Book Review 14: Bridge of Sighs: Richard Russo

Richard Russo
Bridge of Sighs
Alfred A. Knopf
528 Pages

Writers write. These words damn those of us who think we would like to write. A harsh indictment of lack of discipline or even worse lack of talent or creativity but... it is what it is. Richard Russo is a writer. Although you can only find 7 of his books at Amazon there is actually an 8th which has been published and they are all, surprisingly in their own way brilliant. Most of his prose is about small towns in upstate New York although he did a brilliant book about life as a university professor (Straight Man) which was, frankly, fucking hilarious. the narrator english professor of that book had a theory that life was one long punch line to a bad joke and that he was, in all respects, just a straight man. Brilliant.

As I said most of his catalogue are small town, upstate New York stories of shut down, dying factory towns. They are populated by small town powerful families with fortunes on the wane and the common people who brilliantly and heartbreakingly surround them. he has done it at least four times now. First in “Mohawk”, the “Nobody’s Fool”, the Empire Falls” and now in “Bridge of Sighs.” When I realized it was another book about a small dying factory town in upstate New York and that it was 528 pages I sighed and wondered inside my head whether I still had the strength for another Russo book of this genre. After all, a guy can only have so much to say about this topic...right? Well, it IS at least partially right.

Russo, who grew up there paints these towns like a portrait that you cannot look away from. Brilliant, heartbreaking detail on every page and to be fair in every word. Like a great painting no word is out of place and you marvel at the detail and how it illuminates everything and it just seems to real. And he does it in each book. Bridge of sighs is set in a town called Thomaston and it is no different then Mohawk or Empire Falls. Cities which once had a factory town, an economy and an A&P but now have a dead or dying downtown, a dwindling hard scrabble population and if they were in current times a Wal-Mart 20 miles away where everyone shops. No one moves to one of these towns voluntarily so outsiders are normally drifters or people whose lives tanked in some real city and they have been banished here. They wander around with the “locals” who have been there for several generations and as a family stood as witnesses for the decay all around them.

So that is the same in all the books and even though brilliant it is numbing. What makes a Russo book are the nuanced characters he draws and for good or ill as he gets older he draws them with more and more detail. You really do know his characters and as they develop you are never surprised but it is still insightful, into them and into the reader. He makes me self identify more then any other author with the doomed traits of his characters and also with some of the subtle joy and grace that comes from just living life. As his characters pilot their lives through every day occurrences, school, jobs, deaths and births he gives you a sense for the expansiveness of it all and the uniqueness related to the sameness of each persons struggle.

All that having been said there are not many triumphs for the characters in “Bridge of Sighs.” We meet the Lynch family who has a brilliant mother who has settled for a nice, pleasant local boy rather then go off to college and getting out of Thomaston. Mr. Lynch is a kind man and a well loved village idiot and they have a son and a small grocery store. The son, Lou C. Lynch is forever condemned to the name Lucy and his friend comes from another dark local family called the Marconis and his best friend is their son Bobby. The majority of the story is about Lucy and Bobby and a local girl named Sarah Berg who settles for Lucy, as her mother in law settled for Lucy’s dad.

We follow Lucy almost from birth and get introduced to Bobby and Sarah at appropriate points. Bobby’s part is narrated from Italy which was where he escaped to be an artist while Lucy and sarah are in Thomaston telling their story and bopping occasionally back to the present and their own bittersweet marriage as they watch their son, married to an unhappy woman, playing out what they view (or at least she views) as their failures. Sarah’s character is generationally removed from her mother in law Tessa Lynch and might have an over all kinder disposition but they are both women who love, keep secrets and try and make the shrewdest decisions for their families that they can determine at the time and wonder that this situational calculating never leads them anywhere else but with the same struggles they had in years past.

The other characters are all brilliant. Different husbands and fathers, the high school teacher, the bar owner, brother in laws, girlfriend’s parents.... they populate this little dying town like an ant colony and everyone has a purpose and when people deviate from the purpose they either get destroyed or leave. These side characters add the texture to this really rich novel that like a really good movie, never really goes anywhere but takes the reader on a long journey.

