Richard Nixon’s Search For Love
18-Jan-09
No product moving opportunity is missed by the Nixon Library Foundation, whose latest email invites us to associate Richard Nixon and romance, with the sparkling addition of the right’s scariest harridan.
Remembering history the way they wished it had been
No product moving opportunity is missed by the Nixon Library Foundation, whose latest email invites us to associate Richard Nixon and romance, with the sparkling addition of the right’s scariest harridan.
Our glorious tradition of Presidential Libraries was of course launched by Franklin Roosevelt, who famously parked the first one in his yard, and had himself buried there to complete the pharaoh-fication.
The special localness of these little bits o’ greatness scattered over the landscape are celebrated by America’s leading purveyor of thoughtful presidential historian mush, David McCullough:
” it is valuable for anyone trying to understand the life of a particular president should come to the place that produced that human being, where his memory is part of the story of that place.“
Stirring words, except Reagan’s location is an accident of real estate after Stanford, where he had no ties, turned him down. Nixon crawled back to Yorba Linda after numerous rejections elsewhere, and Bush Sr is in College Station for ideological congruity, not any local ties.
The great tradition is coming to its logical end at the FDR Library, where the seventy-five year old structure’s roof leaks, the wiring is shot, and damp threatens the Roosevelt papers. A $17 million fix is requested.
Just why this collection of randomly sited mini-archives must be maintained and expanded into perpetuity even as they are pilfered from within is unclear.
Long hinted, now we know: it’s back to Dallas for the George W. Bushs! The featureless plains of Texas and it’s sprawl will be graced by both home, ranch and Presidential Library after Bush’s retirement.
The then former President will join two other Sons of Texas who returned after troubled Washington tenures.
 One shipped back to Texas was Education Secretary Rod Paige, who faced allegations of faking Houston graduation rates before going to Washington, and who spent Department funds on illegal propaganda for “No Child Left Behind.”
 And proud Dallasian Alphonso Jackson served as Housing & Urban Development Secretary until his favoritism and pay for play faux pas brought him low.
Herbert Hoover As You’ve Never Seen Him Â
Times are tough in America’s Heartland, but plucky Midwesterners are buckling down.
Iowa’s Herbert Hoover National Historic Site has so few visitors that early this year it dropped it’s admission charge to save the money spent trying to collect it.
Hoover is a punching bag for all seasons. Distant relative Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the “Joe the Plumber” of the multiple homes set and deranged ex-Hillary supporter, used her faint connection to bolster the Obama-is-Hoover argument of the sinking McCain campaign.
Now the Hoover Museum on the Historic Site has turned to a beloved folk figure to try and drag in some bodies.
Elvis-themed Christmas trees are somehow to draw the otherwise Hoover-averse to the Hoover Museum within the Historic Site.
The New Nixon reports on efforts to protect the Nixon birthplace from fire, with continuous hosing down by Nixon Foundation staff.