The Worst Thing

Recently a long time friend visited me in our home. Politically he is very progressive so I wasn't surprised when he announced,

"No talking politics."

I'm a registered Democrat that voted for Bill Clinton and Obama, but I am against the impeachment of Trump as earnestly as I was against that of Clinton. I wrote a few pieces that have been deemed "pro Trump" because in the eyes of a liberal if you don't think Trump deserves thumbscrews for his tweets alone, then you're a fascist. Over dinner my friend started talking at me that "Trump told us to kill Mexicans" and how he wants to "ban all Muslims from the country."

"You probably are one of those people who benefits from the tax breaks he gave to the wealthy," he reasoned.

There was no reason to explain that I live in a state in which the local tax was impacted by the Trump tax cuts resulting in marginal tax relief. The real benefits from the Trump presidency came about from deep cuts in regressive regulations which spurned on the economy bumping up all of our 401(k)s. The same thing happen in the 90's when Clinton listened to Alan Greenspan who urged him to lower short term interest rates. I wasn't going to argue that point because my friend switched from lamenting about Trump to grandstanding about global warming. It didn't matter that in college he picked a major which specifically avoided math and science, we were all going to die in twelve years.

"I'll tell you why I hate Trump," he elaborated, "he's nothing but a bully who calls people names. He's a jerk. He's stupid. He's an asshole."

I braced myself for a lengthy discussion on foreign and domestic policies, but instead what I got seemed like to me was a whole lot of name calling followed promptly by labels.

"He's a racist. He's fascist and a misogynist."

I came to realize when my friend said he didn't want to talk politics what he really meant was that he didn't want me to talk about politics. He finished with,

"He got impeached for the worst thing a president has ever done."

That got me thinking and surfing because I wasn't getting a word in between the bites of the steak I grilled, what was the worst thing a president had done?

Nixon

Tricky Dick

Sure, everyone knows that Nixon would have been impeached for covering up the break in and bugging of the of the Democratic National Committee headquarters by five operatives. As Watergate loomed over the president, he resigned. Many of you probably don't know that Nixon also closed the destroyer base in Newport, Rhode Island in retaliation for not carrying the state in the 1969 election. That made the traffic jam caused by closing two lanes on the George Washington Bridge by staff members for then New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, for not getting an endorsement from the mayor of Fort Lee look like a schoolyard spat.

During Nixon's presidency Congress was embroiled in the Koreagate scandal which involved bribery by South Korean political figures seeking influence from Democratic members of Congress. A South Korean businessman, Tongsun Park, agreed to testify in exchange for immunity that he personally disbursed cash to 30 members of Congress. Ten legislators were implicated, most of whom resigned. Others were censured and reprimanded. One was sentenced to thirty months in federal prison.

Nixon also pardoned Jimmy Hoffa who was serving a 15 year federal prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud.

Ford

Mr. Nice Guy

Ford did a good job as president considering no one ever voted for him. As the House Minority Leader he took over as vice president when Spiro Agnew resigned after being investigated for criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud as the governor of Maryland. Agnew pleaded no contest to tax evasion. When Nixon resigned, Ford assumed the presidency. One of the first things he did as commander in chief was pardon Nixon.

Ford was a big guy who was actually quite athletic. He could out ski his secret service detail. His reputation as a klutz arose from the time he fell down the steps of Air Force One.

The Gipper

Reagan

Reagan was an actor, turned Governor of California, turned President of the United States. During his second term as president, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran which was the subject of an arms embargo. Reagan's administration used the proceeds of the weapons sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua in violation of the Boland Amendment. When responding to investigators, Reagan said that he couldn't recall or didn't remember 88 times. It was probably true since years later we learned that he was suffering from Alzheimers while in office.

The Porcelain Bus Driver

Bush 

The first President Bush exercised the presidential right to squash investigations when he pardoned Reagan's Secretary of Defense, Casper Weinberger, and several others involved in the Iran Contra scandal. Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor stated at the time that the president's actions were intended to derail an investigation that could have implicated Bush in criminal activities.

In January of 1992, Bush threw up on the Prime Minister of Japan, Kiichi Miyazawa, during a state banquet.

 Clinton

Slick Willy

Apart from being impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to federal investigators about his involvement with a 22 year old unpaid intern, Clinton was accused of rape by Juanita Broaddrick in 1978 when he was the Attorney General of Arkansas.

While in the White House, Clinton sold overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom in return for political campaign contributions. In August 1996, the Center for Public Integrity released a multi-page report written by Margaret Ebrahim called "Fat Cat Hotel: How Democratic High-Rollers Are Rewarded with Overnight Stays at the White House." The report examined the connection between stays in the Lincoln Bedroom during the presidency of Bill Clinton and financial contributions made to the Democratic Party as well as to Clinton's presidential campaigns. The media widely published a Democratic National Committee memorandum concerning people who contributed money annotated by Clinton who wrote,

"Yes, pursue all 3 and promptly - and get other names of the 100,000 or more (dollar contributors). Ready to start overnights right away - give me the top 10 list back, along with the 100."

