of the controversy in deciding to end the silence. Vanity Fair, the marvelous slick publication offered $10,000 dollars for the Deep Throat story, and millionaire Bob Woodward would not match it. Ten grand isn't much of a payday, but remember, the family is retaining the book and movie rights to Nixon's betrayal. Think back, if you can. J. Edgar Hoover was in his grave six months before the general election of 1972. Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray to head the FBI. Felt's career aspirations were dashed, and he felt that his precious Bureau was under attack from a hostile President. Felt's apologists say that he would have been trumped by his new Director if he took evidence of Executive wrongdoing to the courts. Patrick Gray and the Attorney General of the time, John Mitchell, would unquestionably have quashed the results of any investigation. If this was the first time Mr. Felt had leaked information to Bob Woodward, I might find that a convincing case. But it was not. Felt had provided accurate information on the price it took to bribe Vice President Spiro Agnew, which at the time was $2,500 dollars. Woodward was a rookie, and though the leak was accurate, he could not do anything with it. Correct me if I am wrong, please. Any citizen has the right to go to the Press, or petition Congress for the redress of grievances. It's in the Constitution. But the protocol is that you are supposed to resign your government job first . My favorite theory about how it all came to pass is prurient, of course. It is the subject of major litigation by some of the old Watergate Warriors in their declining years. Young John Dean has always held the spotlight in the scandal, sanctimoniously intoning on the White House Tapes that “A cancer was growing on the Presidency.” But young John was one of those cock-sure ambitious young men who abound in these parts. If you read the chronology of the scandal, he appears to have created and directed the wily old pros who had been playing this same game through the previous three administrations. Dean had an advisory role to the Plumbers, the White House security unit tasked with finding the leaks to the media, whose subsequent incarnation for under the Committee to Re-Elect the President continued the mission. The Plumbers organization had been created to stop leaks. The new mission was intelligence collection on the Democrats for the 1972 election. But there was more. The matter over which Dean launched a libel suit was the allegation that Dean wanted confidential files in a desk at the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate. It wasn't DNC Chairman Larry O'Brian that was the target, nor was it the phones, which apparently were tapped by another Executive Branch organization. Dean was looking for the files because they had information on his girlfriend, Mo Biner. She is better known to us now as his wife, Maureen, the Ice Queen. But she had been the roommate of Heidi Rikan, who operated an exclusive call-girl ring catering to prominent Democrats out of the Columbia Plaza apartment complex across the street from the Watergate. It gets worse, or better, and there are tantalizing connections back to the Kennedy Administration and even the Profumo sex Scandal in London . I stood in a meeting at the Ministry of Defense in Whitehall last decade. We were assembled on the grand staircase, and I could not concentrate on what was being said as I looked up and imagined Minister Profumo pursing half-nude call-girl Christine Keeler from the third to the fourth floors. Politics used to be more fun than it is now, whether it was in London or Washington . There was too much evidence destroyed by the cops in both towns afterwards to ever make complete sense of it. And so, thirty-three years later, the people of Europe are rejecting Union , and we are rehashing an ancient scandal as part of the ongoing Constitutional crisis. Courtesy of that little weasel Dean, and his lovely wife, who apparently had more fun than he could stand. I personally am considering launching a public campaign to have the picture of Linda Lovelace placed on the $50 dollar bill. Copyright 2005 Vic Socotra |