Favors, Favor Quotes
The First World War had recently ended with the mass of horrible casualties that resulted from the use of poison gas. Permanently debilitated veterans were trying to rebuild a life all over England. Many Englishmen wanted to ban English use of poison gas. Churchill objected as the Middle East was a cauldron of various forms of terrorism then in areas that the British were “responsible for” under the Peace Treaty. He argued that there was little difference be gas and shells, but that did not persuade many others. Churchill was outvoted and overruled and the British have never used poison gas since although they had a large supply and were prepared to use it in WWII if the Germans did. This quotation was a blot on Churchill’s reputation. One issue was whether or not it was human to use poison gas. Churchill was willing to say no where white Christians were concerned but was perfectly willing to use them on the “uncivilized”.
At the time many of the powerful and influential upper class felt that some of the laws did not necessarily apply to them or their corporations. They bribed legislators to change laws when they were inconvenient to ignore. Roosevelt was the first President to take them on.
Two openings appeared on the Supreme Court for Nixon to fill. He heard from many people on recommendations, but he wanted to fill the posts with “strict constructionists.” Rehnquist had written giving him a political operational definition of a strict constructionist. This memo was never released to the public by the White House on the grounds that it was protected by Executive Privilege. However, the definition given had virtually nothing to do with the concept of strict construction but is a definition of a ideological conservative constructing his own meaning to the Constitution. The source for the text came from John Dean, the Counsel to the President, who found this memo in his White House file and revealed it at a question and answer session at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, October 10, 2001.
