Two political rivals – back in the old days when such people could “sup with their enemies…”

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Back on June 12, 2015, I posted “Great politicians sell hope.”

The title of that post was a quote from the 2007 Chris Matthews book, Life’s a Campaign.  In the post I noted my first reaction. (To the idea of politicians “selling hope.”)  That first reaction was – and I quote – “What rock have you  been living under?“  Then I noted this, from page “xv:”

Political traits are in essence the ability to deal with people.   I’m talking about basic likability, the readiness to listen, to project optimism, to ask for help, to display good cheer in the face of opposition.  To learn the traits of the best [political] practitioners is to acquire a treasure chest of ways to persuade and influence people. 

In other words, Matthews suggested that – far from being inherently objectionable – today’s politicians are people that we “civilians” could actually learn something from.

I then noted that Matthews was – after all – talking about the best practitioners.  (The best “political” practitioners that is.)  Then I added this:  “Maybe the problem today is that too many politicians are trying only to be ‘basically likeable’ to their core base.*”

Which is I suppose another way of saying that not too many people these days see the current crop of politicians as displaying “basic likability.”

Or for that matter “the readiness to listen,” the ability to project optimism, or display “good cheer in the face of opposition.”  (As to asking for help from your political enemies, “Fuhgeddaboudit!!“)

Matthews then added another zinger:  That our current state of political gridlock may well be more of a “situation normal,” and not an aberration.

Then he said something that really surprised me.  Matthews said that most politicians today are both smart and they know exactly what they’re doing.

As an example – and set the tone for the book – he started his Introduction with this Dale Carnegie quote:  “My popularity, my happiness and sense of worth depend to no small extent upon my skill in dealing with people.”  (As applying to politicians.)  Then came the kicker:

The premise of this book is straightforward:  To get ahead in life you can learn a lot from those who get along for a living[.  Again, politicians.  That is:  T]he people who make the biggest impression on me and who’ve actually taught me the tricks of getting ahead in life are the politicians.  I know that goes against the grain…  (Emphasis added.)

(Page xiii, emphasis in original.  But see also Counterintuitive – Wikipedia.)  The point of all this being that Matthews’ thoughts gave me just the inkling of a shocking idea.

That “inkling” was that maybe – just maybe – many of our seemingly-dysfunctional politicians today actually do know what they’re doing.  But Matthews had even more to say:

You can say what you want about these masters of power.  They get people to vote for them, give money to their campaigns, trust them with their country.  They possess this wondrous ability, I’ve discovered, to get other people to do just what they want them to do…  The best of these politicians have a sure grip on human nature.  They leave it to the amateurs to believe how people are supposed to behave; they know the secrets of how people actually do.

Here’s another counterintuitive point:  That politicians are good listeners.  As Matthews put it, “They know the deep human need to be paid attention to.”  (On Ronald Reagan’s ability to listen, see The Economist.)  And the best politicians – like Reagan – “can project a sense of hope.”

Of course you could respond that – by their very nature – politicians are devious and Machiavellian. (Like the guy at left.)  And shameless about asking for things.  But – Matthews added – the best politicians are also “upbeat.”  The best politicians – so rare these days – “know the magic of optimism.”

Finally, Matthews added that equally-shocking idea – the one I noted above – that maybe we – we “civilians” – can actually learn from today’s politicians:

I realize that the notion of learning anything of value from politicians cuts against the current mood.  But what these people can teach us about human nature is priceless…  The ability to get along with people … is an art.  Getting people to do what you want them to, I have further learned, is a fine art.

(Page xiv-xv, emphasis in original.)  That In turn led to another shocking thought on my part.

I thought that maybe – just maybe – we citizens despise “all those negative politicians” precisely because they are such an accurate mirror of our own dark side.

That in turn reminded me of a popular quote about lawyers, another despised group:

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers…“

That’s from Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2, 71–78, by William Shakespeare.  See Shakespeare Quotes – eNotes.com.  It’s also one of the most misinterpreted quotes of all time, but there’s no doubt the saying is popular.  See Let’s Not … (Above the Law):

Dick the Butcher was a minor character in the middle work of a trilogy of plays the Bard wrote about Henry VI …  and if it weren’t for 10 little words, Dick the Butcher would be largely forgotten.  But those 10 words live on and on, in t-shirts and bumper stickers and coffee mugs and anything else you can slap a quote on.

So here’s my point:  In today’s America we have two despised groups, lawyers and politicians.

And according to people who love to quote Dick the Butcher, the best thing to do would be to kill ‘em all off!   But that probably wouldn’t solve the problem.

The problem with lawyers is – after all – that they’re only doing what their clients want them to do.  (How many clients would tell their lawyer: “Don’t use that dishonorable legal trick.  I’d much rather keep my honor, even if it means spending the rest of my life in prison – and making sure I don’t drop the soap in the shower!”)  Which seems pretty much true of politicians as well.

So the popular view of both lawyers and politicians seems to go like this:  “It’s not my lawyer – or local political representative – who’s bad.  It’s all those other lawyers, politicians and political representatives who are corrupting the system!”