And that was the big bone I had to pick with Russo. I am now old and while I used to bang out 50 pages a night reading I find i nod off laying in bed after 10 -15 hard fought pages so it took me all of November to read this and as I was reading it, for 400 pages I thought...”I think I am done with this guy” (meaning Russo) and it was almost a relief thinking I could finish this one and I had finished with the author and his long novels about the same town with a different name. Sure the characters were interesting and the setting brilliant but seriously, 4 times is enough. but then i hit the last hundred pages. The people’s lives unfold in ways that keep you reading incredulously but as you read and think, you know these folks and it could not have happened any other way for any of them and it is all just so sad and so beautiful and so much like our own lives where we plan and scheme and struggle and in the end can never get away from ourselves. And while that might seem bad, even in his ugliest characters, class bullies, town drinks, philandering wives and husbands.... they all have some grace and beauty, just like we all do and he reveals that and as he does reveals us, and gives pause and seriously does everything a great book should do.

He has a way of letting his characters age and as they do they learn things about themselves, some of them good but most unsettling. As you read about their jouney he allows you through their lives to have little “aha” monets of your own which are sometimes good but mostly unsettling. 60 pages before the end of the book he ends a chapter as Lucy lays in bed a 60 year old man, staring at his sleeping wife who will leave him forever in the morning:

“The line of the gray horizon is brighter now, and with the coming light I feel a certainty: that there is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them are phantoms. The one life we’re left with is sufficient to fill and refill our imperfect hearts with joy, and then to shatter them. And it never, ever lets up.
Blame love.”

That is good stuff.
But after that he surprises again with a nice 60 page sprint to the finish. The story does not end up happily every after for everyone but there is discovery and there is some peace of mind and purpose for a few of the characters and a little nice symetry. The books characters are well enough drawn that even for me there is a lot of emotion in their successes and failures and weaker person (me) might even tear up.

Even though it sometimes felt like it was a marathon, This was the best thing I have read all year and perhaps in a long time. it is probably Russo’s best book because he draws with so much confidence and is obviously at the height of his game. Wait until it comes out as a paperback next year. take it to the beach and lose yourself in the life of a small, dying factory town in upstate New York with a poisoned river, cancer, no possibilities, human tragedies and broken souls. Enjoy it.

10 Slingers on the 10 scale

Book Review: Bridge of Sighs: Richard Russo

Richard Russo
Bridge of Sighs
Alfred A. Knopf
528 Pages

Writers write. These words damn those of us who think we would like to write. A harsh indictment of lack of discipline or even worse lack of talent or creativity but... it is what it is. Richard Russo is a writer. Although you can only find 7 of his books at Amazon there is actually an 8th which has been published and they are all, surprisingly in their own way brilliant. Most of his prose is about small towns in upstate New York although he did a brilliant book about life as a university professor (Straight Man) which was, frankly, fucking hilarious. the narrator english professor of that book had a theory that life was one long punch line to a bad joke and that he was, in all respects, just a straight man. Brilliant.

As I said most of his catalogue are small town, upstate New York stories of shut down, dying factory towns. They are populated by small town powerful families with fortunes on the wane and the common people who brilliantly and heartbreakingly surround them. he has done it at least four times now. First in “Mohawk”, the “Nobody’s Fool”, the Empire Falls” and now in “Bridge of Sighs.” When I realized it was another book about a small dying factory town in upstate New York and that it was 528 pages I sighed and wondered inside my head whether I still had the strength for another Russo book of this genre. After all, a guy can only have so much to say about this topic...right? Well, it IS at least partially right.

Russo, who grew up there paints these towns like a portrait that you cannot look away from. Brilliant, heartbreaking detail on every page and to be fair in every word. Like a great painting no word is out of place and you marvel at the detail and how it illuminates everything and it just seems to real. And he does it in each book. Bridge of sighs is set in a town called Thomaston and it is no different then Mohawk or Empire Falls. Cities which once had a factory town, an economy and an A&P but now have a dead or dying downtown, a dwindling hard scrabble population and if they were in current times a Wal-Mart 20 miles away where everyone shops. No one moves to one of these towns voluntarily so outsiders are normally drifters or people whose lives tanked in some real city and they have been banished here. They wander around with the “locals” who have been there for several generations and as a family stood as witnesses for the decay all around them.

