Only true history nerds will recognize that on this day in 1973 President Richard Nixon (1913-1994) set in place the events we now call the Saturday Night Massacre.

In 1972, during President Nixon’s reelection campaign, five men were arrested for breaking into Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington DC. They were attempting to bug the phones and gain intelligence on the campaign of the President’s opponent, Senator George McGovern (1922-2010).

And while President Nixon was reelected in 1972, the investigation of the break in grew in the minds of many Americans. By May of 1973 Congress began holding hearings and President Nixon (under pressure) appointed Archibald Cox (1912-2004) to investigate what we all began to call “Watergate.”

But Mr. Cox soon began to investigate whether or not President Nixon drove a coverup by bribing the original defendants to quietly plead guilty in return for cash and not implicating anyone else. President Nixon spent the summer of 1973 growing angrier and angrier over the investigation. On Saturday, October 20, 1973 he directed his Attorney General Elliot Richardson (1920-1999) to fire Mr. Cox. General Richardson refused to do so and resigned. President Nixon then ordered General Richardson’s deputy, William Ruckelshaus (b.1932) to fire Mr. Cox. Mr. Ruckelshaus also resigned. Finally Solicitor General Robert Bork (1927-2012) fired Mr. Cox.

Instead of ending the scandal it intensified it. Pressure grew on President Nixon, and on August 8, 1974 he resigned.

I write this not out of nostalgia for events 45 years ago, but because we’re seeing frightening parallels today. President Nixon ordered a coverup of events intended to ensure his reelection. Many of us believe that in 2016 then candidate Donald Trump conspired with Russia to provide false information to convince American voters to vote for him.

President Nixon spent the rest of his life convinced that he did nothing wrong and his enemies were out to get him.

As I said, the parallels are frightening.

Since the formation of our nation we’ve depended on good men and women who worked to make certain our government functioned and provided the service we depend on.  From the earliest days of the Post Office to the modern protection offered by the Department of Homeland Security we the people have been served well.  They’ve protected us from danger here at home and abroad.  They’ve insured that we have what we need in retirement. They’ve provided health care for the poor and food for hungry students.

But alongside this it’s been fashionable to see government employees as stupid and lazy. Full disclosure: my father worked for the government from 1950 to 1988 and my sister has worked for the government since 1984. These irresponsible charges have always annoyed me, but the administration of President Trump has dramatically increased this nonsense. I’ve spoken about his promise to drain the swamp and his belief that career government employees make up a deep state intent on frustrating his agenda. He doesn’t recognize the damage he is causing.

I was thinking about his I was listening to an interview of Michael Lewis. He is publicizing his new book The Fifth Risk. He argues that the Trump administration has no idea how to govern.

In the course of the interview he was asked this question: “So has your understanding of our bureaucracy changed through writing these stories? You can read the transcript of the entire interview here.

The transcript is verbatim and I’ve cleaned it up for this, but here is what he says:

Oh, my God. I didn’t know what I was going to find when I started knocking on the door of the Energy Department or the Agriculture Department or the Commerce Department. And I turned out having exactly the same experience that political people have when they’re appointed to these jobs running these places and have these – some preconception but vague preconception of what the bureaucrats are like.

This happens over and over again. A new administration comes in. They have kind of a vague contempt for the people who are there. And four years later, they walk out and say those are the most amazing people I’ve ever worked with. I expected to be briefed and informed by these people. I did not expect to be inspired by them. The kind of person who is still working in our government despite all the abuse the government takes is a mission-driven person. They’re not paid well. They’re there because they’re interested in the task. The people in the National Weather Service are people who have had a passion for the weather since they were little kids.

The people in the Department of Energy are scientists who’ve had a passion for their particular science since they were little kids. Essentially they are firefighters in spirit. And there’s something really moving about groups of people who are doing what they’re doing not for money but for mission. They have a purpose in life. And it just jumps off the page. I mean it jumped into my mind dealing with them. And so I came away from it thinking, wow, I can’t believe we as a society have treated this slice of our society – these kinds of people, who are really the best among us, as badly as we have.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The resignation of US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy paved the way for President Trump to nominate someone who would advance his agenda. He did.

At first blush the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh appears to fit the bill. He’s young (53) and conservative and many on the right held out hope that he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that banned state laws that prohibited abortion.

Since the Senate needs to confirm any Supreme Court nomination by a simple majority and the Republicans have a majority over the Democrats, it appeared that Judge Kavanaugh should walk through the nomination and take his place on the bench.

But wait: It’s never that simple. Judge Kavanaugh attended high school and college in the 1980s, long before the #metoo movement. A few women accused him of sexual impropriety and he has denied these charges.

Unfortunately we’ve been this way before. In 1991, during the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas, we heard from Anita Hill who accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment when they worked together at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Many of us looked on the treatment of Ms. Hill with horror. At the time she was described as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty” and her courage was in vain. Mr. Thomas won confirmation and has served on the Court for the last 27 years.

Shortly after Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination we heard from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a psychologist who now lives in California. When she was 15 years old and in high school she claims she was at a party with 17 year old Brett Kavanaugh where he sexually attacked her. She testified that he drew her into an upstairs bedroom where he assaulted her. When she attempted to cry for help he covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming and she feared he would accidentally suffocate her. At the time she did not tell anyone for a well reasoned fear that her behavior would be called into question (“What where you wearing?” “Did you do anything that gave him the impression that you wanted it?” “Did you find him attractive?”).

Defenders of Mr. Kavanaugh claim that she remained silent until now as a conspiracy to prevent his nomination. This isn’t true. Dr. Ford’s testimony describes her speaking with her husband in 2012. When she and her husband renovated their home she demanded a second front door. This didn’t make any sense to her husband until she confessed to him and a marriage counselor that she wouldn’t feel safe without an alternative opportunity to flee the house and this traced back to her assault by Brett Kavanaugh. Yes, she identified him by name.

Dr. Ford hoped this incident would remain private but this summer she learned, to her horror, that Mr. Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court. She could have easily hid and pretended nothing happened, but she chose courage over comfort, patriotism over safety.

She had information about Mr. Kavanaugh that we didn’t and she felt she needed to share her story because it matters who sits on the highest court in the land. Like Anita Hill she had nothing to gain and everything to lose and yet she chose to describe her encounter with Mr. Kavanaugh.

And so she stepped forward. Along with many Americans, I found her credible.

Justice Kavanaugh responded as nearly everyone expected. He denied the assault and also denied he he has ever drank to the point where he doesn’t remember his behavior.

Others have testified that his consumption of alcohol during this time made his testimony false.

If Judge Kavanaugh had testified that his alcohol consumption in high school and college caused him to make poor decisions and sometimes not remember what happened that he now regrets, I could have supported him. If he had said that he doesn’t remember the incident but that he sometimes drank to the point of blacking out and he deeply regrets any pain he may have caused, I could have supported him. Had he said that he doesn’t remember assaulting someone but can’t claim it didn’t happen, I could have supported him.

But he didn’t. Instead chose the path of claiming to be a victim. He accused the Clintons of conspiring block his nomination.

Nominees for government office sometimes need to defend themselves and we all can remember times when we’ve all needed to fight for our reputation. But Judge Kavanaugh chose a low, low road. He didn’t just claim the charges were false, he claimed that those who believed Dr. Ford wished him evil. Clearly he was pandering to President Trump.

This should scare all of us. He may well serve on the Supreme Court for 30 or 40 years and he has shown us that his ambition outstretches his desire to serve the American people.