(And a BTW:  That last was either irony or sarcasm.  Or possibly both…)

Which brings up the fact that – as a former lawyer myself – I came up with what I thought was a much better idea.  That idea was that – when it comes to lawyers – maybe the rule should be this:  “The first thing we do is kill all the clients!”

But of course, that wouldn’t solve anything either.  We’re not going to kill all the lawyers, or the clients who pay them to be nasty on their behalf.  (As long as they keep the client happy, as in keeping him from losing his “shirt,” or his “virtue,” as in prison…)  And we’re also not going to kill off all the politicians, or the people who vote for them to be “nasty on their behalf.”

Which brings up again the likely reason so many people don’t like either lawyers or politicians today:  They accurately reflect our own dark side.  (Think “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: I Am My Mother After All.”)  But – apparently – it wasn’t always that way.

There was a time – in the not-too-distant past – that politicians could actually “sup with their enemies.”

Take for example, Ronald Reagan.  His political arch-enemies included Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy.  Yet Reagan could – and did – sup with either or both men.  For one example, even though the two men were politic arch-enemies, Ted Kennedy admired Reagan.

Specifically, Ted Kennedy he admired the fact that Ronald Reagan “knew how to manipulate symbols for his causes yet could sup with his enemies:”

He’s absolutely professional.  When the sun goes down, the battles of the day are really gone.  He gave the Robert Kennedy Medal, which President Carter refused to do…   He’s very sure of himself, and I think that people sense that he’s comfortable with himself…   He had a philosophy and he’s fought for it.  There’s a consistency and continuity at a time when many others are flopping back and forth.  And that’s an important and instructive lesson for politicians, that people admire that.

See “Great politicians sell hope.”  So one theme of this post is that we “civilians” can – according to Chris Matthews – learn a lot from today’s professional politicians.

But another theme could well be that today’s politicians could learn a lot from the best politicians of the past.  And one of the most revered conservative politicians of the past was Ronald Reagan.  See for example Ronald Reagan: Conservative Statesman.  (But see also If Ronald Reagan ran today, where would he fall on the conservative spectrum?)

So in closing, we could easily say that we could use a lot more of Reagan’s professionalism from today’s politicians – on both sides of the aisle.  (Referring to “the skill, good judgment, and polite behavior that is expected from a person who is trained to do a job well.”)

Now that’s what I would call True Conservativism…

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Just imagine Paul Ryan putting his arm around President Obama…

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The upper image is courtesy of www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/08/senator_ted_kennedy.  The caption:  “Senator Edward Kennedy talks with President Ronald Reagan, left, on June 24, 1985, as they look over an American Eagle that graced President John F. Kennedy’s desk during a fund raising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at McLean, Virginia.  (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi).”  

Re: “LIfe’s a Campaign.”  For a link to the book version, see Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success.

Re: “Core base.”  I was going to write “wacko base,” but thought better of it…

Re: “Fuhgeddaboudit!!”  That site noted, “‘Fuhgeddaboudit’ seems to have become a pop cultural meme around the time of the 1997 film Donnie Brasco.”  The image to the left of the paragraph featuring the quote is courtesy of Donnie Brasco (1997) – IMDb.

Re: Today’s gridlock.  See for example Gridlock in Congress? It’s probably even worse than you think (Washington Post), Political gridlock: Unprecedentedly dysfunctional, (The Economist), and Political Gridlock – Huffington Post.  

Re: “Situation normal.”  See Military slang – Wikipedia.

The Donald Trump image is courtesy of businessinsider.com/donald-trump-has-been-fired.

Re: Ronald Reagan’s ability to listen.  The complete citation is US presidential endorsements | The Economist.  (Which included the illustration at right.)  Under 1980: Ronald Reagan:  “Many, though by no means all, of [Reagan’s] current advisers are indeed sound, and the evidence from his time governing California and from what the more impressive of them say is that his greatest quality is to be a good listener – though not to the legislature, which he treated with disdain.”

Re: “Most misinterpreted quotes of all time.”  See A Line Misinterpreted.  

The Shakespeare image is courtesy of PICTURES of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

The “mirror mirror” image is courtesy of studio773pillows.easternaccents.com/pv-32486-Mirror-Mirror-on-the-wall.

Re:  Ted Kennedy on Ronald Reagan.  See Battle for Justice: How the [Robert] Bork Nomination Shook America, by Ethan Bronner, Anchor Book edition (1989), at page 104. 

Re: Ronald Reagan as a conservative statesmen.  According to If Ronald Reagan ran today, where would he fall on the conservative spectrum:  “Conservative Republicans today don’t have one Reagan-type to coalesce around…  ‘There was only one Ronald Reagan and the eternal quest to try and clone him retrospectively is a failed mission.'”  For another view, see also 10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan.

The lower image is courtesy of parade.com/170490/1006-ronald-reagan-tip-oneill, from a post titled “Making Political Frenemies,” the gist of which is as follows:

The conservative president and the liberal House speaker found themselves constantly at odds during the six years they helmed their respective institutions, yet they managed to pass landmark legislation through divided government.

