Brazen example

Law | As debate mounts over an FBI raid on a legislator’s office, some legal scholars question President Bush’s unprecedented intervention | Clint Rainey

One of the boldest of President Richard Nixon's bold acts during the Watergate imbroglio was to interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation (ultimately of himself) by firing the special prosecutor, who had subpoenaed the infamous presidential audiotapes.

When Nixon's attorney general, Elliot Richardson, protested the firing, Nixon forced him to resign, with the deputy attorney general following on his heels. When the dust cleared from the "Saturday night massacre," as reporters called it, Nixon had dismissed the prosecutor, but his entire administration was on its head.

President Bush had different motives when he intervened last Thursday with a 45-day "cooling-off" period in the ongoing Justice Department investigation of bribery involving a U.S. congressman, but he may have paved the way for Nixonian comparisons. Especially in light of this: Preceding, possibly prompting, President Bush's call for the month-and-a-half delay were threats of resignation from his own attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, deputy attorney general, Paul McNulty, and even FBI director Robert Mueller.