New Nixon Tapes Reveal Nixon to Be Even More Nixony Than You Thought

Ugh, Richard Nixon, really? Really? Did you really have to go so far out of your way to be so much like everybody's image of you?

The New York Times' Charlie Savage reports on one recorded conversation the day that the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade was handed down. Nixon didn't make a public statement, but privately, he worried that the greater legality of abortion would lead to "permissiveness," saying that abortion "breaks the family."

However, Nixon said, "There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white… Or a rape."

Obviously, an abortion would be necessary if it was a half-white/half-black freak of nature. I mean, I don't think anybody would argue with that? But a rape baby? Do we know what university the rapist attended? Do we know how he votes? These things matter.

On another tape, in a conversation with the Rev. Billy Graham, Nixon discussed complaints by some U.S. Jews about certain efforts to promote evangelical Christianity. "What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up,” Nixon said, according to Savage. Later in the conversation, he said, “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries."

Oh, those Jews and their death wishes. Always with the jumping into ovens and the smashing their heads into the butts of Russian soldiers' rifles. Oy vey!