See also politico.com/story/2013/10/when-politics-worked-chris-matthews-colorful-memoir.  For other views of the relationship between Reagan and O’Neill, see Pat Buchanan: ‘There’s a Lot of Myth About Tip O’Neill and Reagan, and Sorry Chris – Tip and the Gipper didn’t like each other.  Which of course seems to be precisely the point:  That the two political enemies could work together – as “professional” politicians – even if they didn’t like each other…

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Other thoughts from Life’s a Campaign:  1)  That making new friends, dealing with opponents, and getting out their message “comes with the territory” of being a politician:  “It’s called campaigning.” And  2)  That “when it comes to pushing their own careers, I can assure you, the best politicians know exactly what they’re doing.” 

The “Team of Five:” A president, president-elect, and three former presidents, on January 7, 2009…

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February 28, 2016 – Here’s a book review I’ve been meaning to do since December, 2014.

Back in December 2014, down in my native Florida, I was at my step-mother’s funeral. (She’d married my father in January 1986. It was the Second Time Around for both her and my father, widow and widower.) After the funeral they had a nice reception – in the parish hall – and that’s where I found a big table of second-hand books for sale.

Looking through them, I found one that looked like an interesting read, The Presidents Club:  Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity. And as noted (“meaning to do since December, 2014”), I’ve been meaning to do this particular book review ever since I started this blog, back in March 2015. And since it’s now only a day of so away from March 2016, I’d say it’s about time I actually did that review. (A thought I also noted in the June 2015 post,  “Great politicians sell hope.”)

The “Great politicians” post reviewed another book, or more precisely a book-on-CD. That audiobook was Chris Matthew’s Life’s a Campaign. (It was sub-titled, “What Politics Has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success.”) That experience led me to one big lesson for navigating today’s busy world. The lesson: It’s a whole lot easier to listen to a book – on CD, as while driving around town – than to actually read it.

But the really strange thing about both books is that they gave me a sense of hope:

The Presidents Club gave me a sense that – generally speaking – the men who occupied the White House have been – overall – decent, honorable and capable.  Then too, Life’s a Campaign gave me a sense that maybe the same applies to politicians in general.  (Gasp!)

(See Great politicians.)  In other words, both books gave me the budding idea that maybe it’s not the politicians at fault in these days of partisan gridlock.  Maybe – just maybe – it’s some of the people these politicians are trying to represent.  (To hire them, as it were.)

It reminds of that great Shakespeare quote, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

That’s from Shakespeare‘s Henry VI, Part 2.  (Illustrated at right.)  But aside from the fact it was spoken by “Dick the Butcher” – and that Shakespeare meant to honor good lawyers – the quote focuses on the wrong villain.

As a former lawyer myself, my reaction goes something like this:  “No, no.  The first thing we do is kill all the clients. They’re the ones causing the trouble!”

The thing is, lawyers only represent people, their clients.  So the chances are, if a lawyer does something sleazy, he probably did it with either the client’s permission, or the client’s direct command.  The result is that people hate “all lawyers” – lawyers in general – for doing such things.  But that’s only when somebody else’s lawyer is doing the sleaze-work.

And that’s probably just as true of politicians.  Most Americans today hate politicians in general, but not if it’s their politician, their Senator or Representative.  But maybe the unpleasant fact is that it’s way too many of “We the People” who’ve turned nasty and negative.

And that maybe today’s politicians are just reflections of such generalized nastiness in today’s politics.  But we’re digressing… We were discussing how “great politicians sell hope.”  And how rare that seems these days.  But that generally speaking, the men in the White House have been – overall – decent, honorable and capable.

But you don’t have to take my word that Presidents Club is a good read.  There’s this from Book review: “The Presidents Club” (Washington Post):

A cynic might dismiss the 2005 buddy-movie disaster-relief efforts of [Bill] Clinton and the elder [George H. W.] Bush after a devastating Indian Ocean tsunami as cost-free do-goodism. But it’s hard not to put credence in the pull of the Presidents Club when you read that in a Bush family photo taken last year, the two Georges — and their extended kin — were joined incongruously by none other than the Democrat who served eight years between them.

See also Barbara Bush gushes about Bill Clinton, and “He’s my brother from another mother:” George W Bush.  (From which the bottom image was “courteously” borrowed.)

That brings up a big problem with The Presidents Club. It’s just too chock full of fascinating tidbits to be covered in one review. Things like Bill Clinton getting lessons in saluting from former president Ronald Reagan. Back near the end of November, 1992, just after Clinton’s election, he was in Los Angeles. His staff arranged a visit to Reagan’s post-presidential office:

Clinton, Reagan insisted, needed to learn how to salute…  As commander-in-chief, Reagan suggested, Clinton would need a good, crisp, up-and-down slash of the hand to get the job done right…  It helped that Reagan knew how to salute, both as a former Army cavalry officer and a former actor who played one in the movies.

Clinton on the other hand had never served in uniform.  The trick – Reagan said – was “pacing.” Real soldiers brought their saluting hand up slowly, “as if dripping with honey.”  But they brought the hand down “briskly, as if it were covered with something less pleasant:”

And so the eighty-one-year-old Reagan proceeded to give the forty-six-year-old Clinton a private tutorial.  The two men stood there in Reagan’s L.A. office, thirty-four floors above Beverly Hills, perfecting their salutes.

