So Long, Suckers! 
The State of the Union is an annual orgy of history in the making, or at least struck glancing blows. National treasure James Wolcott spun the dial to join in the fun, and his rage was stoked by the performance of Jacob Weisberg and Doris Kearns Goodwin in one post speech historama.
“I watched a large chunk of the Charlie Rose post-SOTU all-star cud-chew last night during which [Jacob] Weisberg expressed mild surprise that Bush hadn’t sounded “more conciliatory” in his final address. I was surprised that Weisberg was surprised, expressing my surprise by muttering aloud just soft enough so the cats wouldn’t hear, “Diphead, what did you expect? That he would make nice now having gotten his way through arrogance and imperious piety ever since 9/11? He makes cracking down on earmarks a show of manhood, and you think he’s going to introduce softer colors into his palette and fluffier textures as he struts out the door into History’s sunlit parlor? Have you no psychological acumen whatsoever, man?”
“…even Weisberg wasn’t nearly as annoying as fellow panelist Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has become a major irritant with her girlish enthusiasm and goody bag of presidential anecdotes that she dispenses to humanize everybody on the same glorious continuum, as if the crimes and calamities of Vietnam and Iraq were crucibles of character-building for our chief executives, the crowded backdrops to personal tragedy and greatness. (So many faraway nobodies have to die so that History can come alive.)”
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Just Do It 
They’ve moved beyond anger to angry resignation at Southern Methodist University, and the SMU Daily Campus just wants their long university nightmare to end.
From their editorial “Enough is Enough“.
“It’s like we are stuck in a horrible time warp where nothing is being done but we have to keep pretending that the Bushes could pack up their books and go elsewhere.
They aren’t. No one else wants the library at this point. Or the Bushes for that matter.
For better or worse, it will be at SMU.
So just end the needless suspense. Get it over with. Build the stage, inflate the balloons, bake the cake and get the shiny shovels out of storage for another groundbreaking ceremony.
Do it and do it now before SMU becomes as big a joke as the president is.”
Man With a Plan 
Not satisfied with claiming executive powers based on fanciful yet secret legal reasoning and “losing” millions of White House emails, the Bush White House has moved to bury a small advance for the public’s prying eyes.
New Freedom of Information Act legislation created an office to track FOIA requests and promote greater transparency. So Bush’s new budget would dump it in the Justice Department, which among other things defends agencies sued for denying FOIA requests.
Done and Done!
Memories Are Made of This 
Maryland State Senators are mobilizing to make Ronald Reagan Day a beloved state tradition every February 6th, and they are straining for personal anecdotes.
Senator Roy Dyson is a former Congressman bumped down to the minors. He told legislators a touching tale of Reagan gift cuff-links, but the effect was diminished by Dyson’s sloth.
“I have a pair of cufflinks, he gave them to me and asked me to give them to my father who was dying that year,” said Roy Dyson, who brought the slightly rusty cufflinks to show the committee but forgot them in his car.”
Virginia too looks ahead. The House of Delegates voted for a state Ronald Reagan Day, with a single dissenting vote. The reward for Delegate Lionell Spruill was to be mocked by family values Republicans for sponsoring a bill to prohibit motorists demonstrating their manhood by hanging rubber testicles beneath their vehicles.
Georgia is also addressing the loss of America’s President
. The Georgia Senate voted for a lengthy resolution crediting the late communicator with all things sunny and bright, with a shout out last clause alerting the fount of naming-anything-stationary-and-some-that-aren’t for Reagan, Grover Norquist:
“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project.”
Delaware too has fallen to the forces of infectious optimism, and the Wisconsin House passed a resolution with some dissent. With Reaganesque inattention to detail.
“Despite all the rhetoric, no one in that hallowed chamber pointed out that the resolution was to recognize “Feb. 6, 2007″ as Reagan day.”
01/30/07 Update:
Dover Delaware joins the parade.
Utah pauses to remember, although they seem a little uncertain:
“He seemed to speak with passion…”
Local Hero 
President Bush has hinted before that he’ll live in Dallas after this year, but he’s dropping more. 
He referred to Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert at a recent meeting, saying “I have to be good because my mayor is in the room.” The Presidential Library presumptive at SMU continues to be plotted behind closed doors, and the temporary home for his archives has been rented in a Dallas suburb. 
He should be able to find a house. The region is a national leader in home foreclosures.
