Monthly Archives: July 2003

Here are some statistics from the Institute of Southern Studies…

• Percentage of the 108th U.S. Senate that engaged in combat while serving in the armed forces: 9
• Percentage of homeless men in the U.S. that have engaged in combat: 40
• Percent of lower ranking army personnel that experience "substantial financial difficulties": 40
• Percent of first-year members of Congress that are millionaires: 43
• Average tax cut to millionaires in President Bush's tax package: $93,500
• Number of children in military families that won't get the new child tax credit: 121,000

I don't guarantee their accuracy but if they're true, some of our priorities are seriously askew.

If you search the news sites, you'll find about fifty stories saying that, according to those close to him, Arnold Schwarzenegger has definitely decided not to run for governor of California. (Reuters: "Schwarzenegger to Terminate Governor Bid.")

You'll also find another fifty in which his official reps deny that he's made up his mind. (New York Times: "Schwarzenegger and Top Ally Mum as Filing Deadline Nears.")

I still think he won't run. I think he's milking this to get as much publicity as possible, to screw around a little with the press, and perhaps to get maximum attention when he tells his supporters that he won't be a candidate but wants them all to support his pal, Richard Riordan.

The filing deadline is Saturday, August 9. The current plan is for Arnold to appear with Jay Leno on Wednesday, August 6, to announce his decision. This is a smart move by Arnold to get attention and a smart move by Jay to get ratings. (Not that either needs it. Leno's ratings are through the roof lately. Near the end of Letterman's first year on CBS, that network's publicists were encouraging journalists to write articles that said the Late Night Wars were over and Dave was the once and future victor. Now, NBC's publicists are quietly hinting that the same story should be written, but with some nouns reversed.)

If Riordan runs, I'll probably vote for him to become the new governor. I can't think of anyone, Democrat or Republican, who's likely to be on the ballot I would prefer. But I'm also planning to vote "no" on the whole recall idea because I think it's an affront to the election process.

Paul Krugman on why we have a budget crisis in California and why, in his opinion, the federal goverment has most of the same problems.

A man named John Andrew lost his job. Okay, that happens. Then Bush's economic advisors did a tour that brought them near where John lives and used to work. Read what happened over at www.jobforjohn.com.

Kevin Smith is scheduled to be on The Tonight Show tomorrow night (Friday) with tape he shot at the Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Timothy Noah on why Condoleezza Rice's explanation doesn't make sense.

Remember how smart I said Ben Varkentine was to give a rave review to my new book, Wertham Was Right? Well, it turns out that Kenneth Plume over at IGN-FilmForce is equally smart.

It's probably rude to "review" a tribute drawing but I was struck by the way many of the political cartoonists (linked below) either didn't draw a very good Bob Hope or simply avoided having to do so. This man is not hard to draw, especially if you've seen the simple caricature that served as the basis of the long-running DC comic book. It was designed by Owen Fitzgerald but the drawing above is by one of his successors on the comic, Mort Drucker…the "definitive caricaturist" of Bob Hope, as far as I'm concerned. Mr. Drucker is also the definitive caricaturist of most other celebrities but we needn't dwell on that at the moment.

There was always something about the rendition of Hope in the comic that not only made him work as a funnybook character but caused you to read the dialogue with Bob's voice and delivery in your head. Worked for me, anyway.

Here's a medley of political cartoons about the passing of Bob Hope. You may note that in his honor, they repeat a lot of the same gags over and over.

Earlier, I linked to an article in Playbill about a planned Broadway show using Monty Python material. A well-placed source tells me that the Playbill item is wrong and that no such show is likely to materialize, though there are some new Python-related projects in the pipeline. I believe my well-placed source on this.

The other day, I linked to Jim "Rant-Man" MacQuarrie's website and a lot of you laughed yourselves silly over his exchange of e-mails with one of those gents who wants to share Nigerian cash with a stranger. You enjoyed Part One and you really enjoyed Part Two.

Well, Part Three is now up. Enjoy. And after you've enjoyed that, check out some of Jim's other attempts to scam the scammers (or spam the spammers or whatever the term should be…)

There's something weird with that UPI story I just linked to. It says the gent at the Richard Nixon library said the alleged conversation which Magruder describes between Nixon and John Ehrlichman never took place. The UPI quotes the Chicago-Tribune quoting the director (John Taylor) as follows…

The Chicago Tribune quoted Taylor as saying: "The White House Daily Diary, which details all the president's meetings and telephone calls, shows that Ehrlichman did not meet or talk with President Nixon at any time on March 30, 1972."