So that is the same in all the books and even though brilliant it is numbing. What makes a Russo book are the nuanced characters he draws and for good or ill as he gets older he draws them with more and more detail. You really do know his characters and as they develop you are never surprised but it is still insightful, into them and into the reader. He makes me self identify more then any other author with the doomed traits of his characters and also with some of the subtle joy and grace that comes from just living life. As his characters pilot their lives through every day occurrences, school, jobs, deaths and births he gives you a sense for the expansiveness of it all and the uniqueness related to the sameness of each persons struggle.

All that having been said there are not many triumphs for the characters in “Bridge of Sighs.” We meet the Lynch family who has a brilliant mother who has settled for a nice, pleasant local boy rather then go off to college and getting out of Thomaston. Mr. Lynch is a kind man and a well loved village idiot and they have a son and a small grocery store. The son, Lou C. Lynch is forever condemned to the name Lucy and his friend comes from another dark local family called the Marconis and his best friend is their son Bobby. The majority of the story is about Lucy and Bobby and a local girl named Sarah Berg who settles for Lucy, as her mother in law settled for Lucy’s dad.

We follow Lucy almost from birth and get introduced to Bobby and Sarah at appropriate points. Bobby’s part is narrated from Italy which was where he escaped to be an artist while Lucy and sarah are in Thomaston telling their story and bopping occasionally back to the present and their own bittersweet marriage as they watch their son, married to an unhappy woman, playing out what they view (or at least she views) as their failures. Sarah’s character is generationally removed from her mother in law Tessa Lynch and might have an over all kinder disposition but they are both women who love, keep secrets and try and make the shrewdest decisions for their families that they can determine at the time and wonder that this situational calculating never leads them anywhere else but with the same struggles they had in years past.

The other characters are all brilliant. Different husbands and fathers, the high school teacher, the bar owner, brother in laws, girlfriend’s parents.... they populate this little dying town like an ant colony and everyone has a purpose and when people deviate from the purpose they either get destroyed or leave. These side characters add the texture to this really rich novel that like a really good movie, never really goes anywhere but takes the reader on a long journey.

And that was the big bone I had to pick with Russo. I am now old and while I used to bang out 50 pages a night reading I find i nod off laying in bed after 10 -15 hard fought pages so it took me all of November to read this and as I was reading it, for 400 pages I thought...”I think I am done with this guy” (meaning Russo) and it was almost a relief thinking I could finish this one and I had finished with the author and his long novels about the same town with a different name. Sure the characters were interesting and the setting brilliant but seriously, 4 times is enough. but then i hit the last hundred pages. The people’s lives unfold in ways that keep you reading incredulously but as you read and think, you know these folks and it could not have happened any other way for any of them and it is all just so sad and so beautiful and so much like our own lives where we plan and scheme and struggle and in the end can never get away from ourselves. And while that might seem bad, even in his ugliest characters, class bullies, town drinks, philandering wives and husbands.... they all have some grace and beauty, just like we all do and he reveals that and as he does reveals us, and gives pause and seriously does everything a great book should do.

He has a way of letting his characters age and as they do they learn things about themselves, some of them good but most unsettling. As you read about their jouney he allows you through their lives to have little “aha” monets of your own which are sometimes good but mostly unsettling. 60 pages before the end of the book he ends a chapter as Lucy lays in bed a 60 year old man, staring at his sleeping wife who will leave him forever in the morning:

“The line of the gray horizon is brighter now, and with the coming light I feel a certainty: that there is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them are phantoms. The one life we’re left with is sufficient to fill and refill our imperfect hearts with joy, and then to shatter them. And it never, ever lets up.
Blame love.”

That is good stuff.

But after that he surprises again with a nice 60 page sprint to the finish. The story does not end up happily every after for everyone but there is discovery and there is some peace of mind and purpose for a few of the characters and a little nice symetry. The books characters are well enough drawn that even for me there is a lot of emotion in their successes and failures and weaker person (me) might even tear up.

