Frost/Nixon

We saw Frost/Nixon last night. I liked it fine, most particularly Frank Langella's turn as Tricky Dick (his best performance since he choked Lena Olin to death with her pentacle necklace in The Ninth Gate).

But of course Frost/Nixon is not merely about Watergate--like the best of historical fiction it reflects current situations, and reminds us what happens if you fail to prosecute high crimes and misdemeanors by high officials: their henchmen come back with the same ideas and even more disregard for the law. They ran covert and illegal foreign policy out of the White House under Reagan, alongside domestic propaganda operations on a grand scale. And George H.W. pardoned them all and Clinton had no will to go after the bastards.

Now Obama is signaling that he likely won't go after another crew of lawbreakers, many of whom are recurring characters from Nixon's time like Cheney and Rummy. Where Nixon was compelled by courts and Congress to cease and desist and finally to resign, cats like Cheney just ignored the courts and said "fuck you" literally to Congress. It's dangerous to let their crimes go unpunished.

Each time one of these "I must break the law to protect the Republic" Caesars comes along, we lose our Republic. Next time we might not get it back.