And when you go over to the story in the Chicago-Tribune, it includes this line…

According to Magruder, Mitchell questioned the idea of the break-in and decided to call H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff. He said Mitchell spoke with Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, Nixon's domestic policy adviser. After that, Magruder said, he heard Nixon's voice over the telephone receiver.

All well and good, but in the documentary as aired last night, Magruder said nothing about Ehrlichman being involved in the call. He said he called Haldeman and then Haldeman had him put Mitchell on the phone. Then Nixon joined in on the conversation so you had four people involved: Nixon, Haldeman, Mitchell and Magruder. No mention of Ehrlichman.

So if Nixon's Daily Diary does show no conversation with Ehrlichman, that's irrelevant…unless Magruder made that claim in some unaired footage, in which case the newspaper reports should have said so.

This of course raises the question as to whether Nixon's Daily Diary shows any record of Nixon joining in on a conversation between Mitchell and Haldeman on that day. Even if it occurred, it might not have been listed since in Magruder's account, Nixon neither initiated nor received the call. He merely picked up the phone and joined in. (Nixon was famous for doing that. Barry Goldwater used to say that he was certain when he spoke to Haldeman on several occasions, Nixon was listening in. One presumes this would not be noted in any Daily Diary.) My assumption here would be that if he could, the head of the Nixon Library would have said, "The records show that Mitchell did not meet or talk with President Nixon at any time on March 30, 1972." But the evidence presumably does not bear that out.

In any case, it seems to me that Magruder's claim is either totally spurious or more damning than the above denial can possibly deny. It's not just that he's saying he overheard Nixon order the break-in but that Haldeman and Mitchell both claimed Nixon wanted it done. These were the two men closest to Nixon. Years ago, that British documentary on Watergate uncovered a Haldeman memo from the period that seemed to suggest that he had advance knowledge of the break-in, and there was a rough consensus among Nixonian scholars that if Haldeman knew, it was inconceivable that Nixon did not. Now, here's Jeb Magruder with a much more explicit, unambiguous claim that Haldeman said the president wanted the break-in to proceed. Even without the part of the story where Nixon joins in the phone call and repeats it, that's a pretty significant assertion.

One cannot rule out the possibility that Magruder is either remembering things that never occurred or blatantly lying for some sinister reason. But the denial from the Nixon library sure sounds meaningless to me now.

The director of the Richard Nixon library says that the conversation Jeb Magruder claims to have overheard did not occur. Or at least, Nixon's daily diary shows no record of him having talked with John Ehrlichman the day that Magruder says he eavesdropped on them discussing the Watergate break-in.

This is one of those "we'll probably never know" arguments. On the one hand, you have these records of Nixon's daily diary. On the other hand, those records probably are not complete and could even have been scrubbed of incriminating meetings. On the one hand, the call detailed by Magruder sounds awfully pat and you have to wonder why he sat on this info for so long. On the other hand, Magruder is a Presbyterian minister now with no visible reason to lie.

Boy, I wish they'd been able to restore that eighteen-and-a-half minute gap. It was in what was probably the first conversation Nixon had with H.R. Haldeman after the burglars were caught and Haldeman's notes said they'd discussed the news reports of the break-in. Maybe someday, someone will develop a way to "unerase" that tape.

Go read Jimmy Breslin. It's about a 21-year-old American soldier who died recently in Iraq. Very touching. Very important.

I really enjoyed Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, which is a PBS special that retells the tale of the scandal that brought down Richard Milhous Nixon. It ran tonight on KCET in Los Angeles and airs on various PBS stations over the next few days. It was a bit rushed in the latter parts of the story and I think they left out my all-time favorite Watergate figure, Rabbi Baruch Korff. But it was still very well done and I think I'm going to order the DVD that was offered at the end.

Via newsreel footage, clips of Nixon's infamous tapes and interviews with most of the participants who are still alive, they laid out the story quite well. One cannot help but compare and contrast some elements of the whole mess to scandals (and their handling) by later Chief Execs. If you can catch it, do.

I also caught a little of an episode of American Masters that followed, profiling Gore Vidal. Saved it on the TiVo for when I have more time but it looked pretty interesting, as well.