Even though it sometimes felt like it was a marathon, This was the best thing I have read all year and perhaps in a long time. it is probably Russo’s best book because he draws with so much confidence and is obviously at the height of his game. Wait until it comes out as a paperback next year. take it to the beach and lose yourself in the life of a small, dying factory town in upstate New York with a poisoned river, cancer, no possibilities, human tragedies and broken souls. Enjoy it.
10 Slingers on the 10 scale

The Missouri Plan

So our Ally in the war on terror Pervez Musharef seems to be having some problems. Pulling a page from the cold war playbook our President chose a quality guy to our buddy in the region in the dreaded “war on terror.” Oops. perhaps young democracies forced out of dictatorships are not so stable when the dictator is having problems maintaining as President. This guy is no better and no worse then any latin american banana dictator other then the fact that he has Militant Islamists that he needs to add to his mix in order to stay in power. Unfortunately this made him less then effective in assisting us in squashing them... even as we feed him 150 million or so a month.

Now...the real turn about this is that he is having problems not with terrorists but with the lawyers and the judiciary. Sounds like the Bush administration here. He suspends the constitution so he can control the terrorists and then cracks down on the Democracy people...using our weapons and our training...OOOOOOOPS! Our bad. It is kind of cute that lawyers and judges are leading the revolution. These are the people who normally back the system and rake in the cash. But this time they are out in the streets getting arrested and God knows what else. Who could get this indignant about a guy suspending the constitution and dismantling the supreme court? It probably makes sense... these were likely what our Republican friends would describe as “activist judges.”

Which brings us to the story of the day. The Missouri Non-Partisan Court Plan. Wikipedia explains it as follows:
“The Missouri Plan (originally the Missouri Nonpartisan Court Plan), also known as the merit plan, is a method for the nonpartisan selection of judges currently used in 11 U.S. states as well as in many other countries. Many other states use a variant of it.

The Missouri Plan is a method to combine election and appointment of judges. Under the plan, judicial vacancies are first selected by independent commissions from all available applicants for that position. Three (3) names are forwarded to the governor who has sixty days to select one. If the governor does not select a one of the three to fill the position within those sixty days, the committee will then make the selection. At the general election soonest after the completion of one year service, the judge must stand in a "retention election". If a majority vote against retention, the judge is removed from office, and the process starts anew[1].”

A good link to explain the plan is on the Missouri Government site at http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.asp?id=297

This is also an excellent article about our struggles in Missouri to protect our courts at Justice At Stake: http://www.justiceatstake.org/contentViewer.asp?breadcrumb=3,570,679

Well said and simply put, although flawed it is the best system available to chose our judiciary. We used to elect judges which sounds awesome until you see how the elections get manipulated by big money and power politics. The Missouri Plan was invented because Boss Pendergast’s machine in KC was literally stocking the court with his people. Elections were held certainly but...they didn’t mean much and we had a bunch of political hacks. Now our current judges tend to be...political hacks but the system is designed for a better quality of political hack and also we tend to get hacks from both parties. Brilliant.

But this system is under attack. It is under attack from agenda-i-zed conservatives who know they can run attack campaigns which are just divisive enough to get 51% of the people who care to come out and vote for judges. This attack on our court plan takes many forms but it starts with complaints regarding “activist judges” who “legislate from the bench.” What they mean is that they need a group of patsy’s who will enforce the tenets of the Constitution in order to make sure that...in no particular order:

Abortion is illegal
Gays Can’t Marry
Haliburton’s Profits Can Go Unchecked
We can pray in school

I realize all these are divisive albeit important issues but do we really want the popular vote to decide these issues or do we want some people in our Courts who are intelligent and committed to the greater good whether agendaized or not. I don’t know but as a lawyer in St. Louis I have really come to enjoy the Judges we have in St. Louis City and County... especially when I go over to Illinois or way out in the Ozarks. You cannot believe how some of these judges who run powerful election machines run a really crappy court. They act is that judges who run for election are beholden to the lawyers who run their campaigns and that makes these Judges inherently biased and there is no attempt at a level playing field. If the Governor appoints a crony who made it on to the panel, that is OK with me. Once appointed that guy or gal is beholden to no one and can exercise their best judgement without worrying about campaign contributions or getting fired.

These same people who want to scratch the Missouri Plan have no apparent problem with a Republican President Appointing ALL the Federal Judges but the big push will come in two years when we have a Democratic President and then... then we will see a big big push for the voice of “the people”. Whenever anyone talks about elections as being the voice of “the people” what they are really saying is the voice of “the money.” We have a good system here and in a lot of other states that have adopted The Missouri Plan. Do not let money take over our judgeships. If we put these guys up for election we are further undermining a system which we simply cannot afford.

