HISTORICAL revisionism appears to be the flavour of the week on the political scene here. Or perhaps people just have short memories.
Revisionism take one. Theme: don't speak ill of the dead.
Richard Milhous Nixon once behaved slightly out of order when he was president and had problems with a faulty tape recorder. There was a word which began with ''W'', although none of us here can remember what it was.
In any case, he was possibly the greatest foreign policy president of the century, and once went to see Chairman Mao Zedong. We did hear talk that he was manipulative and underhanded, would smear opponents and lie if he had to in order to get his way. But the only thing anyone here can remember is that he was lonely and a bit of an outsider who desperately wanted to be loved by the American people.
Twenty years ago, we're told, he brought disgrace upon the office of the president, resigned, and triggered one of the greatest political crises of the 20th century. More relevantly, he was a warm and caring family man. The Reverend Billy Graham and even President Bill Clinton said he was going to heaven, and Elvis Presley just called from a gas station in Amarillo, Texas, to pay his respects.
Revisionism take two. Theme: don't speak ill of the brain dead.
