News
Irving Kristol, 1920-2009
Today, Irving Kristol died at the age of 89 in Arlington, Virginia. The New York Times obituary calls him the "Godfather of Conservatism;" the Washington Post's obit is headlined "Architect of Neoconservatism." Either way, there is no disputing that Kristol was the...
Jack Kightlinger, RIP
Jack Kightlinger, the US Army Signal Corps photographer who was assigned to the White House in 1967 and visually chronicled five presidencies from Lyndon Johnson's to Ronald Reagan's, tragically died on Monday when the car in which he and his wife were traveling was...
The Madding Crowd — Now And Then
There must be something in the water over at the Daily Beast where posts sympathetic to RN (albeit unintended and/or inadvertent) have now appeared twice in three days. First it was Chris Matthews’ admiring exposition of the role Edward Kennedy and a panoply of...
9.16.69
On 16 September 1969, RN announced his first major withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. After careful consideration with my senior civilian and military advisers and in full consultation with the Government of Vietnam, I have decided to reduce the authorized troop...
Change You Can Believe In Only Too Well
Manu Raju reports in Politico on the "Revolving door for health care aides": Some of the most influential aides in the closed-door Senate Finance Committee negotiations over health care reform have ties to interests that would be directly affected by the legislation....
Putting Things In Perspective
Arthur S. Mole ---1889-1983--- was an English commercial photographer who took a series of striking and innovative “living photographs” of American soldiers during and after World War One. Working with his American colleague John D. Thomas, Mole organized and...
Dumbing Decorum Down
Over at Politico, Glenn Thrush highlights a new ukase from House of Representatives Rules Commitee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter. Talk about breaking a butterfly on a wheel..... Instead of allowing his own sense of shame and/or his colleagues' contumely to deal with...
Edward Kennedy: Watergate’s “Hidden Hand”
On today’s Daily Beast, Chris Matthews exalts Senator Edward Kennedy’s prominent ---indeed, in Matthews’ telling, pivotal--- but hitherto largely unheralded role in using Watergate to cripple the Nixon administration and end the Nixon presidency. The headline ---most...
Frost/Nixon Is Forever
Now that Frost/Nixon is comfortably settled in the racks of your local Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, and the touring production with Stacy Keach has run its course, Peter Morgan's play has started to be produced in repertory theater, with the Austin Playhouse's...
Larry Gelbart, 1928-2009
As I write, either on TV Land or the Hallmark Channel, the inevitable strains of Johnny Mandel's "Suicide Is Painless" are beginning, the chopper is coming down, and the men and women of the 4077th are getting ready for another session of OR drama and off-hours...