Now With Dignified Forms! 
The New York Times identifies a looming menace in presidential monumental-ism:Â a renowned architectural crackpot’s involvement in Washington’s prospective Adams family memorial.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr is a man with a mission: hurling architecture back in time to an era of stately forms, and a whole lot of pillars. Cook gave Atlanta a taste of Washington’s magic to come when he erected an enormous faux Arc de Triomphe plotzed amidst big box stores.
    The Adams monument got a boost when America’s Tom Hanks brought David McCullough’s stirring vision of our first one term president to tony HBO. Not since Ken Burns invented the letter-scan-with-voice-over shot has the written word exploded from the screen with such pith and power.
With Cook on board we can look forward to a monumental granite remembrance of flinty New Englanders Adams, the Mrs., and offspring/president Quincy Adams.
Washington’s embrace of the tried, true and trite has a long pedigree. Cook is at the nexus, tying in Bush Library architect Robert A.M. Stern, McCullough again, artful wordsmith of reaction Tom Wolfe, and voice for all those a little concerned about this Obama fellow, Cokie Roberts.
We could of course do worse, and probably will when Lynn Cheney’s next bio surfaces. Watch for much of this same crowd engage in still more founder-swoon when this friend of liberty turns her loving gaze on our next to slavingist president, James Madison.
Hot TopicÂ
When Leadership Counts
Well, somebody‘s excited about the Bush Library’s easy money!Â
Silence Is Golden 
Despite becoming actually more unpopular since leaving office, George W. Bush is quietly on his way to building the Bush Presidential Library ‘n Reputation Restorer in Dallas.
He has reportedly raised one hundred million dollars towards the library/rehab center at Southern Methodist University.
Time reports that the cash is rolling in despite the economy’s current enjoyment of the fruits of the Bush era. The ex-president went from beloved by 31% of the populace down to 26%Â according to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll [the numbers are buried on page 9 of the pdf at the bottom of the linked page]
Meanwhile, Southern Methodist University’s attorney is under a gag order in the wake of jury pool tainting allegations.
SMU is being sued over land once considered as part of the Bush Presidential Library,with former condo owners suing the University claiming information about the looming Library was withheld.
The judge in the case had ordered the former president to testify in the case, and is concerned with remarks by SMU attorney Mark Lanier who called those suing the university “terrorists,” and complained that they had rejected a $2 million offer to go away.
“the more press there is about this, the harder it’s going to be to pick jurors for a trial,” Judge Martin Hoffman said before ordering Lanier not to publicly discuss mediation-related matters.“
This in the wake of SMU hiring a prominent local Democratic lawyer, in the predominantly Democrat-leaning Dallas.
Rebuilding Reagan 
The Reagan Presidential Library takes its place at the trough this summer, as Madera Road will be widened from the hilltop shrine to Semi Valley. More than half of the $2.7 million cost will come from federal funds.
America’s titanic struggle over dreaded “pork,” apparently detectable by “earmarks,” featured many stirring calls to block money going to those corrupt presidential libraries.
Watch for Freedom’s Warriors on this one!