Concert Review Number 12: Peter Case at The Focal Point: November 9, 2007

But the Focal Point... it has been there for a long time. it has a strong KDHX bohemian feel to it and is connected through a door or two to the bathrooms and bar of the Maya Cafe which provide a place to get a drink for the show. It is a cool little space with hard wood floors, movable uncomfortable theatre seats and folding chairs in rows like church. It looks like it seats about 125 comfortably and for old people who like to sit and see an artist it veers towards ideal. Just hip enough and no real lack of comfort and certainly no element of fear. Perfectly insulated for the aging rocker or folk.

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And this show was full of that genre of music fan. At 46 your diner reviewer was in the “young” part of the crowd. It was a crowd like I had never seen at a music event. Even the recent upscale Dylan event at the Fox didn’t have such a consistent element of older men and woman, struggling and posing (this is probably unkind and unfair) to be “individuals” and a room full of middle aged and late midlife “individuals” allowed a sameness that could only be described as sad. Gray pony tails and beards seem required and the women... the women all had their hair colored or dyed or whatever you call it varying unnatural shades which in the dim light you had to wonder whether the color was intentional or just the result of a bad dye job. We all looked old and more then a little tired even under dim lights but along with all that there is a sweetness to seeing that there are at least some people my age who still view going to see a show as something cool to celebrate.

So enough about that. Peter case (his new CD reviewed earlier in the year in this space) hits town on a semi-annual basis. Normally in the last few visits he could be caught at the dreaded and sometimes celebrated venue “Off Broadway” but tonight he was playing for 15 bucks a head to about 125 people at the Focal Point. No one opened for him and he came on a few minutes late at about 8:10. beatle Bob was firmly ensconced at front stage left and i knew he would have a hard time dancing tonight as did he. We got into a spirited discussion about how great it was to go see a show on Friday at 8:00. He was excited because he could catch another show after-words and I was excited because i could go home and go to bed. Bob had just been to the Americana Music Awards in Nashville and was regaling me with tails of Joe Ely, Jim Lauderdale and the Ryman Auditorium.

I have seen Case at least 7 times over the years and he has always been an endearing, engaging entertainer. He has loved a life consciously modeled on Kerouac and old delta blues players and Woody Guthrie. the mix is sometimes compelling but almost always engaging because he is so passionate and seems to just be a nice guy who writes some very serious songs and has a great heart. He gained some notoriety as a rocker with the 80’s band The Plimsouls (see the movie “Valley Girl” as they are the rockers in the dangerous club Nicolas Cage takes his girlfriend). the Plimsouls had two or three great songs and then petered out in a boring story of alcohol and drug abuse and likely lack of talent but case soldiered on and in the last 20 years has put out a dozen CD’s with some of the best song-writing any American folkie has accomplished. Seriously, it is a great body of work.

Tonight it looked like Case had gained a few (being generous) pounds and even in his bulky shirt, ill fitting sport coat, hat, beard and glasses looked a little chunky. Generally I like my folkies rail (hobo) thin but I will allow a few pounds for someone good. And he is good.

The set list was at follows:
Put Down the Gun
Every 24 Hours
Million Dollars Bail
Driving Wheel
Everywhere I go
Aint Gonna Worry No More
A Reading from his book “As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport”
Crooked Mile
Break
Hidden Love
Bumble Bee (Honey bear Edwards)
You Better Move Fast (Newer Plimsouls song)
Lost In The Sky
Coulda Shoulda Woulda
Freedy Johnston Story
Cold trail Blues
Waterfall (Hendrix Song)
Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum)
Underneath The Stars
Dark Deep Underground
Waiting For The Firelight

The set list shows the diversity of the body of work but without a band he relies almost exclusively on his blues guitar sometimes lapsing into what he calls celtabilly (pronounced keltabilly) which sounds a lot like Richard Thompson. Case played hard for the whole show telling funny stories most related to traveling the country young scared and stupid and some related to the people he toured with. He did not tear it up on guitar but he is an exceptional white blue man and his voice has lost a lot of it’s sustain and upper range making some of his prettiest songs (Turning Blue) impossible.
Still his material and his well selected covers made for a great night at a good venue. For those of you who have not done so, check out a Peter Case show and check out the Focal Point. It looks like it is developing the history of a local treasure.

