Obama and the ‘enemies list’

Is the Obama White House playing dirty in a Nixon-like fight against Fox News and other critics?

An "uneasy" Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has warned the president to stop channeling Richard Nixon’s paranoid administration, comparing the White House’s recent pushback against Fox News, the Chamber of Commerce, and Wall Street to "street brawling." (Watch highlights from Alexander's Senate speech.) Is the comparison ridiculous—or resonant?

Nixon was much worse: The Nixon-Obama comparison is “insane,” says Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. Obama’s team has made a few mild, justified attacks. Tricky Dick took revenge on an "actual enemies list" by spying on his foes and rifling through their tax and medical records. As Alexander would have it, Obama is stooping to that level merely by declining to "lose every fight."

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