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Nixon & Morris, Together At Last

Why exactly? 

The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is officially out of anything to say about the departed leader’s presidency, or anything else of interest.

To mark the occasion the Library is opening an exciting new exhibit of Motorcycle inspired art this weekend. Rounding out their total exaustion of ideas is a concert by moldy Seventies hair farmers Little Feat.

The Matching Shirt Era  

Buds 

Drowsyobserver has an excellent find from the Clinton Library, in which we discover the silver fox’s heretofore unexplored relationship with the beloved Tony Orlando of sitcom television, Tony Danza.

Museum Makeover!

Nigeria’s Comeback Kid, former military dictator and elected president Olusegun Obasanjo continues scheming to gussy up his Presidential Library.

His efforts to scam a major cultural archive away from Nigeria’s Osun State have now attracted a lawsuit fronted by Nobel Laurette Wole Soyinka.

Obasanjo’s place opened earlier this year, but he’s now bringing in the godfather of presidential librarying, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, for a re-do.

The Applebaumers have done all the greats, from the Holocaust Museum to Bill Clinton. But what may serve them best with the Obasanjo account is Applebaum’s work on the “Deng Xiaoping Former Residence Conservation Area.”

Here the dark presidential arts are mobilized to cutesy up Mao’s successor, the father of China’s lurch into capitalism with fascist characteristics. The museum promises to

“vividly and roundly represent the glorious and legendary life of Deng Xiaoping and revive the true history before visitors by reproducing one important historical event after another.“

Climaxing in something called “Howdy, Xiaoping!”

And the inevitable touchstone, some old car loosely associated with the deceased.

The Donor Party

Beyond giving work to Congressional and Homeland Security investigators, the Bush Library pay to play scandal has generated renewed attention to just who pays for these hulking mausoleum/fun-zones. Past and future Librarians rush to assure us that none of that foreign cash shall corrupt our American values, at least not while we have a job.

The Bush policy is clear-ish:

“Faced Monday with a report that a rogue lobbyist urged an exiled Central Asian leader to support the Bush library to curry favor in Washington, library officials promised that no foreign money will be accepted until President Bush leaves office. On Tuesday, it became clear the public will have to take them at their word…The foundation isn’t promising to identify all donors, or the dates and sums of their gifts.”

While the Clinton camp took a bold stance on the past, before retreating into mist:

“President Bill Clinton didn’t accept donations from foreign governments for his presidential library while he was in office, Skip Rutherford, who was president of the Clinton Foundation in 2000, told us. Rutherford couldn’t remember if the policy meant donations from foreign citizens also were prohibited.”

And we were reminded yet again why we have no Presidential Library disclosure law on the books:

It’s Tubular!