(414-15)  But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  Which means that I’ll be doing lots more posts on Presidents Club in the future, as circumstances warrant. But in closing, let’s take a look back at Ronald Reagan. (And the “professionalism” that would likely doom his chances of winning a Republican nomination today.)

Ethan Bronner noted that even though they were political adversaries, Ted Kennedy admired the fact that Reagan, an ardent conservative, “could sup with his enemies.”  Kennedy added:

He’s absolutely professional.  When the sun goes down, the battles of the day are really gone.  He gave the Robert Kennedy Medal, which President Carter refused to do…   He’s very sure of himself, and I think that people sense that he’s comfortable with himself…   He had a philosophy and he’s fought for it.  There’s a consistency and continuity at a time when many others are flopping back and forth.  And that’s an important and instructive lesson for politicians, that people admire that.

(104)  The part about “supping with your enemies” is something today’s politicians might keep in mind.  We could use a bit more professionalism in today’s politics…

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Who’ll be the newest member of The Presidents Club on 1/20/17?

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The upper image is courtesy of Book review: “The Presidents Club” (Washington Post), with the full caption:  “From left, George H.W. Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office on Jan. 7, 2009. (NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST).”  

See also Amazon.com: The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity. And a note: The “Team of Five” part of the caption is an anachronism, a chronological misplacing. “Team of Five” is the name of a book published in 2020, four years after the original post. That’s because I went back in January 2022 and edited the original post, in part because two of the images I’d put in were now empty squares. And the full title and link to the book is Amazon.com: Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump.

Re: Chris Matthews.  See also Chris Matthews Discusses ‘Life’s a Campaign’ : NPR, and Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Life’s a campaign: What politics has taught me about friendship, rivalry, reputation and success.

Re: “Kill all the lawyers.”  See ‘Kill the Lawyers,’ A Line Misinterpreted – NYTimes.com:

Shakespeare’s exact line ”The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” was stated by Dick the Butcher in ”Henry VI,” Part II, act IV, Scene II, Line 73. Dick the Butcher was a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, who thought that if he disturbed law and order, he could become king. Shakespeare meant it as a compliment to attorneys and judges who instill justice in society.

For another take on lawyers in general, see also Lawyers – Wikiquote.  (Another strange thing:  Just type in “kill all” in your search engine, and it automatically fills in “the lawyers.”)

For an image to go with the “Henry VI, Part 2” paragraph, see the “Jack Cade – rebel leader” link in that article. The caption: “Lord Saye and Sele brought before Jack Cade 4th July 1450, painting by Charles Lucy.”  The article noted that despite Cade’s “frequent promises that his followers would maintain a proper and orderly demeanour,” the rebellion disintegrated into “looting and drunken behaviour.  Gradually Cade’s inability to control his followers alienated the initially sympathetic citizens of London, who eventually turned against the rebels.”  See also James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele, referring to one person, the baron who was “beheaded by a mob of the rebels in London under Jack Cade at the Standard in Cheapside on 4 July 1450.”     

The pages “414-15” reference is from the 2013 “Simon & Schuster” paperback version of The Presidents Club.   See also The Presidents Club, a review by Goodreads:

The Presidents Club, established at Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration by Harry Truman and Herbert Hoover, is a complicated place…  Among their secrets:  How Jack Kennedy tried to blame Ike for the Bay of Pigs.  How Ike quietly helped Reagan win his first race in 1966.  How Richard Nixon conspired with Lyndon Johnson to get elected and then betrayed him.  [And how] Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter turned a deep enmity into an alliance….

Re:  Ted Kennedy on Ronald Reagan.  See Battle for Justice: How the [Robert] Bork Nomination Shook America, by Bronner, Anchor Book edition (1989), at page 104.  The complete quote is that Reagan knew “how to manipulate symbols for his causes yet could sup with his enemies.”  That page added a telling example of Kennedy “rolling with the political punches.” 

The Bork nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was “on its knees” but he decided to fight on anyway.  He was cheered on by Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who said, “We know what the cheaters think about this.  Let’s see what the A students think.”  (Referring to Ted Kennedy’s “famed cheating episode on a college examination” and reports that Joseph Biden “once plagiarized in law school.”):

When Biden saw Gramm, he was offended.  He said, “That was a terrible thing to say.  I’m no cheater.”  When Kennedy saw Gramm, he said, “That was a low blow, Phil.  But nice shot.”

The lower image is courtesy of “He’s my brother from another mother:” George W Bush.  See also nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/12/obama-is-not-george-w-bush. , which noted – among other things – that “W” had a “friendly” Congress for six of his eight years in office, while Obama has never had such cooperation.  Thus this conclusion:  

By the end of 2005, George W. Bush had seen the promise of his presidency collapse from justifiably lofty heights.  At the end of 2013, Obama stands at just about the same place he began his term.

Moses as the original supreme court, on advice and counsel of  his father-in-law Jethro…

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The U.S. Supreme Court is in the news, again…

Last Saturday night I was channel surfing at home.  (Waiting for a ride to The Buddy Holly Story at the Legacy Theatre, Tyrone GA, shown at right.)   One channel had this news flash: “Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice, dies at 79…”

I was shocked, to say the least.