Record Review 19: Neil Young: Chrome Dreams II

Soooooo... what does a real fan of Neil's have to say about yet another Neil Young CD? Neil turns 62 on November 12th. Including his Buffalo Springfield and CSNY albums he has now put out 50 (that does not include 6 live albums and three compilations) albums over those 62 years. I think maybe...maybe with the exception of Dylan, no one has that body of work. During that time...for the last thirty years and certainly since “Rust Never Sleeps” Neil has been jesus (little j) in the holy trinity of Mike Becker’s rock pantheon along with Dylan and Elvis Costello. His body of work is overwhelming and even as a fan I would argue inconsistent and often frustrating but he has struggled mightily, kept playing whatever was interesting him at the time and kept himself relevant.

So. Chrome Dreams. When you hear the first song :Beautiful Bluebird” you have a fear that we are going to be suffering through (for me at least) another “Prairie Wind” attempt to recreate one of his seminal albums “Harvest.” “Harvest” was a moment in time frozen and one of the things that made it so brilliant was the change of pace it represented from California rocker to Nashville tune-smith. He went the opposite way here from when Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk festival and it was brilliant. He was also at the very height of his creative game and all attempts to recreate “Harvest” (including in reverse order “Prairie Wind”, “Silver and Gold” and “Old Ways”) have been major disappointments. Between the mournful harmonica and the starting lyrics regarding his pickup and bluebird and then the chorus... well I threw up in my mouth a little.

The banjo picking which starts “Boxcar” reminds me of his early, eerie non-hit “Turnstiles” from “On The Beach” or even “Captain Kennedy” from Hawks and Doves and here the CD starts to pick up. This is a good tune and Neil is not mailing it in which is comforting. (At this point I picked up typing a brilliant review which I failed to save so from here on is an attempt at reenactment...it was brilliant though...I swear!) Boxcar rocks and then we move on to “Ordinary People” which clocks in at over 18 minutes. This is classic Neil ranting that we have all come to cherish. It is a picture of America and politics and all that is right and wrong....with horns. “Shining Light” moves towards weak and gay and trite. Once again it could be a bad “Harvest Moon” out take. Skip it other then listening for his voice which is...sweet.

“The Believer” picks up again with a little reggae one drop thing but once again it is just his voice, he mentions songbirds and church bells and being a believer in a girl (stealing from the Monkees?) Other then the cheesy background vocals it works. “Spirit Road” is next and it just kicks ass bringing up “Zuma” road songs and all that is grand and glorious about being a Neil Young fan. It has to be hard to rock hard at 60 plus years but this tune delivers... and then delivers again. It is a song that makes you miss Crazy Horse but it stands alone and is the best tune the CD hands down.

“Dirty Old Man” is self explanatory. it rocks more like “Fuckin Up” or “Welfare Mothers” and frankly that works but then he goes into “Ever After” which other then it’s steel guitar offers me almost nothing. I would argue that he is struggling with the slow paced country songs on this CD. Some of my favorite Neil has been in this genre but this is not it. The tune is much more interesting then the lyrics and though the playing is flawless it is flawed by silly back ground humming and just feels mailed in.

“No Hidden Path” seems self indulgent at 14 minutes after the earlier 18 minute cut. You get the feeling he is trying to deliver a “Cowgirl In The Sand”/”Down by the River” one two punch that is hard to deliver when you are out of your twenties. Still...though long...this song rocks and it is worth repeated listening. The CD topples in on itself with “The Way” which seems like an Omaha..indie rock children's sing along. I am sure it is heartfelt and comes from somewhere beautiful but jeez. On the same album as “Spirit Highway” you need to give me this. I really hate it and it is a downer.
All and all this is a good CD. It has the requisite 3 songs that make it worthwhile and since it is Neil it is always worthwhile even while your wading through the average stuff which I am very harsh about it is still great. You grade harder because it is Neil. I do not worry...i do not think it will hurt his self image.

