Remembering history the way they wished it had been
No, Actually 
In retirement, as in his latter years in office, George W. Bush remains among our most dispised Presidents. Â And of our current living legends, Bush is number one, surpassing the hated Jimmy Carter in least liked-ness.
Presidential reputations are of course confections of whimsy and make believe, so hope lives, but the continued loathing of his big brother can only deepen the despair of Jeb “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” Bush.
Diamond Lame 
The Washington Post’s awful Op-Ed page has long been an embarrassing collection of right wing hacks “correcting” the Post’s non-existent liberal bias, leavened with torture enthusiasts both right and “centrist.”
Now we have fresh evidence where the rot begins.
All choked up over Queen Elizabeth’s looming Diamond Jubilee, Op-Ed Page Editor Autumn Brewington has come out with a wistful plea against democracy, yearning for the “above party” magic only royals can provide.
Just how Britain surmounts unsightly  “partisan gridlock” is unexplained,  but this yearning for conflict-free governance is endemic in thoughtful Washington. Utopian “realism” free from any actual analysis of either issues or the structure of American government, the transcendence Brewington pines for usually means bemoaning how stalemate blocks us from “getting things done,” i.e., doing in Social Security.
 Wouldn’t You Like To Know!   
Gawker historian in residence John Cook has fun poking the National Archives for their deference to former greats.
The George W. Bush administration’s papers are squirrelled away, and no, you can’t see them till Bush is done with them.  Bush left office having made a hash of his electronic records, resisting disclosure to the end despite estimates  millions of emails had gone missing.  In retirement only Bush and Ghost Who Walks Cheney have access to the goods until 2014, so Cook has been mischievously asking what our betters have been asking the National Archives for, FOIA-ing the records of their document requests.
The Archives will have none of that nonsense. Â They’ve denied his request for what are clearly public records, showing a tender concern for Bush’s privacy not demonstrated by the man himself.
Archives have had a pattern of hiding their dealings with past greats, refusing historian Anthony Clark‘s requests for records on the foundations all the Presidential Libraries run to keep their guy’s image ever shinier.
Deference to greatness reached it’s apogee under the last Archivist of the United States. Bush appointee Alan Weinstein remained mute over the Bush email destruction by deed or sloth, and reacted to Bush’s grabbing censorship rights for ex Presidents and their decendants by inventing the happy club of “presidential families” who he hoped and prayed would do right by history and release the stranglehold on facts Bush granted them.
And then retired. Â Good to see the current team is upholding the tradition of cringing deference.
Back In Black? Â Â 
Salute to hardest working man in show business David Weigel, for spotting Michael Reagan’s latest cry for help.
Hopefully having exhausted the old “New Reagan” mine, the Ronald Reagan semi-scion’s increasingly desperate attention seeking has led him to tap new veins of comic gold, riffing off the Bill Clinton/First Black President meme.
Writing for Tiger Beat of the rhythm-less The Conservative Teen , the Toni Morrison of strained analogies digs deep.
Boldly so, considering President Reagan’s colorful past.
Michael Reagan is known for these fanciful histories, having previously analogised Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein.
Ronald Reagan, Praise Be Upon Him  
Who’s the silent partner, the ghost who walks at Republican presidential debates?
You know where this is going.
Talking Points Memo looks at the numbers, and finds Ronald Reagan way out in front in GOPer presidential debate mentions, with living fossil of the Reagan Era Newt Gingrich in a breathtaking name-dropping lead.
