Retired Gen. Wesley Clark and former Richard Nixon White House Counsel John Dean speak to the Malibu Democratic Club at its annual fundraiser.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Accusations that the Bush administration has greatly overstepped its boundaries of power and that the Democrats have not done enough to properly challenge this were the themes at Sunday’s Malibu Democratic Club fundraiser. The 150 people in attendance heard from Richard Nixon White House Counsel-turned-Watergate prosecution informant John Dean, as well as former presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark at the home of Dr. A. S. Marwah.
Dean, who has authored three books about the Bush administration and modern day conservative Republicans, said 2004’s “Worse Than Watergate” should have actually been called “Much Worse Than Watergate.”
“Not withstanding the litany of activities that fall under the so-called Watergate abuses, nobody died under those abuses,” Dean said. “Nobody was tortured. Millions of Americans didn’t have their electronic communications with foreign countries under surveillance without a warrant.
“We’re playing in a very different league, very different, way beyond Richard Nixon’s dreams,” Dean added.
As a White House counsel, Dean was involved in the Watergate scandal, and eventually testified before the Senate Watergate Committee, implicating members of the Nixon administration, including himself and the president. Dean spent about eight months in prison for his involvement. The Beverly Hills resident has gone on to become a successful businessman and writer.
Describing himself as a Barry Goldwater conservative, Dean said the conservative leadership today has “gone so far to the right that I don’t even recognize it.” He said the leaders of the Republican Party today have an authoritarian personality and “want to hear no other views.” Through secrecy and a failure to be transparent, the Republican leaders, Dean said, have destroyed the political process. And, Dean said, the Democrats failed to point this out during the 2004 election.
“If Democrats refuse to call Republicans on what they’re doing to the process, we’re all in a whole heap of trouble,” Dean said.
Clark, a retired four-star general who led the Allied forces during the Kosovo bombings in 1999, talked about his time in Vietnam as a young commander of a company. When he was shot four times by a Viet Cong officer, he still continued to direct his men. Clark read a passage about this incident from his new book, “A Time to Lead.”
The 2004 Democratic presidential candidate said “a policy coup took place in this country.”
Wesley said that just prior to the first Gulf War, the George H.W. Bush administration had created a plan to overthrow the governments of Iraq as well as Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. This plan, Clark said, continued into the current Bush administration.
“While Democrats have been arguing about how many troops should be pulled out of Iraq, the Democrats have missed the whole point,” Clark said. ” It’s not about troops. It’s about a strategy that is illegal; a flight of fantasy, not a strategy. And we have to speak up and stop it, and stop it now.”
Clark said the administration is committed to this strategy, one that the leaders have failed to tell the American people. He predicted in six to eight months, with casualty numbers sliding, Bush will announce victory in Iraq, and then begin a troop withdrawal.
“Then he’s going to ratchet up the problem with Iran,” said Clark, who said this is the incorrect way to approach the situation.
“We’ve got to engage diplomatically with each of the nations in the region, including nations we don’t agree with,” Clark said. “We’ve got to hold back on the angry rhetoric against Iran. Let’s give diplomacy a chance to work. Let’s back our troops out in a way that protects America’s interest. Let’s put some real diplomatic muscle into bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Clark said if the United States takes that approach, it will be able to better face what he called the real challenge: deciding how the country will compete economically in a global environment “with new nations full of energy.”
“We’ve got unmet infrastructure needs, education needs, health needs,” Clark said. “We need a real energy policy in this country, and [we need to] put the emphasis on science and technology. There are so many things we should be looking at.”
Despite his disagreement with the current American strategy and its use of the military, Clark still encouraged young people to join the military, and for others to recommend their children and grandchildren do so.
“There’s not a single American who’s too good, too well brought up, too well educated to serve this country,” Clark said.
Those in attendance also heard from several representatives of the Democratic presidential candidates, with information booths.
Malibu actor Daniel Stern served as master of ceremonies at Sunday’s event. Stern said he grew up in an activist home in Washington D.C., and called Dean and Clark “two courageously heroic Americans.”
He went on to say that Democrats need to fight the Republican leadership, which he referred to as “semi-fascist.”
“We have to stand up and show we can take on these bullies before we take on the bullies of the world,” Stern said.