I remember that August night, back in 1974. It was 34 years ago, tonight, that Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation from The Oval Office, and announced he was resigning. My father put his head in his hands, and said “Oh, my God – he IS a crook.” “Dad” I replied, “that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Nixon resigned, 34 years ago, because good and decent Republicans had had enough.

Good and decent Republicans called their elected representatives in the GOP Party, and those good and decent elected Republicans told Nixon’s Administration that enough was enough; it was time for the corruption to stop. Make no mistake; it wasn’t the Democrats in Congress that ended the Nixon Presidency; it was the good and decent Republicans in Congress that ended the cancer in government that Nixon represented.

Unfortunately, that cancer has returned to government, as the misAdministration of Bush The Lesser clearly demonstrates. Also unfortunately, it’s the Republicans in Congress that have allowed that to happen. Republicans in Congress by and large have abdicated their oversight responsibility and placed the Executive Branch and Republican Party’s interests over the Legislative branch’s and America’s interests. I’ve had the duty as a parent, to tell my children, that when I was a kid, our country’s president, Nixon, was a liar and a crook – as is the president of their childhood, George W. Bush. And unfortunately, Bush will end his term without resignation or impeachment; because today’s good and decent Republicans are silent as to this President, as are today’sr Republican Members of Congress.

Jim Ramstad is one of the most honest and ethical representatives to ever walk the halls and enter the chambers of the United States House of Representatives. For this, Republican Congressional Leadership rewarded him with back-bench status.

Now, one of the most partisan members to ever walk the halls and enter the chambers of the Minnesota State House, Erik Paulsen, seeks to replace Jim Ramstad – the good and decent Republican. I find it impossible to believe that not one good and decent Republican considered himself/herself worthy of replacing Ramstad. A congressional district where the winner of this year’s open seat can reasonably expect to serve a long career, as long as they serve honorably and ethically as Ramstad did, and Bill Frenzel before Ramstad, and Clark MacGregor before Frenzel, yet Paulsen goes unchallenged?

A lesson of Watergate and Nixon is that it was the good and decent members of the Republican Party that forced Nixon to resign. It’s too bad that lesson was lost, and today, on the 34th Anniversary of Nixon resigning, Erik Paulsen is the GOP candidate for Minnesota’s 3rd district. If you liked Richard Nixon; if you like George W. Bush and D*ck Cheney, you’ll love Erik Paulsen. The rest of us will be waiting for good and decent Republicans to reclaim leadership of that once “Grand Old Party.”

(cross posted at The Eden Prairie News)

(originally published at MnBlue.com)