Challenging Patriarchy, And In This Case, Facts

You can’t kill a tale this good with facts.
From the Feminists Bloggers Network:
“While John McCain is eagerly embracing Bush and vowing to continue Bush’s failed policies, it may be a good idea to remember what Ronald Reagan thought of the Little Bush:
“A moment I’ve been dreading. George brought his n’er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida; the one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I’ll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they’ll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.”
From the REAGAN DIARIES——entry dated May 17, 1986
So this is the guy we had shoved down our throats and who John McCain wants to emulate?
Time for the voters to reject the failed Bush/McCain policies.”

Bookish 
Thomas Jefferson continues to get bad press over slavery and his domestic entanglements, but everybody loves a reader!
The Washington Post reports on efforts by the Library of Congress to recreate Jefferson’s library, purchased in the rebuilding of the institution after the British burned much of Washington DC. Much of Jefferson’s library itself burned in a later fire.
The L of C has managed to replicate most of the tomes, and is opening an exhibit to show them off.
Literary Round-Up 
The Library continues to operate the “Thomas” legislative facts and stats site, a tragic leftover from the AskJeevesish
anthropomorphic era of cute web names.
The New Nixon blog is a last holdout for Nixon loyalists, the brave band who followed him into exile and the world of deferential memorializing.
Frank Gannon is of this band of brothers [Diane Sawyer and Monica Crowley having gone to glory elsewhere], and in the New Nixon Gannon displays once more the epic tone deafness of Nixon and his minions.
Gannon’s post on Politico‘s “50 Greatest Political Moments“starts off making minor harrumphs over Nixon resignation details [at the time of His choosing!], then closes quoting approvingly from Politico‘s tear-stained account of Nixon’s last conversation with his 1968 rival.
On Christmas Day 1977 Hubert”He Showed Us How To Die” Humphrey was literally dying. He called Nixon and they chatted about their pasts. Humphrey assumed Nixon would be spending the holiday with his daughters, but Nixon choked up, confessing that he and Pat were alone. 
The story tells us not much on Humphrey, but a great deal about Nixon’s pathalogical inability to feel any emotion but self-pity.
The Steady Drip of Progress 
The billion dollar Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center was scheduled to open next month, four years after it’s planned opening.
But the launch is indefinitely postponed because of flood damage stemming from a leaking coffee maker.
The hospital will [eventually] stand in proud company with Washington’s Ronald Reagan Building, the most expensive federal office building ever built.
OOOOOH!
Thanks to the impish pranksters at boingboing for steering us to Adie Russell, who for some reason lip-sinks to old tapes of Richard Nixon among others.
It can only be described as disturbing. 
Nixon appeared on the Merv Griffin Show [Roger Ailes, Producer] as part of his New Nixon build up to 1968. Griffin asked the candidate about being a little shopworn, and Nixon responds with two timeless strategies: praise for the thoughtfulness of the question followed by changing the subject.
“GRIFFIN: But you must be aware of an undercurrent with politicians, with people in our business, even comedians who refer to Richard Nixon as a loser. You have that stigma because of losing two big contests. How do you plan to combat that? You must be aware that that’s been said. It’s been written about in newspapers.
RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sure. I think it’s a legitimate question that should be raised by those who are trying to find the strongest possible candidate and the way you combat it is to win something.”
It’s not in that little transcript snippet I’ve found on-line, but Nixon’s soon off into audience testing early drafts of his ’68 acceptance speech complaint that “when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration – then it’s time for new leadership for the United States of America.”