Dick Goes Legit?
All is forgiven Wednesday as the Nixon museum wakes up part of the National Archives system.
It’s been a twisted path. Congress seized his papers in the wake of Watergate to prevent their destruction. Nixon sued, and he and later his estate carried on the titanic struggle for control. In the end the Feds paid him for $18 million for papers generated while he and his minions were on the public payroll.
The Archives was accused of assisting Nixon efforts to block access to the papers. And the deal to transfer now Archive owned papers to a gussied up and federalized Nixon museum hasn’t been seamless. Two years ago the Nixonians killed a Vietnam War conference it was to host but it’s all better now! This year the Nixon posted an item referring to Democrats as “sleeper cells,” but it was all in a spirit of fun and won’t happen again!
To celebrate it’s federalization the Nixon will be releasing new tapes and documents at 11 am EST Wednesday.
Watch the skies!
Lincoln Lore & Legends
Slate excerpts the Lincoln museum chapters of Andrew Ferguson’s “Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe’s America”
His summary of the Disney Treatment:
“In the end what you come up with is that he’s interesting because a lot of people over the past 150 years have been interested in him. He’s been hated and loved, pondered and studied, honored and mourned so intensely for so long that it doesn’t seem to matter why. He’s reached the zenith of American celebrity. He’s famous for being famous.”
Benched
The Ford museum is to acquire a bench from which to contemplate his grave, while a great 19th century Abolitionist’s statue may be bounced from Capitol Hill to make room for President What Exactly.
America’s least elected Chief Executive continues his steady march through the privileges often accorded real Presidents. Ford is already on the Hill in the Senate’s gallery of former Veeps. 
But now Michigan’s 70s nostalgia may bounce an actual historic figure for the nation’s highest placeholder. Senator Zachary Chandler was a Radical Republican who pressed President Lincoln to arm freed slaves against the South in the Civil War and led the fight against slavery in Washington DC.
Versus “everybody loves” Jerry Ford.
It doesn’t have to happen. Statue flipping only began in 2003 for Eisenhower. California is dumping one of it’s existing statues to make way for the beloved Ronald Reagan, but they’ve spared us Nixon so far. The Joint Committee on the Library of Congress has to sign off on switching, so enraged citizens could stop this travesty.
Don’t forget to spend big to save big at this weekend’s Ford-oramma catalog sale!
Book Report
Churchill’s megaphone moment? 
The Washington Post reports Monday that President Bush is taking time from his troubles to read as many as three George Washington biographies plus the now standard accounts of colonial disaster in Algiers and Churchill books. And meeting some of the authors.
Algeria! The road to victory lies ahead! There have been waves of interest in Alistair Horne, Bush’s Algeria man, along with the film “The Battle of Algiers.”
One clear lesson extracted is that enhanced interrogation methods are the way to go! 
The ceaseless search for Churchill analogies [Jack Kemp, the wilderness years] appears equally misbegotten. Bush’s reading includes an account of the plucky back benchers who made Churchill Prime Minister [rebel Tories, prefect!], except the author pissed all over Bush on Sunday.
