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DeFrank Talk

Reaction to Tom DeFrank’s Gerald Ford tell-all “Write It When I’m Gone” shows an interesting split.

When Ford reinforces conventional wisdom it’s shouted from the rafters:

Rudy: strong. Bill: can’t keep it in his pants.Hillary: pushy dame.

But when Ford speaks ill of the dead turned plaster saint, not so much:

“A superficial, disengaged, intellectually-lazy showman who didn’t do his homework and clung to a naive, unrealistic, and essentially dangerous worldview. Foreign leaders have said they were appalled by Reagan’s lack of knowledge of the issues.”

From the Ford Presidential Library:

Man and mementos

The Associated Press presents Barry Landau as international man of mystery, dancing with queens and first ladies when he isn’t precociously worming his way into an Eisenhower White House invitation. Since then they claim he has been operating at the nexus, working the fulcrum, and in and of himself representative of the convergence of all we hold dear in politics and entertainment.

And snagging a lot of tchotskis over the years. Some of his collection will be reflected in “The President’s Table: 200 Years of Dining and Diplomacy,” first of a threatened three volumes of Presidentish stuff.

“He’s the kind of guy you may not notice in the pictures with celebrities. He is 59 and has been in the company of presidents for nearly 50 years. He is tall and bearded, with a home full of history and a head crammed with names, like boxes in an overstuffed closet ready to tumble out.”

One name that doesn’t tumble out in AP’s account is Hamilton Jordan.

Landau was supporting witness to allegations that Jimmy Carter Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan used cocaine during a visit to Studio 54, the New York nightclub which from almost any perspective symbolized everything wrong with America in the 70s.

Drugs were the least of their problems

Club owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager faced prison for tax evasion, and offered up Jordan’s name as plea bargain bait. Their attorney was sinister New York fixer Roy Cohn, Joe McCarthy’s former counsel.

Cohn, clubbing.

The Special Counsel* appointed to investigate the allegations rejected them, and found Landau to be, shall we say, a questionable witness:

“There were only three people who claimed to have direct information concerning Mr. Jordan’s alleged use of cocaine in Studio 54: Rubell, Johnny C., and one Barry Landau. As witnesses, the most charitable thing that could be said about them was that they were utterly unbelievable….Landau claimed that on the evening of June 27, 1978, while at Studio 54, Mr. Jordan asked him for cocaine. Despite what he had said on the 20/20 program, however, when we pressed him, he did not claim to have any knowledge that Mr. Jordan in fact took cocaine that night. Landau said he did not hear Mr. Jordan ask Rubell or anyone else for cocaine, did not hear any other discussions about cocaine, and did not see Mr. Jordan or any other member of the Jordan group take cocaine. He also said that prior to August 24, 1979, he was never told by Rubell or anyone else that Mr. Jordan had taken cocaine in his visit. Landau declined to be interviewed by the FBI about June 27, 1978.20…Although Landau said that other persons were with Mr. Jordan that evening when Mr. Jordan asked Landau for cocaine, each of those persons explicitly denied that Mr. Jordan asked anyone for cocaine in his presence. I had very serious doubts about Landau’s credibility under any circumstances.”

None of this stops Landau on the book tour. He’s planning to hit the Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Bush Presidential Libraries, and for some reason doing both the Ford Archive and Ford Museum on separate days.

Somehow he is skipping the Carter Library.

*Youngsters may not recall, but one part of the hell that was the 70s was the appointment of Special Counsels at the hint of White House impropriety.

Who do you trust for your Peeping Toms of History needs?

Solely on the basis of a poking around Gerald Ford’s house I’d have to give it to the kids in Redmond.

Virtual Globetrotting sleuths tlp333 and TexasAndroid do a Google/Microsoft LiveSearch side by side, and Livesearch offers by far the crisper image, at least for the late President’s California home.

The winner.

No cigar.

Local conditions may very!

He corresponds with ordinary citizens by email, and actually lives on his ranch. The ranch is home to his Presidential Library, inspired by fellow thespian-politician Ronald Reagan.

But this former President can’t leave home. He’s under house detention. And running spies in the White House.

Former Philippine President and action star Joseph Estrada is popularly known as ERAP. He’s confined to his ranch, appealing his conviction on corruption charges. His films portrayed him as a sort of Filipino everyman. Jokes about him litter the Internet. His term was interrupted by a 2001 soft coup after impeachment efforts failed, and prosecutors have pursued him for crimes in office. He is suspected of ties to counter coup plotters.

Two spies who funneled information from Vice President Cheney’s office to Estrada and other Philippine opposition figures were sentenced to six and ten year terms.

Estrada says his presidential library and museum was inspired by a pilgrimage to Simi Valley, and his too features his film career and an enourmous bronze statue of himself.

Competing with his attraction is the better known Imelda Marcos shoe collection.

Estrada’s Vice President succeeded him and still serves, and is now flirting with a Fordist wound healing pardon.