Annals of Rugology

Bill Clinton says he loves that Oval Office rug. Oh, dear, that takes me back. I know, I repeat myself, but I'm an old guy, it's my job to repeat myself. You know where this is going: I'm remembering A.B. "Happy" Chandler and the Kentucky Gubernatorial Campaign of 1959. Chandler, ex-Senator, ex-Governor, ex-Baseball Commissioner, was fighting for a comeback in one more campaign for the State House.

In so many ways, this campaign was a nostalgiac throwback/farewell to populist campaigning in the pre-Palin era: bands, hoopla, horseplay and general hilarity. Chandler loved to tell the crowd that the incumbent had refitted the governor's office with "a $20,000 rug," (pronounced "ru-u-u-u-ug," or something on that order--in fact it appears to have cost $2,700 but that's a detail). "You know what we gonna do," the Harvard Law Grad Chandler barked, against the enthusiastic cheers of the multitiudes, "--what we gonna do when we get to Frankfort?"

And answering his own question:

We gonna take off our shoes and walk on that rug!

[Prolonged cheering and applause]. Cf. generally: Time Magazine. Best analog I know is the governor in Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, who wants to get to the capitol for (I quote from memory) "the peach ice cream for breakfast"--fictional, but everybody forgets that it was not Huey Long. Unhappily for Chandler, it turned out to be a nostalgia tour, like the Kingston Trio on PBS. Chandler lost, to a much duller, but perhaps smarter and in any event far craftier candidate. Who may not have taken off his shoes and walked on that rug.

Addendum: The only other thing I know about rugs is that there's no IP: the fuzzy side is always up, and 90 percent of the product is beige.

Obama, Clinton and Sleaze: Why This Time is Different

You can just hear the right-wing noise machine begin to fire up at the thought of the Obama/Blagojevich nexus. Whitewater! Vince Foster! Oh, thank you God!

Well, we're surely going to have to put up with a few weeks of this. But I don't think it's going to work the same way this time that it did for Clinton and her's why: Clinton looked like sleaze; even though he was totally in the clear on virtually every charge leveled against him (exception: zippers), still --what with the cute smile and the slippery, evasive answers--it always seemed like it might be true.

Politics is, after all, a world where might-be's count for a lot. Gerald Ford tripping over "free Poland" stuck because he seemed dumb as a box of nails; of course he was nothing of the sort. George Bush baffled at the checkout counter was an unfair cop but it looked right. I'm even willing to bet that J. Danforth Quayle is smarter than you would infer from the fact that he can't spell potatoe potato.

I don't know that Obama is going to make a great president, or even a very good one. For all of our sakes, I sure hope he does (and I think he just might). I don't know what his weak spot might be. But whatever he is, he's not Bill Clinton; I think maybe the wingnuts are fighting the last war.

Reason Enough...

Enjoying a high-class amateur performance of The Mikado at the Palookaville Odeon, it occurred to me why the Obama transition team is grinding its teeth over Bill Clinton:

But I don't stop at that. I go and dine with middle-class people on reasonable terms. I dance at cheap suburban parties for a moderate fee. I accept refreshment at any hands, however lowly. I also retail State secrets at a very low figure.

That would be Pooh-Bah, "First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice,Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds,Groom of the Back Stairs, Archbishop of Titipu, and Lord Mayor, both acting and elect, all rolled into one."

War is Peace! Truth is Poetry! If My Mother had Wheels, She'd Be a Trolley Car!

Actually, I'm still not one of the impeachment party (link), but I do marvel at all those guys who had no problem with trying to remove Bill Clinton for, well you know what for, but who can swallow the whole array of high crimes & misdemeanors that we have seen since 2001.

TigerHawk calls it "lowering the bar."

Ho ho thats rich.

From Your Friends, the Taxpayers

Sumner Redstone showcased Bill Clinton at a Breast Cancer Coalition fundraiser in his Beverly Hills home, er mansion, er palace. Clinton (link):

.. thanked Redstone for hosting the event in his beautiful home, joking that it “makes the White House look like public housing.”

Hm. Actually the White House is public housing, not so?

Afterthought: I guess I'm remembering my Kentucky days. A.B. "Happy" Chandler, candidate for governor in 1955, found out that the incumbent had installed a new rug in the mansion. By the best evidence, the rug cost $2,720. Chandler gave it a battlefield commission to $20,000, and made it the centerpiece of his campaign. "We gonna take off our shoes and walk on that rug!" Credit for refreshing my memory: Time Magazine. Update: The Wichita bureau recalls that when Eisenhower signed over the Gettysburg Farm (to the government), he said: “Well, we’re back in public housing again.”

Could It Be He?

Admit it, now, you haven't any idea whom you want to vote for in 2008. You enjoy Obama, but you know he's an empty suit. You figure you ought to like John Edwards, but you're really not crazy about his shallow populism. You take a deep breath and figure it has to be Hillary, but then she does something tacky and mean-spirited that gives you the hiccups.

The Republicans, oh don't get me started. What a sorry lot of embarrassments they are--even to themselves. I'd still wager a few bucks on the proposition that the frontrunners beat each other to a pulp and they wind up with this guy (and I see I'm in good company).

Admit it also, you weren't all that nuts about Al Gore back in 2000. Remember? You gnashed your teeth a hundred times over the way he ran his campaign (good company again: Bill Clinton felt the same way). And don't get me started on the tangle on Tallahassee.

Okay, that was then. It doesn't say anything to venture that Gore would have done better--who wouldn't have? Six years later and we know that a burnt stump could have done better. But what if it turns out that Gore is not just a default improvement, but actually the kind of guy you might want as President? Jump cut to The New Yorker, and let David Remnick explain.