My "New Nixon" Archives

Mainly as a placeholder for my own reference, here's a link to my posts at The New Nixon since we launched it a year ago next month.

Building Bridges (Of Good American Cardboard)

Ric Leczel, Museum Store manager at the Nixon Library, consults with the President

Eyes Closed, Gazing Ahead

"Hope," by my cousin, famed Hollywood photographer Ralph Nelson

SNL Writers Already On The Job

Better than anyone, the First Lady knew how her overachieving husband felt after muffing the oath of office. But what a human, endearing moment as he regathered his energies for his remarkable inaugural address. Godspeed, Mr. President.

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MSNBC says it was the Chief Justice who flubbed his lines:

Roberts, who used no notes, stumbled at one point, appearing to forget the opening words. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, made sure to insert the crucial phrase “that I will faithfully execute the office of president to the United States.”

Lake Forest Rules! Plus He Wore A Tie

Pastor Rick prayed an eloquent prayer, especially the "forgive us" litany and the acknowledgment that God loves all his people. He enunciated well saying Malia and Sasha.

People will inevitably debate his decision to end with the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught to his disciples and apostles. I prayed it with him. But many could not. Warren didn't mean to offend non-Christians. As a Southern Baptist, he meant to evangelize them. But in this sacred moment of national unity, to which he was called for civic and not religious purposes, a pastor essentially excluded millions of Americans.

The President-elect, his eyes closed, did not move his lips during the Lord's Prayer.

Profiles In Transition

The President-elect and President at the White House at about 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, waiting to be shown to their car for the drive to the Capitol.

44 In One

Rick Warren's Fangs

While Gustavo Arellano is proud that Orange County is on the cutting edge of American Christianity, he has some advice (and a prayer) for Pastor Rick Warren:

Saddleback Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, about as socially conservative a denomination as one can find. When Warren endorsed Proposition 8 last year, and seemingly endorsed bombing Iran when he told Sean Hannity that it was fine to punish "evildoers," he shed his sheep's clothing and bared the conservative fangs long associated with Orange County, much to the detriment of his ecumenical standing.

If Warren truly wants to become "America's pastor," he'll scale back on such bombastic rhetoric. Warren has the chance to redeem Orange County as a place not of avarice but of altruism, and to show that evangelical Christianity can come free of politicking and show genuine concern for all. I'm praying for you, Rick, to consider my words and help lead us to a better future, damn the differences.

HBO Ends Silencing Of Gene Robinson

The New York Times reports that HBO will include the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson's prayer in future showings of its program on Sunday's inaugural concert. The PE's inaugural committee took the heat for what it called an error. A video made by an audience member is below:

The Right Commutations At The Right Time

I can't count the number of heated arguments I've had about Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, the former DEA agents who were sentenced to over 10 years in jail after shooting and injuring a Mexican drug dealer in 2005. President Bush commuted their sentences today. My conversations have almost always end up as arguments not about the facts of the case but about illegal immigration, in the same way that most arguments about Richard Nixon end up being about Vietnam.

The U.S. attorney who prosecuted the agents, Johnny Sutton, has been pilloried on conservative talk radio for comments such as this:

These agents shot someone whom they knew to be unarmed and running away. They destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and then filed false reports about what happened. It is shocking that there are people who believe it is O.K. for agents to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away.

Knowing what we do about the drug dealer, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, it's easy to understand why angry people can justify the agents' shooting him, in the back, front, or sideways. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and many others said their sentences were excessive. Sutton himself suggested in 2007 that he agreed.

But Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) goes so far as to say that the pair were suffering an "unjust captivity." CBS News quoted him today as believing that the agents should never have been prosecuted. It's one thing to say the sentences may have been too severe. But for failing to follow proper procedures after the shooting, their own exculpatory accounts of the incident notwithstanding, they deserved to be punished.

Police officers often know who the bad guys are in the communities they serve. May the officers shoot them and then falsify their reports? Many evidently say yes. Gary Haugen, an evangelical Christian who founded the International Justice Mission, would probably say that he recognizes that contention. I'm sure he hears it all the time while working in Kenya, the Philippines, and other countries with imperfect legal systems, where the IJM provides legal representation both for crime victims and unjustly accused defendants. He's profiled in the Jan. 19 "New Yorker" by journalist and former Obama adviser Samantha Power, who writes:

Westerners across the political spectrum have only a vague sense of the breakdown of legal systems in poor countries -- as Haugen puts it, the rule of law is "the invisible oxygen we breath at home."

Listening to conservatives and even libertarians say that cheating cops shouldn't have been prosecuted, I feel the oxygen being sucked out of the room. The President made the right move at the right time. It is good the men are now free. They and all law enforcement officers should be honored for the endless risks they take to protect the public. Johnny Sutton did the right thing as well, holding them accountable for abusing the public's trust.