8 Slingers On The 10 Scale

Record Review 19: Neil Young: Chrome Dreams

Diner Review Pics Bush As Worst Ever

Sooooo... if your lucky enough to be reading this then you will one day in the position to tell your children and/or grandchildren that you had the blessing of living through the eight year term of the worst President...ever. Seriously... I mean I didn’t live through the Harding (supposedly he was fabulously corrupt as was his administration which frankly seems like an upgrade on where we are at now) years so I cannot really comment on them one way or another. I also missed out on James Buchanon (Presided over secession of the the south), Andrew Johnson (presided post Lincoln and took the side of the South in reconstruction and Franklin (Doughface) Pierce who tried to expand slavery to the western states. I have been however been conscious for Lyndon Johnson (14 who would have thunk it?), Richard Nixon (32), Jimmy Carter (28 tie), Gerald Ford (28 tie), George H.W. Bush (25), Ronald Reagan (15), Bill Clinton (21) and now this putz. According to historians this group in my life has been a pretty middling, muddling bunch. I mean, we have had 42 Presidents and if my math is correct they average out to about a 20+ and that is pretty much right in the middle.

But think about it. This guy won (some say stole but that is a whiny weak response because if he stole it we ALL watched it happen) an election by the barest of mandates inheriting a White House at peace, a robust economy with projected budget surpluses (whoever those guys were projected that need to be treated the people who put together Communist China and Russia’s much vaunted 5 Year Plans) and was off to just being a screw up, a caretaker President busy figuring out how to make the rich get richer with tax cuts for the rich and tax breaks for business, trashing the environmental laws and ignoring global warming. He did not believe in interventionism of “nation building” since they were bad for business. He was trying to be a good dogmatic, pro business republican. he paid lip service like a good business republican to abortion issues and gay marriage which helped elect him but did nothing because they had nothing to do with getting his friends richer.
Then we have 9-11. A disaster, devastates a mentally weak nations psyche and he becomes a hero. He invades Afghanistan with massive focused force and although he fails to get the bad guy, he and the folks he surrounds himself with suddenly see the vision...a stable democracy in Iraq. Lets clean up dads screw up there not unseating Saddam. It can all be ours...the oil, the glory, the no bid contracts... That is when his Presidency teetered and then fell with a thud. Either he lied us into the war or led us into war relying on such fantastic incompetence that he and his cabinet should be water boarded and executed in short order. WE WERE THE ONLY SUPERPOWER! We had a moral gravitas and a budget surplus to do so much good in the world and...he and Cheney literally...pissed it all away.

Perhaps we judge our recent Presidents too harshly because their failings are apparent but their long term victories are not yet judged. Lyndon Johnson at 14 seems like a stretch and Nixon at 32 seems unduly harsh for just being a mean spirited greed head. I mean he opened up China and that took a little guts and forethought. He messily got us out of Vietnam which was not his war. Makes you wonder how we will treat Hillary or Barrack for what will be a very messy retreat from Iraq (and it will be a shameful retreat). I think when comparing Bush to Nixon that Nixon comes out very favorably. Sure he surrounded himself with hustlers and crooks but they were used car salesmen type crooks. Fast talkers with wide ties and white shoes and bad teeth. Perhaps they were trying to screw us but it was a kinder gentler time.

Bush has surrounded himself with Haliburton type neo-con crooks who are looking to rape not just us, but the world in favor of lining their pockets, their family members pockets and implanting their “vision” all over the map. I guess the difference is that these guys are smarter, meaner and more dogmatic then Haldeman, Erlichmann, Mitchell and Dean could have ever mustered. Nixon had his enemies “audited” by the IRS. Bush sends his to Guantanimo. Nixon listened in on phones, Bush “data mines”. Nixon at least genuinely liked pro football (according to Hunter Thompson) and I do not think Bush likes anything. Since his PR Campaign of coming to Jesus he no longer has any public use for vice and that is just wrong on so many levels that it makes me queasy.


Sure Clinton was banging his aides (only to fulfill his Kennedy fantasies) but it is comforting to see the man in the White House has human failings, even very public ones. It really was not until Clinton that we knew it was wrong to carry on such dalliances because the prior guys since Kennedy were all to old and mentally screwed up to have sex anyway and I suspect sadly that the same is true of George now. There is something meaner about Presidents who are not getting laid regularly while in the White House. That is my theory. Hell, Kennedy was all smiles even when invading Cuba and enmeshing us in Vietnam. Perhaps that is the key lesson of the Bush Presidency. I would like to be able to draw at least on lesson out of it because this guy is going to be sitting in the bottom 5 sooner rather then later.