Hardly Fulsom Praise

Good for the Boston Globe. It recruited John Mitchell biographer James Rosen (left) to review Don Fulsom's Nixon's Darkest Secrets, which recycled Anthony Summers' false wife-beating charges and proposed that Nixon (the straightest, squarest person in history) was gay. He calls it "the most virulently hateful book about the 37th president ever written -- and the worst." Amen.

Max Kennedy And The Cone Of Silence

My predecessor as Nixon library director, Hugh Hewitt, attracted intense and undesirable national attention for saying that journalist Bob Woodward wouldn't be welcome to consult our archival materials because he wasn't a "legitimate researcher." I was then Richard Nixon's chief of staff. Nixon had me call and say that while he appreciated the thought behind the anathema Hewitt had pronounced, he should lift it pronto.

Now we learn that the Kennedy library and one of Robert F. Kennedy's sons, Max, is blocking access to the late attorney general's papers. Among other things, scholars are eager to learn what Kennedy knew and when he knew it about plans to try to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro. According to John Tierney, writing at James Fallows' blog*, when a Boston Globe reporter contacted Max Kennedy to find out why this rich cache of materials is still in Steven Spielberg's federal warehouse with the Ark of the Covenant, here's what resulted:

[C]lassic stonewalling -- some blather about scholars with "poorly conceived projects" who fail to follow "correct procedures" to seek permission to consult the papers.

We'll see if the Kennedys have more luck with that line than we did. Of course in this case there may be nothing anyone can do, since all the Kennedy records were considered private property according to pre-Watergate archival practice. Still, Tierney writes:

The Kennedys don't deserve this attention and adulation if they're not willing to be open with the truth, if they remain intent on having the public see only the attractive side of Robert Kennedy's legacy. They don't deserve the unstinting praise and the undying devotion if they're not willing to come clean. If they were to do so, they might deserve the attention that comes their way now by constant management and manipulation of the family image.

*I originally erred in writing that James Fallows was the author.

Healthy Self-Esteem At 60

Spectacular photos from China's 60th anniversary celebration, courtesy Boston.com

Boston Massacre

The Boston Globe, $1.1 billion in debt, could close without major concessions from its unions. Over at "Slate," media writer Jack Shafer errs in arguing that newspapers aren't really essential to the future of democracy. What he misses is that every other major news source -- TV, radio, and the hackosphere -- gets the bulk of its information from newspapers. So it's not newspapers per se that are essential. It's reporting, and newspaper journalists do about 90% of it.

Plus There's Ample Free Parking

The morning line from the "Boston Globe" on the churches in the running to be the Obama family's spiritual home. So far, no Episcopal parishes. I'd vote for St. Mary's in Foggy Bottom, a small, recently restored church with a rich history and an amazing music program, not to mention proximity to the White House.

Too Late For Another Edit, I Guess

"Frost/Nixon" Oscar buzz could turn to raspberries if too many critics say that director Ron Howard was too kind to, um...well, you know. Ty Burr in the Boston Globe:

It's a most sympathetic portrait of a statesman-villain, one that matches the current, post-Bush view of the 37th president as a tragic figure rather than a scoundrel. Once again, the movies have given us not the Nixon that was but the Nixon we need.