Arthur Schlesinger, Jr is dead.

I note him as this Historian of a Liberal bent who championed FDR and JFK.  I note him, and his father, for being of that “Adlai Stevenson” Egghead type, the professorial class who were attracted to Stevenson seemingly because they share the same idiosyncrcies with that man (and the same telling head shape).

Yes, there’s the phrase “Vital Center” — a phrase and ideology that blunted anti-communist liberalism from Henry Wallace-types, but could mean practically anything as we navigate toward a center between two anythings.  Hence, Americans for Democratic Action — the organization advocating that cold war liberalism which has a decidedly mixed legacy (one need only look to Vietnam).

But his most endearing legacy, to me, and really I’m conflating Schlesinger Jr and morphing him with his father into one entity (which is just well and good, because he kept a family legacy going) — because I really have only rudimentary knowlege of him anyway…

… and because I gravitate toward these with a certain affinity and a certain queasiness…

commissioning fellow historians to compile those Presidential rankings.  Wherein we can track the bottom feeder from Grant to Harding to Buchanan, and contemplate the meaning behind what this shows regarding our American values.

Item #1:

Legislation authorizing Virginia’s participation in the national commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday reached the GOP-controlled House of Delegates only to be summarily killed.

That was enough for the House Rules Committee, where Republican leaders get what Republican leaders want. Lincoln was out.
Item #2:

In interviews afterward, some attendees said Mr. Giuliani lost momentum when he heaped lavish praise on Abraham Lincoln. While many conservatives regard the Civil War president as the spiritual founder of the Republican Party, others deeply resent him as a man who ruthlessly suspended constitutional rights and freedoms in order to militarily challenge the South’s belief in its right to secede.  “Rudy thought he was addressing a Republican audience,” said Mike Long, chairman of the New York State Conservative Party. “Mitt understood this is an audience of people who are conservatives first.”

Item #3: 

“Simple restoration of the national holiday to honor the greatest and most unifying figure in our history, George Washington, is surely a matter on which even this polarized nation can agree. And if the Post wants a joint holiday, why not twin Lincoln’s Birthday with that of Dr. King, and call it King Lincoln Day?”

There are more Lincoln Politics swirling around the water right now, which includes a debate over the veracity and actual meaning over an Abraham Lincoln quote being used to suggest Democrats are treasonous and, I guess should be imprisoned (?) (used on the House floor).  And an article in the Nation that I should weigh in with a simple observation about Lincoln’s opposition to the Mexican American War.
I will simply say this, though:  the current Democratic / Republican lines on the electoral map, as semi-cemented in the 2006 mid-terms with parts of the west swinging in the Democrats’ direction — these things sort of fasinate me, as it is a weird 150 year shift of what party controls what regions.  Lincoln Democrats.

“Clinton Lied”.

I can’t tell how the bumper sticker came to be torn from its original bumper sticker “Nobody Died When Clinton Lied” to this new statement, nor if s/he is making a political statement what precisely it is — is it a statement  against Clinton’s campaigns in Iraq, widely accused of “wagging the dog”, or is it a statement against that lie in particular (“I have not had sexual relations with that woman”) or attendent statements through the administration.

Or was it just not fully torn off and is no statement whatever?

“Each of the past eight Republican presidential tickets has had either a George Bush or a Bob Dole.”  I have heard that statement made twice, meant to be indicative of something or other.  The incestuous nature of our politics, perhaps, or that the strings of our nations are controlled by the wardens of the state, or the inability of the nation to reboot our leaders.
But even here, George Bush is an obvious source for conspiratorial rumblings — Mr. CIA Skull and Bones Elitist East Coast Patrican — a political base based on what, exactly? — worm.  But what is Bob Dole’s role in all that?  Between 1944, and 1972, either Thomas Dewey or Richard Nixon were on all but one Republican presidential ticket — 7 out of 8.  Between 1896 and 1944, 9 out of 13 Democratic tickets included either a Bryan or Franklin Roosevelt — or perhaps 11 out of 13 were a Bryan, Wilson, or Roosevelt.  If you view Charles Bryan with a bit of askew, someone pulled in off of his father’s reputation — as did George Bush.

Even better, between 1892 and 1956, the Democratic Party did not have on its presidential ticket an Adlai Stevenson, a Bryan, a Wilson, or Franklin Roosevelt … three times.  That’s three times out of 17 elections.  The Stevenson — Bryan — Wilson — Roosevelt axis had been dictating half of our political spectrum for 64 years, just as the Bush — Dole axis has since 1976.  You will also note that it was Kennedy who broke this powerful political axis, and we all know what happened to Kennedy…

Now figure out how many times a Roosevelt or a Bryan was on the ballot on one of the two major vote-getting presidential tickets between 1896 and 1944.  But I’ve already blown my wad there, because the Stevenson — Bryan — Wilson — Roosevelt Axis I find more amusing.