Later – at the theater – I mentioned Scalia’s death to a young(er) lady-friend.   (Whose political views are slightly to the right of Attila the Hun.)  She said something to the effect that now “that [expletive deleted] Obama” would be able to name a new Supreme Court justice who would – shall we say – “tilt the balance of power.”

I didn’t expect her vehement response.  (Heck, the poor guy wasn’t even buried yet.)  So – diplomatically – I smiled and changed the subject.  However, after further review I thought her presumed outcome unlikely.  (With Republicans controlling the Senate and all.)

With that in mind – and after more time to review – allow me to prognosticate.

With the presidential election less than nine months away, there’s a pretty good chance Senate Republicans will block any Obama nomination.  Which means the next president will have to pick his – or her – favorite nominee, but possibly with a different Senate.

Which is another way of saying conservatives could settle for a moderate nominee now, or risk seeing a truly liberal nominee confirmed in the foreseeable future.

The thing is, in the recent past the balance of power in the Senate has shifted every two years or so.  And in 2016, 24 Republican senators are up for re-election, compared to only ten Democrats.  (Including “seven in states President Obama” – at right with Mitt Romney – “carried twice.”)

So even if the next president is Republican, he’ll face the same hostile Senate Obama faces now.  (Which could bring more gridlock.)   On the other hand, if the next president is a Democrat, he – or she – will be able to fill the vacancy with anyone he – or she – chooses.

Then of course there’s the fact that newly-elected US senators will take office on January 3, 2017.  On the other hand, President Obama’s replacement won’t take office until January 20.  In other words, if the new Senate is indeed Democratic, Obama will have 17 days in which to name his own replacement.  (And plenty of time to prepare for the Senate’s “nuclear option.”)

Which is one reason I say – if they were smart – Senate Republicans could settle for a moderate nominee now, or risk a true-liberal nominee in the really foreseeable future.

Personally – if somebody held a gun to my head and said, “Make a bet with your total life savings” – I’d have to put my wager on the latter option.

And all of this raises some further interesting questions.  Like, “Have these nominations always been so acrimonious?”  And, “Has the Supreme Court always been this powerful?”  Or possibly, “Just how did this ‘supreme court’ get started in the first place?”

For those who think the Supreme Court was only “invented” as late as 1787’s Constitutional Convention, the answer to that would be, “Not so fast, my friends!”

I noted – in a post in another blog – that the idea of a “supreme court” goes back over 3,000 years ago.  It seems the idea was hatched by Jethro, whose daughter Zipporah married Moses.  (See On Jethro inventing the supreme court.)

That prior post cited Exodus 18:13-27.  Here’s what happened.

Moses grew up a literal “Prince of Egypt.”  But about the time he learned of his Hebrew heritage, he had to run away from Egypt.  (Basically as a fleeing felon.  See Exodus 2:12.)  He fled to Midian, where he met and married the daughter of Jethro, noted above.

Then God made him return to Egypt, to “set my people free.”  While he was doing that, Moses left his wife and two sons with Jethro, in Midian.  Once he accomplished his mission, he came back home and told Jethro all he’d done.  Then he sat down to “judge the people.”

That’s when the trouble started.  (Or more precisely, got worse):

Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.  When [Jethro] saw all that Moses was doing … he said, “What is this you are doing for the people?  Why do you alone[?]  Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will.   Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”

Jethro saw right away that the work was way too much for one man.  So he advised Moses – basically – to delegate authority.  He said to “select capable men,” and trustworthy, “and appoint them as officials” – judges – “over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.”

These “lower court” judges – illustrated at right – could handle the simple cases, of which there were many.  (After they’d been given the functional equivalent of today’s legal education.)  In turn, with Moses only having to handle difficult cases, “that will make your load lighter:”

Moses listened to his father-in-law…  He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  They served as judges for the people at all times.  The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.

And that’s the basic idea behind today’s Supreme Court.  That it will only deal with “hard cases,” leaving minor cases for lower-court judges.  (Like Moses did.)

Of course that was before the idea of the separation of powers.  (Dividing American government into three distinct branches.)  Then too, that was  before today’s nominating process evolved into a true media event.  (If not Media circus.)  

With that in mind I say, “Here’s looking ahead – if not forward – to a fascinating next-nine-months.”

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In closing, some final notes on Justice Scalia.  Like one from Ethan Bronner (32).  The occasion was Scalia’s first being nominated to the Court in 1986.  (Over Robert Bork, at left, with President Reagan):

Although deeply and somewhat idiosyncratically conservative, Scalia had little real controversy in his record.  Nicknamed Nino, he was also an irrepressibly charming man with a hearty, warm laugh, a weakness for opera, and many friends in both the judiciary and the academy.

And a note that – every once in a while – he could spring a surprise in his opinions.

For example, the 1988 case, Coy v. Iowa.  John Coy was convicted of sexually assaulting two 13-year-old girls.  At trial, the girls testified behind a large screen, so they didn’t have to look at Coy as they testified.  When the case got to the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion reversing the convictions, saying they violated the Confrontation Clause.

