Nasty, Illegal and Re-elected

If the president does it,is it legal? If Pres. Obama drags the full power and office of the presidency into a shakedown of BP for $20 billion, is it criminal extortion? Can this president or any president govern and get reelected without being illegal and unconstitutional?

Not to worry. Presidents do this sort of illegal thing all the time and only the uptight legal types and now Tea Partiers get excited about it. To be realistic, the American people want a president they can count on to be as nasty as is necessary and constitutionality can wait, when national security or the general welfare is involved. Most of the presidents who won a second term have done something nasty, illegal and/or unconstitutional that is not simply accepted but is praised by the American electorate.

The list of such actions is long. Establishing such credentials might even be a condition of reelection.

In a time of economic turmoil, Harry Truman nationalized the American steel industry, an action later declared unconstitutional. Truman also seized the railroads and threatened to draft striking workers into the armed forces. He was praised for that when the striking union capitulated. It all added to the “give 'em Hell Harry” narrative and enhanced his reputation.

Pres. Kennedy failed the test at the Bay of Pigs. He made up for it first with the Cuban missile crisis and then with the inflation-threatened economy. To forestall inflation, he brokered a deal between the steel industry, which agreed not to raise prices, and the union, which agreed not to demand a wage increase. As soon as the union signed a contract, US Steel raised prices. In a raw and public display of government harassment, Robert Kennedy, according to the Wall Street Journal, set steel prices “by naked power, by threats, by agents of the state security police.” US Steel caved. Inflation was contained and American business and labor believed in John F. Kennedy as a president they could trust. His reputation was made.

In August 1971, Pres. Nixon saw an economy in crisis and instituted his New Economic Policy which included, without benefit of legislation: a 10 percent investment tax credit, removal of excise taxes, an end to fixed exchange rates, devaluation of the dollar, and a 10 percent surtax on all imports. At the time, the program was judged as exceptionally bold and much of it was later declared unconstitutional. But it had done its task, giving Nixon a bounce in the polls and the American people the reassurance that the president would act when necessary. Nixon is credited with being the first president to state: “if the president does it, it is legal.”

Pres. Ford did not wants to punish Richard Nixon for his crimes. Instead he pardoned Nixon and left the American people vulnerable to another Nixon resurrection. No one felt reassured by that pardon and Gerald Ford was not elected in his own right.

Pres. Reagan was more nasty than unconstitutional in his reassuring actions. As a candidate Reagan promised the air-traffic controllers, who supported his election, that their grievances would be heard. As President, Reagan had no time for them. In their frustration, these government employees went on strike and Reagan summarily fired all 12,000 of them. Government employees had gone on strike previously without such serious consequences. This over-the-top betrayal assured the business community that Reagan could be counted on to support them in crushing the power of labor. Reagan had made his point.

Pres. George H.W. Bush is the law-abiding, nice guy. He was very careful to include the Congress and the whole Western alliance in operation Desert Storm. He did not go beyond his authorization nor did he go to Baghdad. He did not reflect the required toughness and he was not reelected.

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack, President George W. Bush pushed through the Patriot Act with all of its undermining of civil liberties. Yet the people accepted it . Probably more important, he did go to Baghdad and without United Nations Security Council approval. The American people want a president who does not wait for permission to do what he believes is necessary. He was reelected.

Pres. Obama is going to have to show his mettle and be tough with BP and anyone else who gets in the way of the almost inconceivable task of cleaning up the Gulf Coast. If he does not do this and convince the American people of his willingness to step outside the law, he will be judged a wuss and will not be reelected.