In 8 years, as Hillary Clinton finishes her second term, we may be wandering into a rejuvenated Jeb Bush administration.  (Mind you, this is something that people are talking about, more so than even the Bush / Dole thing which I’ve heard twice.)  Excuse me, I mean — Jeb! Bush.  Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush — and this is something that people are gasping in horror in contemplating.  Mind you, perhpas Jeb Bush can be pegged as vice president by Giuliani, be nominated and nearly win in 2012, and then… 2016…  That would keep that Bush / Dole paradigm alive… whatever the heck Bob Dole has to do with anything here.  (There don’t seem to be any more Doles in the offing.)

… And outside, Pigs were Flying. But… who won the debate?

UGH.

Yesterday, or maybe the night before, I was pursuing the Internet, running through the stream of political blogs, and I hit upon the news of Al Gore’s utility bill — which is meant to relay the proof of his hypocrisy.

And I knew right then and there that we have a canard.  I have a vague memory of reading or hearing that Al Gore basically used renewable energy and did indeed “walk the talk”, but that was not what set me off to the reply of “Ugh”
This is a news item fit for bloviating into conservative talk radio, perfectly timed for his Oscar victory.  It is an “ugh” moment, because I can see the strings and the mechinations that brought this story out to us.
Armed with Gore’s utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president’s 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours.

“The Tennessee Center for Policy Research”?  I have never heard of it.  It appears to be an organized recently organized for the express purpose of releasing a press release about Al Gore’s utility bill.  There is a disturbing insinuation about it, which comes when the spokesman for “The Tennessee Center for Releasing a Press Release about Al Gore’s Utility Bill” –  was rebuffed by some of the facts about Al Gore’s estate.  The reply boiled down to: “He has an electronic garage door opener!”  There’s this item on the Internet, from the early mid 90s, which is: “Al Gore — or The Unabomber” — the idea is you have passaged from Earth in the Balance and from the Manifesto and — Ha Ha!  Can you tell the difference?  The… Tennessee Center for Blah Blah Blah seems to buy into the propaganda that Al Gore would have us live like Ted Kaczynski, and the details of Al Gore’s energy consumption — which is he does indeed walk the walk as well as anyone can — is immaterial.

Maybe President Al Gore can stick back the Solar Panels off the White House that Ronald Reagan took down from Jimmy Carter’s occupancy.  Or was that already done?

This is either brilliant out-of-the-box thinking on Mike Gravel’s part or it’s too cute for its own good.

At the last Democratic shin-dog with all the candidates, sometime before his statement that amounted to the admission that he’s mostly just trying to sell us the National Initiative and he has no particular plans of coming anywhere near close to the Presidency.

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GRAVEL: I’m not much of a cheerleader. And so I’d rather be dealing with some sober statements. And that is, I’m not entirely convinced that the Democrats can get the next presidency of the United States. And I’ll tell you why: because that’s going to be determined, by and large, by the American people over the next two years as to how the Democratic candidates conduct themselves with respect to the Iraq war.

GRAVEL: Just stop and think. In October 2011 (sic), the Republicans and the Democrats bought George Bush’s fraud as to whether we needed to invade on a preemptive reason to invade Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction. And so you can understand an interesting comparison. Stop and think. There were tens of millions of Americans who held that exact view that we shouldn’t invade Iraq.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, if tens of millions of Americans had that view, why couldn’t we have had that view with the majority of the Congress of the United States?

(APPLAUSE) We’ll never make it with politics as usual, and there is an answer. And it’s not a mealy-mouth, non-binding resolution. And even if it were binding, it would be unconstitutional.

Look what happened. The Democrat leadership in the Congress is setting it up and giving cover to the Republicans. The Republicans said that, hey, they were expecting to lose 50 votes in the House race when this issue came up. They lost only 17. What happened? We gave them cover by talking about things that are unconstitutional. And so now the Republicans can charge the Democrats, well, they’re not really doing anything. Murtha wants to get out and play general. Other people want to cap. You can’t cap. It’s unconstitutional. The president is the commander in chief, like it or not. But the Congress, under the Constitution, has the right to declare war and has the right to end it. What they need to do is put up a law and put it before the House — they’ve got the votes — pass it there. It goes to the Senate. They’ll have a filibuster. It’ll last about a week and a half, two weeks, because Leader Reid can bring it up every day — every day — and have a cloture vote and let these Republicans wither on the vine. And then it goes to the president. After the president gets it, he’s got a choice. He can continue to believe in God, or he can turn around and end the war.

(APPLAUSE) Well, I think that he’s going to go. He’s going to figure God can trump the Congress. And so now, he’s going to veto it. It comes back to the Congress, and we have created a constitutional crisis between the executive, the Congress, and the American people. And the American people can understand this. And if you count the 50 that they thought they would lose in the House, you have enough in the House to override the veto. That brings it to the Senate. And the Senate, again, with time, will wither on the vine. And we could get out of Iraq within the next six months, under this scenario. Otherwise, George Bush is going to keep it going for the next two years. And the oil there is not worth one more American dead. It’s not worth one ounce of blood.

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He mentioned Lyndon Johnson, which is curious of course because, in his Senate campaign of 1968… I’m just saying…