I Am Not A Crook

Compared to George W. Bush, that is.

Via This Week In Peace History, on August 8, 1974, Richard M. Nixon resigned from office.


As the Washington Post reported at the time, Nixon Resigns:

After two years of bitter public debate over the Watergate scandals, President Nixon bowed to pressures from the public and leaders of his party to become the first President in American history to resign.

"By taking this action," he said in a subdued yet dramatic television address from the Oval Office, "I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America."

* * * *

Mr. Nixon said he decided he must resign when he concluded that he no longer had "a strong enough political base in the Congress" to make it possible for him to complete his term of office.

Declaring that he has never been a quitter, Mr. Nixon said that to leave office before the end of his term " is abhorrent to every instinct in my body."

But "as President, I must put the interests of America first," he said.

Can you ever imagine George Bush putting the interests of America over his own interests? Like many of our constitutional rights, it seems like such a quaint concept.

Nixon officially left office at noon on August 9th.