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno squashed any attempts at investigating the matter. During the 2000 presidential election debate the Republican nominee, George W. Bush, said,

"I think they’ve moved that line the buck stops here from the Oval Office the Lincoln Bedroom."

Bush

Dubya

George Bush committed our military to a war with Iraq by sending Secretary of State Colin Powel to the UN to deliver a speech erroneously claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Powel ignored repeated evidence that his statements were false and the intelligence he was given was faulty. Congress never investigated Powell's misstatements even though he said,

"My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources."

Bush told reporters that one reason he wanted to get Hussein was because,

“He tried to kill my dad.”

Carter

President Malaise

Jimmy Carter is a mild mannered former naval officer and peanut farmer from Georgia who is still involved with his church and Habitat for Humanity. His administration was overshadowed by the Iranian Hostage Crisis in which students demonstrating outside of the US embassy in Tehran stormed the complex and took ninety people hostage including 66 Americans. Iran detained the majority of hostages for two years.

During the final days of the 1980 election, the Debategate political scandal broke. Somehow President Carter's top secret briefing papers used in preparation for the upcoming debate with Ronald Reagan were acquired by the opposition team. The leak of campaign documents was not divulged to the public until late in June of 1983 after the publication of Laurence Barrett, Gambling With History: Reagan in the White House, an expose of the first two years of the Reagan administration.

Wilson

Schoolmaster of Politics

Wilson was a Democrat who served as the 28th president from 1913 to 1921. He had a lot of radical ideas for his time like lowering tariffs and attempting banking reform, but one of his most unorthodox views was his belief in eugenics, the science of controlling human breeding in favor of desirable characteristics. In 1911 as the governor of New Jersey he signed a sexual sterilization bill into legislation. Under the law criminals or adults considered to be "feeble-minded" could be forced to undergo sterilization. There weren't any reason to worry about abuses because as part of this legislation Wilson was also responsible for appointing a board of examiners who would determine who ought to be sterilized under the new law. The courts eventually struck down the act on the grounds that it was inhumane. During his presidency Wilson signed into law an act that permitted forced sterilization of "degenerates." The Eugenics Movement grew in popularity during Wilson's presidency.

Grant

Unconditional Surrender Grant

Grant led the Union Army during the Civil War. As president he worked on the reconstruction of the south while having to deal with corruption in his administration. Criminal activity in the executive branch became so widespread that several of Grant's cabinet members and other appointees had to resign or were outright fired.

For some reason Grant didn't like Asian women. In 1875 President Grant delivered the Seventh Annual Message to the United States Senate and House of Representatives in which he affirmed the United States stance regarding the immigration of women originating from the Far East. He said,

"While this is being done I invite the attention of Congress to another, though perhaps no less an evil, the importation of Chinese women, but few of whom are brought to our shores to pursue honorable or useful occupations."

Grant signed the Page Act on March 3, 1875 barring Chinese women from emigrating to the United States.

Arthur

The Dude President

Chester A. Arthur was the 21st president serving for one term in 1881 to 1885, two months after James A. Garfield succumbed to an assassin's bullet. Building on the Page Act, Arthur extended the ban on immigration to include men as well with The Chinese Exclusion Act which Arthur signed into law on May 6, 1882. The act prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers.

Arthur had his own birther controversy in 1880 when a New York attorney, A. P. Hinman, claimed Arthur was a British subject born in Canada to an English father and an American mother. He actually heralded from Vermont. To support his claim, Hinman presented an elaborate story of Arthur's British and Canadian lineage. A New York Sun investigative reporter researched Hinman's tale and published a complete refutation the day after Arthur took the oath of office.

Calvin Coolidge

Silent Cal

Coolidge was the 30th president who served two terms during the roaring twenties. He succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding but was elected in his own right in 1924. As a small government conservative Coolidge said very little and had a rather dry sense of humor. An apocryphal story was told in Coolidge's time that a person seated next to him at a dinner party told Coolidge,

"I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you."

He replied, "You lose."

The poet, writer, critic, and satirist, Dorothy Parker, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked,

"How can they tell?"

Coolidge often seemed out of place among fashionable Washington society. When asked why he continued to attend so many of their extravagant dinner parties, he replied,

"Got to eat somewhere."

Coolidge is known for The Immigration Act of 1924 which was a United States federal law that restricted immigration from Africa and outright banned it from Arab and Asian countries. The act also provided funds for a law enforcement branch to carry out the longstanding ban on other immigrants. The purpose of the law was "to preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity." Congressional opposition was minimal.

After dinner my friend reminded me that although he was a registered Democrat he always votes his conscience "like all learned people do" as he put it. In his younger days he cast a ballot for the second George Bush because "he's the kind of guy you could have a beer with." That in itself didn't bother me except when you think about it that means he also voted for Dick Cheney.