In 1989, the Pepperdine Law Review wrote a blistering rebuke of Justice Scalia’s opinion. (And/or his legal reasoning.)  See Coy v. Iowa:  A Constitutional Right of Intimidation:

The Supreme Court’s holding in Coy v. Iowa is infected with faulty reasoning and is inconsistent with contemporary, mainstream confrontation clause analysis…  The new requirement of actual face-to-face confrontation is not supported by logic nor is it founded on legal precedent…  Coy’s addition to this area of the law is not logical, but deviates from a long line of case law and ultimately adds a right that exists solely by itself.  It appears that the Supreme Court has created a constitutional right of intimidation.  [E.A.]

Which leads to a couple more asides.  For one thing, Pepperdine law school isn’t exactly known as a “bastion of liberal thinking.”  For another, Ken Starr – bane of the (Bill) Clinton presidency – served as dean of the law school from 2004 to 2010.  So:

Like I said, sometimes “Nino” could surprise you…

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A “more conservative” – 1956 – view of Jethro (with Charlton Heston)…

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The upper image is courtesy of bible-history.com/studybible/exodus/18/2.  See also On Jethro inventing the supreme court.  Or see Exodus 18: Moses and Jethro – Bible Encyclopedia.

Re: Senators up for re-election in 2016.  See United States Senate elections, 2016 – Wikipedia, and 10 senators who could lose in 2016 | The Hill.

The Romney-Obama photo is courtesy of Barack Obama – Wikipedia.  The caption:  “Former Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama shake hands in the Oval Office on November 29, 2012, following their first meeting since President Obama’s re-election.”

Re: Obama’s 23-day window.  See How Obama Could Win Supreme Court Battle — Even If Republicans Take the White House.

The “not so fast” image is courtesy of Lee Corso – Wikipedia.  See also Lee Corso’s ‘Not so fast, my friends’ gets autotuned (Video).

The “lower court judges” image is courtesy of Judge – Wikipedia.  The caption:  “Judges at the International Court of Justice.”

Re: Today’s nominating process as “a true media event:”

…in the modern appointment process, Presidents typically announce their Supreme Court nominations to the nation before broadcast television cameras in carefully staged presidential news events.  In turn, nearly all of the official confirmation process that follows … is conducted in public session, receives intensive news media coverage, and is watched by hundreds of thousands (and sometimes millions) of American television viewers.

See Supreme Court Appointment Process … Foreign Press Center.

The Ethan Bronner quote is from his 1989 book, Battle for Justice[:]  How the Bork Nomination Shook America.  (Anchor Books, published by Doubleday, at page 32.)   Bronner also noted – at pages 117-18 – the prevailing Republican opinion when Richard Nixon was president:

In a publicized letter to Ohio Senator William B. Saxbe, later Attorney General, Nixon accused the Senate of denying him a historic right to see his choices appointed.  That right, he said, had been granted to all previous presidents, and the advice and consent function of the Senate was clearly meant to be no more than pro forma.

Re: Coy v. Iowa.  See also Protection of Child Witnesses and the Right of Confrontation;  A Balancing of Interests.

Re: Pepperdine Law School.  See My daughter’s applying to Law schools – She said Pepperdine?  One person commented that it was extremely conservative and with a “strong Christian bent.”  Another response:  “Is she political?  If so where does she lean?  Pepperdine isn’t exactly a school most liberal leaning [sic] would decide on.”  And finally see The State of LGBT Affairs at Pepperdine University: 

In 2014, the university was ranked by the Princeton Review as No. 7 on its list of “Top 20 LGBT Unfriendly Schools.”  Pepperdine ranked No. 19 in 2013 and No. 17 in 2011.  College Magazine also ranked Pepperdine as No. 4 on its list of “Top 10 Most Prude Colleges,” in 2012, citing the university’s actions in regard to LGBT students as a factor in its ranking.

Re: Scalia’s opinion in Coy v. Iowa.  He traced the right of Confrontation back to the “Roman Governor Festus, discussing the proper treatment of his prisoner, Paul[:]  ‘It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man up to die before the accused has met his accusers face to face.'”   (Not to mention “Richard II, Act 1, sc. 1.”)  He also quoted President Eisenhower,  who “once described face-to-face confrontation as part of the code of his hometown of Abilene, Kansas… ‘In this country, if someone dislikes you, or accuses you, he must come up in front.  He cannot hide behind the shadow.'”

Note also the emphasized phrase, “created a constitutional right of intimidation.”  That seems especially ironic given Scalia’s insistence that judges should not “create new laws,” but must – in the case of the Supreme Court – stick to the Founder’s “original intent.”  See e.g., Scalia Defends Originalism as Best Methodology for Judging Law.

Re: Ken Starr’s tenure as dean of Pepperdine.  See Dean at Pepperdine’s school of law is named president of Baylor University.

The lower image is courtesy of destination-yisrael.biblesearchers.com/destination-yisrael.  Among other things the article  noted, “According to Jewish tradition, Yithro” – Jethro – “did convert to Judaism with his whole family.”  Then too, the image seems to be from the 1956 movie Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston as Moses.  (And Eduard Franz as Jethro.)

 

President Harry Truman, and the sign he made famous…

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As we gear up for the 2016 presidential election, it might be a good idea to remember how our presidents used to be.  And a good place to start might be the late Harry Truman:

Harry S. Truman [1884-1972] was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953).  The final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died…  Under Truman, the U.S. successfully concluded World War II[, but] in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War.

