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“I sometimes wonder if I was really there”

The Senior President Bush speaking for many Americans as he muses about the Oval Office at his reopened and gussied up Presidential Library.

“the president should remove his military uniform”

President Bush speaks out on Musharraf and Pakistan. [Thanks to Alexanders Archive for notion]

Slate’s “chatterbox” coumn [“Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics”] touched briefly on racism charges against Ronald Reagan but largely concerned itself with internal New York Times politics rather than the meat of story.

As Slate points out, Times columnist David Brooks indirectly attacked Times columnist Paul Krugman over the latter’s use of what Brooks calls a “slur.” The charge is that Ronald Reagan opened his campaign in Mississippi near where three civil rights workers were killed, and spoke coded appeals to racism by touting “state’s rights.” Brooks even dragged poor “even the liberal Kevin Drum” into his Reagan revisionism.

It’s a long way for a sandwhich, and Slate doesn’t really try to discuss the truth or not of Brooks’ “slur” charge.

Slate does link to Bob Herbert Times columns which go futher portraying what Reagan was up to. One column mentions Mississippi only in passing, training most of it’s fire on the history of Republican candidates and Bob Jones University.

The school still banned interracial dating when compassionate conservative George Bush dropped by in 2000, and a defensive university spokesperson pointed out that it was nothing new. Reagan was there first! He returned the favor once in office, backing the university against the IRS over keeping a tax exempt status while segregated.

And Krugman now mentions Bob Jones and a laundry list of Reagan racist moments in his blog.

Perhaps the lesson is that limiting yourself to what David Brooks wants to say about the history of Ronald Reagan, Republicans and race won’t get you far.

Hey! Lookie Here!

Former President George Bush parachutes into the reopening of his Presidential Library. It’s an apparent desperation bid for attention by the single term President whose museum is located off the beaten path in College Station Texas.

Presidential Libraries face declining attendance nationally, as do most museums.

What do you serve the Sultan of Oman and his enormous entourage for dinner? Who should sit next to a foreign dignitary who doesn’t speak a word of English? Why is it that there is always less silverware at the end of a state dinner than you had when the night began?

What is the audience for books asking such questions?

We’re about to find out. In the wake of her old clothes show at the Reagan Library, America’s Widow is collaborating on a tome promising to answer these urgent needs.

“Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan” hurtles us back to that magical time, when a pre-comeback John Travolta danced with Princess Di in the East Room, when triangular trade in weapons and hostages between the US, Nicaragua and Iran could seem to be a ‘pretty good idea.” Anything seemed possible!

Apparently the White House had been overrun by hippies and hillbillies, and FFL Nancy Reagan cleared the stables.

“Mrs. Reagan embraced this role with a unique energy and joie de vivre rare among her predecessors, and she has been waiting for the right moment in history to share her stories.”

Lest we forget…