BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Thursday, September 09, 2004
THE GIPPER REACHES THE FAUX
MOUNTAINTOP. The Boston Globe's Alex Beam has
a
funny column today on the
New Hampshire legislature's less-than-successful quest to rename
Mount Clay after Ronald Reagan. But Beam leaves out the best part:
Mount Reagan - er, Mount Clay - isn't actually a mountain.
At 5533 feet, Clay should rank as
one of New Hampshire's highest peaks. But as you can see from
this
list, it doesn't make the
grade as one of the state's 48 four-thousand-footers. That's because
Clay is actually a spur - a bump - between Mounts Washington
and Jefferson.
When I hiked the Northern
Presidentials two years ago with my son and a friend of his, we
didn't even bother with Clay, taking a side trail around the
summit.
Beam notes that several other
mountains in the Presidential Range aren't actually named for presidents. He
cites Mounts Sam Adams and Mount Webster; there is also Mount
Franklin. But Webster is a mere hill at 3910 feet, and Sam Adams and
Franklin are, like Clay, spurs of nearby "real" mountains
(Adams
and Eisenhower,
respectively).
Thus Reagan would be the only
president honored with a faux mountain. For a president whose eight
years in office were built far more on image than substance, it would
be a fitting tribute.
FEEL THE LOVE! The e-mails
started trickling in last night, ripping a
just-posted piece I'd
written on what John Kerry should do to revive his stalled campaign.
As soon as I saw the subject line on the first message - "Memo to
Johm [sic] Kerrrie [sic]" - I knew what
had happened: someone had posted my article on Lucianne.com,
the online home of Linda Tripp's literary adviser.
Sadly, the thread has already
expired. But my "Johm Kerrrie" correspondent was kind enough to
compile a "best of" list:
Do you know a lie from the
truth?? Apparently not judging by your article.
Your untruth #1: weird
inability to swat away the discredited swift-boat attack ads.
Ya think the "weird inability" has anything to do with the
fact that the SBVs have not actually been discredited?
Your untruth #2:
Legitimate new source??? or a Kerry shill?? You have a new
legitimate source why don't you mention it??
A very good description of you
from a reader of your article: Just another piece of crap
with a keyboard. Dunce, fool, idiot, moron comes to
mind.
Baby boomers, the worst
generation.
Keep those cards and letters
coming.
BUSH, NOT AT WAR. Today's
must-read
is Eric Boehlert's Salon piece, which brings everything
completely up to date on the National Guard story. The most
fascinating detail is that George W. Bush may very well have had his
honorable discharge revoked because of his chronic absenteeism, only
to have it restored through political connections.
Josh
Marshall says:
This isn't about what
President Bush did 30+ years ago. Or at least it's not primarily
about that. The issue here is that for a decade President Bush has
been denying all of these things. He did so last January. He did
so again as recently as last month. He's continued to cover this
stuff up right from the Oval Office.
I'll take it one step further. I
don't even particularly care that Bush is lying and covering up about
what he did all those years ago. But given that he refused to
denounce the swift-boat ads against Kerry, and that Poppy and Laura
practically endorsed them, he deserves whatever he gets over this
issue.
posted at 9:01 AM |
3 comments
|
link
3 Comments:
"I don't even particularly care that Bush is lying and covering up about what he did all those years ago. But given that he refused to denounce the swift-boat ads against Kerry, and that Poppy and Laura practically endorsed them, he deserves whatever he gets over this issue."
He absolutely deserves what he gets, but isn't the dishonor in the giving as well. There's a bit of having it both ways here.
jjdaley
Greg Palast has an interesting twist on the Ben Barnes aspect of the story: that Barnes lied when he swore that no member of the Bush family requested special treatment for W in return for getting his client, GTech, reappointed, without bid, to run the Texas lottery for which GTech paid him $23M. This from an anonymous letter to a U.S. attorney in Austin.
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=365&row=0
Bernard Goldberg must be laughing like crazy at Rather's soon to be public humiliation over the supposed new Bush guard documents. ABC is quick to knife him by having Killian's widow on Nightline. As for the Globe, here we are three days in a row with the Globe Kerry sycophants doing pieces on the Bush guard subject. Just to be fair and balanced, Kranish has a piece xplaining Kerry's preferential guard treatment. What a useless rag Dan. Thank God for decent writers like you.
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
