This post begins with Richard Nixon but it ends with a question for Senator Obama and the Democratic Party. After narrowly winning the presidency in 1968, President Richard M. Nixon decided to create and use various slush funds controlled exclusively by him to extend his political power by any means necessary. The first such fund, established in 1969, was entirely secret at the time, and its purpose was to raise money and funnel it toward Nixon loyalists (not Republicans, I stress, but Nixon loyalists), particularly those running in the 1970 mid-term elections. The narrowness of his 1968 victory made Nixon desperate to gain support for himself by exercising as much influence as possible over who got elected to Congress. (Incidentally, George H.W. Bush, then running for the Senate, was one of the major recipients of money from the Nixon slush funds.) After these forays into power by money grab, President Nixon and his aides formed CREEP (Committee to Re-elect the President) to aide Nixon's bid for reelection in 1972. CREEP engaged in any number of nefarious activities, most famously spending money it raised to hire those who broke into the Watergate to spy on the D.N.C and then using more money to hush-up the people who carried out the break-in. But months before all that, CREEP was spending money covertly in order to undermine Democrats in primaries around the country. In 1972, Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern in an utter landslide. This probably would have happened without CREEP's activities given that most of the country simply did not support McGovern's candidacy. Cut to the present and Senator Obama: More and more reports about Senator Obama's attempt to throw his weight around are emerging. One, from the Houston Chronicle, particularly put me in mind of Nixonian tactics. According to the Chronicle, an Obama superdelegate reports being threatened by an Obama "operative". The operative allegedly told the delegate that she had better vote in favor of a preferred Obama loyalist at the Texas Convention this weekend, or else Senator Obama's campaign would make sure she could not attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver even as an Obama delegate. As of now, nobody knows whether Senator Obama himself is behind this particular threat and the threat itself remains an allegation. But if Senator Obama is not behind it, should he not be using his much touted oratory to repudiate any and all such tactics? This country has been down this road before: an excessively monied politician using any means possible to increase his personal political power. In the 1970s, the country had to switch directions in the most difficult way conceivable: investigate a sitting President, discover he was a common crook, and then force his resignation. Today, we citizens have an alternative to risking this sort of horror show. The Republicans are offering the McCain alternative. If that alternative does not sit well with you, the Democratic Party still has the chance to offer the country a candidate other than Senator Obama: the Democratic Party still has the chance to reject Senator Obama as their nominee in August. Whether there will be another Democrat available and appealing to the voting public remains to be seen. [For further information about CREEP and other strategies adopted by President Nixon and his henchmen, one can go here.]