By host Tom Ashbrook:

In the days of Richard Nixon’s “imperial presidency” and the epic Watergate scandal, John Dean was Nixon’s White House counsel, at the right hand of a president whose abuse of power led to disgrace and resignation.

Now, John Dean is charging that his old boss Richard Nixon’s abuse of power was peanuts compared to the executive power-grab he sees underway in the Bush/Cheney White House.

Today’s GOP leadership, charges Dean in a hot new book, is downright and dangerously “authoritarian,” leaving behind traditional conservative restraint in the exercise of government power. Leaving behind, charges Dean, American democracy and the US constitution.

Hear a conversation with John Dean who raises the alarm on “authoritarianism” in the USA.

Guests:

John Dean, former White-House counsel and best-selling author of “Worse than Watergate”;
Bruce Frohnen, co-editor of “The Encyclopedia of American Conservatism.”