Summary
The Justice Department’s decision to dismiss bribery charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams has led to a wave of resignations, tripling those of the 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre.”
Six senior officials, including Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, stepped down in protest, citing concerns over political interference.
Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the dismissal, arguing the case was “weaponization” of the justice system.
Legal experts see parallels to past executive overreach, raising alarm over the independence of the Southern District of New York.
Personally, I find it simply amazing that Watergate is thought of as the worst thing in recent memory, when Iran/Contra is right fucking there. I think Iran/Contra is more instructive in how Republicans of today behave.
Basically, no one at the very top paid the price. Ronnie Raygun got to ride off into the sunset, even if he was hated at the time, to have the Strategic Forgettery Crew work in the decades since to resurrect his “memory”, in a very Orwellian fashion.
Even naming shit after that fucker. They still want that criminal on currency. And that’s with him having the most criminal administration in history - at least up until donvict. I don’t know how donvict’s first term or the second stacks up to Ronnie Raygun’s criminal legacy.
There are different types of worst.
Watergate was a different type of worst than Iran/Contra, and vis versa.
Not everything is the same, and no one should group every event in history together as one thing.
I think Iran/Contra was one of the first incidents where the media did quite a lot to paper over the issue. Statements were made like how “tired” the American people were of scandal and so on, given all the things found in the 1970s (I’m sure the people that lived through seeing MLK, JFK, and RFK assassinated, then seeing things like Nixon’s Watergate and the Church Committee’s findings did go through quite a lot, but Iran/Contra hearings were over a decade later than Watergate) and how “America” did not want to go through such things, etc…
I think if the media had given both of these things equal treatment, rather than trying to run cover for the Republicans because of some supposed public sentiment they were sensing in the nation, impressions might be quite a bit different now. I don’t think Watergate should be the metric every scandal since then, but this is probably the continuing influence of boomers, thinking the very worst thing(s) happened when they were in their formative years, rather than looking at the actual crimes involved and how one might have had far broader implications than the other…
I guess the other thing to consider is that you can slap “gate” on virtually anything and people know what you mean. You could try slapping “tra” or “ontra” on things maybe but most people won’t understand the reference. Sadly.