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Happy Feet

He’s taking on a sitting President. After that the parallels kind of trail off, but Reagan is where you seek Him.

Jacob Zuma is expected to win a convention vote for African National Congress party president Monday, defeating South African President Thabo Mbeki, and almost assuring that Zuma will succeed Mbeki in South Africa’s next election.

For some the segue from “California Here We Come” to “Bring Me My Machine Gun” is hard, but a South African Business Day writer can’t resist the infectious optimist of the Southern Hemisphere.

“Zuma will probably be okay. He’s our Ronald Reagan, a good ol’ boy, at home in a suit in the corridors of power or sipping home brew out of a paint tin with his cousins in the kraal at Nkandla. Reagan was arguably the most successful postwar US president. He didn’t so much energise America as relax it. We could do with that here, too.”

If Reagan doesn’t work for you, take heart. Zuma’s also been called the Comeback Kid.

We Got Ours

The Washington Post has returned once more to the Clinton Library, with a willfully obtuse roundup of the usual crimes:

Did You Know He Collected Arab Money?

Let us certify that fundraising for these entities is, was, and shall forever be a scandal and a shame upon the nation,

That said, the Post largely recycles The New York Sun’s three-year old discovery of names, nations and amounts.

Then it’s on to the Clinton as a campaign issue, and one strong voice:

“Obama has introduced legislation that would require disclosure of all contributions to presidential libraries, including Clinton’s, and Congress has actively debated such a proposal. Unlike campaign donations, money given to presidential libraries is often done with limited or no disclosure.”

True as far as it goes, but with enough information left out to bend reality. Obama is not alone in this. The House has passed a bill, as has the relevant Senate Committee after Republican quibling. In the end the Houses may split on this, as they have in the past. Obama’s support, while a fine thing, did pretty much jack to move the bill.

The Post revisits the greatest Clinton hits yesterday and today.

They resurrect the Louie Freeh’s tale that Clinton passed up asking the Saudis about the Khobar Towers investigation in order to hit them up for Library cash. But the Post itself reported that Freeh wasn’t at the meeting he claimed to have heard this at.

While dissing the Clinton Library for not disclosing donors, including the ever-festering wound that is Marc Rich, they paint the Bush Library as almost an open book by contrast:

“Except for a few donors who asked to remain anonymous, the Bush contributors have been named publicly, and the names of the largest among them are either chiseled into a wall or onto the bricks of a walkway at the library in Texas.”

One exception being the million dollars crazed Korean Holy Man, felon, and seer, the Reverand Sun Myung Moon funneled the Bush Library in secret.

The York Pennsylvania National Watch & Clock Museum is thinking big, readying an exhibit of presidential time pieces.

The topic has exploded in recent years, from interest in Bill Clinton’s Ironman, to George Bush’s watch theft [or not] in Albania, to…well that about does it.

The Museum starts off with four items: a pocket-watch and clock from James Monroe, a Gerald Ford clock, and for the young people, Julie Nixon Eisenhower’s wristwatch.

How to fill the gaps? Relying on the people!

” the museum is looking for people in the region who might have presidential clocks and watches that they’d loan to the cause.”

Who’ll Watch the Watches?

Sword of the Republic,Sheathed

The Washington Post sends us hurtling back in time to the white hot passions of the Clinton Impeachment Trial. One time Impeachment Trial Manager James Rogin lost his House seat in the wake of the trial, and is now a state judge in California.

He’s been reaching out to Bill Clinton, in what the Post presents as a comeback strategy in service of Rogin’s wish to be a federal judge. He sent Clinton photographs and impeachment memorabilia, and after Clinton’s heart surgery Rogin sent a copy of his book and flowers. Clinton responded with graceful thank you notes.

“It’s almost as if Rogan has been slowly apologizing over the past decade for his role in the impeachment, a critical reason for his defeat in the 2000 elections. It also may well cost Rogan, now a California state judge, a lifetime appointment to the federal bench…More than thank-you notes, Rogan needs Clinton’s blessing to move forward his nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.”

But then the paper mentions Rogin’s real problem, the block on his nomination by California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

“She declines to say whether her distaste for the impeachment crusade against Clinton has anything to with her opposition to [Rogin’s] nomination…Boxer’s spokeswoman, Natalie Ravitz, tells On the Hill that it’s all about Rogan’s anti-liberal record on the environment, guns and labor, which she said is “completely out of sync” with California.”

So the Post tells a lovely story, with no there there. How sucking up to Clinton, who has no Senate vote, advances Rogin is mysterious.

And why Boxer, whose daughter is divorced from Clinton’s brother-in-law, would be won over by flowers for Bill is unclear.

The Boxer Rodham’s, In Happier Times

Rogin ends up trading flowers, remaindered books and Lindsey Graham souvenirs for Clinton autographs with real market value.

Bill’s Back and Oprah’s got him

Re-running her legendary September interview, America’s Quizmaster grills Bill on just how come he gives away all his money?

Plus, the former fatty discusses his campaign against childhood obesity on the nation’s lardiest holiday.

The Big Wind

Meanwhile, the Clinton Foundation joins the tidal wave of Thanksgiving holiday recipe and advice giving, offering broadly sensible tips while targeting canned cranberries for annihilation.

Umm, Death Sauce