doublegunshop.com - home Forums Ken Burn's Teddy R.

Mike, what makes reading well-written and well-documented biographies of leaders so aggravating to me is they're usually not hagiographies but of the celebrated with all their warts and frailties. We keep looking for saints.

In the home of a powerful national politician with illuminated autographed pictures and gifts from dictators and charlatans displayed everywhere, I asked him if he wasn't embarrassed by their presence, they were such sobs.

"Kingsley, anyone who is doing anything anywhere is always sailing close to the wind."

It's often the same in business. If you are not pissing off somebody, you are probably not doing your job.

King I have always disliked LBJ. Reading his biography only intensified my distaste for him. Read the chapter on the hearing for Leland Olds, the federal electric utility regulator.

As far as sailing close to the water a felony is a felony a felon is a felon, getting stuff done of not, convicted or not.

Mike, there is no doubt LBJ was a scoundrel. As a country, we've come to expect politicians to be nice guys, and we know so much today about their private lives, that a thorough scoundrel probably couldn't be nominated. We seem to have lost leaders who can get things done or even leaders who know what needs doing. I was struck with how gradually FDR nudged the country toward an understanding of why we had to confront Nazi Germany. I wonder if any politician today has his grasp of world affairs. I know none of them has his ability to convince us that our problems can be endured and overcome.

In fairness, both LBJ and FDR had the press covering for them. Ronald Reagan did what he did with the near-all-liberal media in full throated opposition of his campaign and programs.

Remember "memogate"? Dan Rather and Mary Mapes planned a release date of the story that would do the most damage to George W. Bush's presidential prospects. But, had they had the goods on a liberal, I bet they would have canned the (faked) story or at least delayed it until after the election. Never mind all the obvious clues that it was faked.

Even now the media is almost all liberal. It was only with the advent of the internet that the dirt on the liberals started showing up, some of it on Monica's blue dress.

The lefty media in Roosevelt's time conspired with his campaign not to show him in his wheelchair or struggling with his braces. They covered up JFK's White House dalliances. But they dug down deep in the Watergate break-in.

So the left's pride that their great politicians "sail close to the water" to get things done is really false. Their politicians are just held to a lower standard than the Republicans.

So true Mike, so true!

That's the bottom line. If a Ronald Reagan or George Bush had pulled 10% of what the Obama administration and hs cohorts had done you'd have heard about it 24/7 on the "mainstream news media". The condemnation would have been fierce and nasty. That's why I have nothing but distain for today's "news" media.
As an aside: As a student of history Roosvelt is getting off with very light treatment here so far from Burns**. We'll see what's reported when we get into the war end negotiation with the Russians. As I've previously stated; Roosevelt was a clost communist and basically "gave away the store" before he expired resulting in a 50+ year Cold War with the Russians and untold suffering on the part of the Eastern Europeans.
With the amateur occupying the White House today in charge it looks like we may be headed right back into his direction.
Jim
**Burns is well know for his left wing politics.

Mike, I---a liberal, although it would have been the same if said by a conservative---referred to sailing close to the wind. It means barely legal in nautical parlance. You postulate a liberal pride in criminality. Your premise is false. Apology accepted.

I checked, and not a once did Mike mention victory, I mean criminality. Any means is acceptable if it can be gotten away with or excused with pc. Even the worst got'yas can be delayed to footnotes on the lecture tour years later. A crisis is just an opportunity, wink.

In nautical parlance it means you have so much sail on your boat while tracking across the wind uou are on the verge of tipping over.

FDR and LBJ illegally funneled oil baron money to Democratic House candidates in the 1940? election. An IRS agent documented this while he was auditing Brown and Root. Brown and Root actually had the temerity to deduct their illegal political donations as business expenses. FDR had his Secretary of the Treasury quash the audit and the felony investigation. Those are felonies and high crimes.

So what the left likes to call "sailing close to the wind" is actually criminality, covered up by their co-conspirators - the lefty dominated media. The left's maxim is "The end justifies the means." Once I understood that then everything became clear. The Republicans get indicted, impeached, and flogged from public life for doing what the Democrats do on a routine basis.