Simply put, Harry was an uncomplicated shoot from the lip politician with an equally uncomplicated sense of right and wrong.  And so, looking at today’s politicians – and to borrow a phrase from the 1860 presidential election – we might say, “Oh, for an hour of Truman.”

For one thing, Truman was noted for his “refreshing candor.”  For another, Harry was noted for being open-minded.   He was willing to listen to “what the other fella has to say.”  (A trait this blog seeks to promote.)  And he was known for his avid reading, much of it from history books:

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know…   [G]o back to old Hammurabi, the Babyonian emperor [shown below right].   Why, he had laws that covered everything, adultery and murder and divorce, everything…  Those people had the same problems as we have now. Men don’t change.

See Plain speaking: an oral biography of Harry S. Truman, Merle Miller, Berkley Publishing NY (1973), at page 26.  (Which book also supplied the quotes that follow, unless otherwise noted.)

See also Code of Hammurabi – Wikipedia, for an idea of the kind of things that haven’t changed much.  Another thing that hasn’t changed is the number of “religious phonies” around.  (I Googled that term and got 2,720,000 results.)   Truman had something to say about them too:

About this counterfeit business.  My Grandfather Young felt the same way.  We had a church in the front yard…  And the Baptists and the Methodists and all of them used it.  And Grandfather Young when I was six years old … told me that whenever the customers in any of those denominations prayed too loud in the Amen corner, you’d better go home and lock your smokehouse…   And I found that to be true.  I’ve never cared much for the loud pray-ers [sic] or for people who do that much going on about religion.

(Miller, 56)  That would seem especially true of politicians today who tend to “wear their religion on their sleeves.”   (Or they might attack their opponents’ religion, or claim they’re “better Christians,” or otherwise use religion for their own benefit.  And incidentally, Jesus felt the same way Harry did about people who “pray too loud.”  See Matthew 6:5-6, and Praying in public.)

For another thing, he didn’t have much use for the reporters – the “media” – of his day.

Newspapermen, and they’re all a bunch of lazy cusses, once one of them writes something, the others rewrite it and rewrite it, and they keep right on doing it without ever stopping to find out if the first fellow was telling the truth or not.

(Miller, 251)  On the other hand, he agreed with what Thomas Jefferson – shown at left – said about the matter: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” See Jefferson on Politics & Government: Freedom of the Press.

Then there was one of Truman’s best-known statements, “the buck stops here.”  It seems that Harry was quite the avid poker player, and so quite familiar with passing the buck:

The expression [came] from poker, in which a marker or counter … was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal.  If the player did not wish to deal he could pass [the “buck“] to the next player.   Another [possible source] is to the French expression “bouc émissaire” meaning scapegoat, whereby passing the “bouc” is equivalent to passing the blame or onus.  The terms “bouc émissaire” and scapegoat both originate from an Old Testament reference (Lev. 16:6-10) to an animal that was ritually made to carry the burden of sins, after which the “buck” was sent or “passed” into the wilderness to expiate them.

See Buck passing – Wikipedia.  (See also the notes and On scapegoating.)

In another story that Truman liked to tell – quoted in Miller’s book at page 297 – a reporter once asked Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (shown at right), “What’s the secret of your success?”  Justice Holmes reportedly answered, “Young man, the secret of my success is that at a very early age I discovered that I’m not God.”

And finally, unlike many politicians today, Harry Truman hesitated to ever call anyone a liar. (See for example The accusation of lying – what politics reveals about our need for the truth.)   That was a policy based on his reading – of all things – the four Gospels:

I’ve always done considerable reading of the Bible…  I liked the New Testament stories best, especially the Gospels.  And when I was older, I was very much interested in the way those fellas saw the same things in a different manner.  A very different manner, and they were all telling the truth.  I think that’s the first time I realized that no two people ever see the same thing in quite the same way, and when they tell it the way they saw it, they aren’t necessarily lying if it’s different…   And that is one of the reasons that when I got into a position of power I always tried to keep in mind that just because I saw something in a certain way didn’t mean that others didn’t see it in a different manner.  That’s why I always hesitated to call a man a liar unless I had the absolute goods on him.  (E.A.)

So to sum it all up:  1)  Harry Truman was open-minded, willing to listen to “what the other fella has to say.”  2)  He was an avid reader, and especially of history.  (See also Quote by Harry S. Truman: “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”)  3)  He didn’t “wear his religion on his sleeve.”  4)  He thought most reporters were lazy, but recognized that we need them to function politically.  5)  Not only was he an avid poker player – and thus more of a regular guy – but Harry Truman also realized he “wasn’t God.”   And finally, 7) he hesitated to ever call another politician a liar unless he “had the absolute goods on him.”

Now that’s the kind of “delightfully retro” politician we could use today…

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The writers of the Four Gospels, as noted by Harry Truman above…

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The upper image is courtesy of Everyone Is Butchering ‘the Buck Stops Here,’ which said the phrase did not mean a president can be blamed for everything bad that happens on his watch, as used today.  Instead it was aimed at “Monday morning quarterbacking” (also known as “whining“): 

“You know, it’s easy for the Monday morning quarterback to say what the coach should have done, after the game is over.  But when the decision is up before you – and on my desk I have a motto which says The Buck Stops Here’ – the decision has to be made.”

