Here’s a little blast from the past by the Firesign Theatre. Holds up well after 40 years…
What is it about second terms that tends to upend the Presidency? It seems that no one is immune, at least for those who followed FDR’s unprecedented four terms. Truman had the Red Scare and the floundering Korean Conflict. Ike had his U2 crash. Kennedy’s martyrdom saved him from embarrassing scandals, at least for a few years after his assassination. Johnson had Vietnam. Nixon. Carter screwed the pooch before he could fuck up a second term. Reagan was finally forced to admit that having the grinning Ollie North shredding Iran/Contra documents in the White House basement was a mistake. Bush 41 fell asleep at the wheel before he could develop any major screw-ups. Clinton was proven to be the sexual predator his critics said he was. Bush 43 presided over the biggest financial crisis since the Not-so-great Depression.
And now Barry, only five months into his landslide reelection, finds himself surrounded by scandalous behavior, and they all seem to have dropped into his lap in a matter of weeks. Some folks dismiss Benghazi. I’ll withhold judgement on that until more facts present themselves. But now comes the IRS targeting political enemies, the Dept. of Justice snooping on reporters, a ham-handed attempt to recruit Russian spies by a diplomat in Russia. It was painful to watch Jay Carney getting hit by one pie after another at the last press conference.
Perhaps the problem is the second term itself. Most of the above scandals were germinated in the first terms of presidents. Once out of office, an ex-president can hole up in his bunker and weather the storm by learning to paint or rewriting his history for big bucks. It’s the elder statesman syndrome.
If I remember correctly, LBJ suggested that it might be better to have our presidents serve one six year term and eliminate the those messy and expensive reelection campaigns. Would it eliminate the curse? I don’t know, but the present system seems to follow a predictable pattern.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Dakota Sid Clifford’s annual George C. Bendover celebration at his home, known as the Chaos Campground. (Still the best party in Nevada County, in my opinion.) Some of the area’s finest musicians were there, doing what musicians do. Among the participants were Steady Hand, The Caterwaulin’ Caravan (featuring Sid, Brendan Phillips, and others), the first local performance by ex-resident Harry Harpoon in a quarter century, and one of my favorite bands, The Buffalo Gals, featuring my pals Jonathon and Margo Meredith.
After the performance, Jonathon and I had a chance to catch up on current events. We were reminiscing about days past, like the time Mary Ann and I visited their place in Malibu back in the twentieth century. Jon and Margo were caring for his dad, actor Burgess Meredith and he invited us down south to see their home in the famous Malibu Colony, since it was understood that once Burgess passed away, the house would be put on the market. We spent a week there, touring some of the area’s attractions like the Getty Museum, the La Brea Tarpits, the star walk on Hollywood Boulevard (we even found Burgess’s star) and hanging out on Venice Beach.
The following year, Burgess passed away and the home was eventually sold. After passing through a few millionaire’s hands, the house was purchased by Leonardo DiCaprio and completely remodeled.
Talk about your six degrees of separation: Back in the eighties, Leo’s father, George, was the distributor for the comic books I was doing for Rip Off Press. We used to hang with George and his family at the San Diego Comic Con, and were always entertained by George’s funny stories. Leo was still a youngster back then, before his meteoric climb to stardom.
Well, to make a long story short, Leo has since put the property on the market. Asking Price: $23,000,000. (Jonathon told me that Burgess bought it for $190,000. My, how times have changed!)
Mary Ann enjoys the $23M view