See also Harry S. Truman – Wikipedia, source of the brief biography above.

For more on the the Carolina Israelite, see About than “Wasp” name.

Re: the Code of Hammurabi, vis-a-vis things that have been around for awhile.  For one thing, the code was among the first to be “arranged in orderly groups, so that everyone who read the laws would know what was required of them.”  (This was sometime around 1750 B.C.)  Also, the code is “one of the earliest examples of the idea of presumption of innocence,” and suggested that “both the accused and accuser have the opportunity to provide evidence.”  And finally, “its copying in subsequent generations indicates that it was used as a model of legal and judicial reasoning.

The image of Hammurabi adjacent to the Truman quote about him is courtesy of the Hammurabi link contained in the article, Code of Hammurabi – Wikipedia.  The full caption reads:  “The bas-relief of Hammurabi at the United States Congress.”  That is, the entrance to the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives features 23 marble portraits of historical figures, one of whom is Hammurabi:

The 23 marble relief portraits over the gallery doors of the House Chamber in the U.S. Capitol depict historical figures noted for their work in establishing the principles that underlie American law.  They were installed when the chamber was remodeled in 1949-1950.

(Emphasis added.)  Hammurabi is included because his code – noted by Truman – is “recognized in legal literature as one of the earliest surviving legal codes.”

The image of Thomas Jefferson is courtesy of Thomas Jefferson – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The caption:  “Thomas Jefferson, Official White House Portrait, by Rembrandt Peale, 1805.”

The image of Justice Holmes is courtesy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. – Wikipedia.  For more pithy quotes from the good Justice, see Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. – Wikiquote.  Two samples:  “Lawyers spend their professional careers shoveling smoke,” and, “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” 

The lower image is courtesy of Peter Paul Rubens: The Four Evangelists, which noted that “Rubens portrayed the four evangelists while working together on their texts.  An angel helps them…   Each gospel author can be identified by an attribute.  The attributes were derived from the opening verses of the gospels.  From left to right: Luke (bull), Matthew (man [angel]), Mark (lion), and John (eagle).” See also, Four Evangelists – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Re: “shooting from the lip.”  See AU theatre presents “Give ‘em Hell, Harry”, noting Truman was a man who “wasn’t afraid to ‘shoot from the lip’ and put himself on the line for what he believed in, not for what was necessary to win an election.”  For other views Google “shoot from the lip.” 

Note too that “shooting from the lip” is an ironic twist on the phrase, “shooting from the hip.”  See What Does “Shoot from the Hip” Mean? – wiseGEEK, re:  an American expression referring “to a decision that is reached and implemented without stopping to consider the possible outcomes of the decision.”  The site noted two schools of thought: one that the practice is rash and likely to produce worse consequences.  The second school relies on an individual using instincts drawn on his or her collective experience; “Proponents of this approach note that many opportunities are lost because time is wasted going over the minutiae of how to respond.”

See also the King James Version of Psalm 22:7-8:   “All they that see me laugh me to scorn:  they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him:  let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” (Emphasis added.)

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Re:  “Oh, for an hour of Truman.”  See History for Kossacks: Election of 1860 – Daily Kos, which – speaking of the interlude between Lincoln’s election and actually taking office – noted:

Lincoln found himself armed with nothing but words to stop the South from seceding before he could even take office…   President James Buchanan, nearing 70 … looked at the Constitution and saw his hands being tied by a lack of specific instruction.  The cry went up from frustrated members of his own party: “Oh, but for an hour of Jackson!”

See also AP US History Chapters 17-19 flashcards | Quizlet, which added that “Old Buck” – Buchanan’s nickname – “almost went out of his way to prove he was no ‘Old Hickory.’”

Re: “Grandfather Young.”  According to some sources, “Solomon” Young provided Truman’s middle name, “Harry Solomon Truman.”  But the consensus is that his parents couldn’t decide whether to honor Young, the maternal grandfather, or paternal grandfather Andrew Shippe Truman.  So the parents decided to go with “the letter ‘S’ by itself.”  See snopes.com: Harry Truman’s Middle Name.

The end-quote, on the differences in the Gospels, included this “edited for content,” from page 214:

I think I told you, in school we usually only had one man’s point of view of the history of something, and I’d go to the library and read three or four, sometimes as many as half a dozen, versions of the same thing, the same incident, and it was always the differences that interested me.   And you had to keep in mind that they were all telling what for them was the truth.  (Emphasis in original.)

Re: “discovered that I’m not God” quote.  From an interview on Truman’s firing General McArthur.

Another quote came from Dean Acheson, Truman’s Secretary of State, as to “why the press did such an abysmally poor job” (emphasis in original) in writing and reporting on Truman as president:

It’s as if the correspondents had made up their minds when Mr. Truman became President that he was a country bumpkin, and I am afraid a great many of them never changed their minds.

(Miller, 376, referring to a problem that seems to plague some reporters “even to this day.”)  See also Dean Acheson – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A final note:  This column-post was originally published on October 27, 2014, as On Harry Truman and the next election.