Testify, St. Santorum

They're singin' the devil's music in the White House!

Foxes Have Dens (But No Dems)

Barack Obama preached the gospel at a Holy Week White House breakfast for ministers:

I wanted to host this breakfast for a simple reason -- because as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there's something about the resurrection -- something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective.

We all live in the hustle and bustle of our work... But then comes Holy Week. The triumph of Palm Sunday. The humility of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. His slow march up that hill, and the pain and the scorn and the shame of the cross. And we're reminded that in that moment, he took on the sins of the world -- past, present and future -- and he extended to us that unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection.

In the words of the book of Isaiah: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

This magnificent grace, this expansive grace, this "Amazing Grace" calls me to reflect. And it calls me to pray. It calls me to ask God for forgiveness for the times that I've not shown grace to others, those times that I've fallen short. It calls me to praise God for the gift of our son -- his Son and our Savior.

Meanwhile Fox News published this misleading, provocative headline, with an ugly picture of the president: "WH Fails to Release Easter Proclamation." The same was true under Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and both Presidents Bush.

Nixon's Score? Neighborhood of 37

On its YouTube page, the Nixon library is having fun displaying video taken around the Nixon White House by military aides. This September 1971 clip (which has no sound), in which 37 shows international bowling champions his personal alley (removed by President Obama), is remarkable for being one of the few glimpses you'll get of Nixon without his suit coat.

One of the camera operators also shows special interest in his nervous hand gestures as he does his best to be a gracious if characteristically controlling host to perfect strangers. Remember that Nixon was deeply introverted. His anxiousness seems more obvious because we can't experience him holding the moment together with that commanding baritone of his.

Both he and the champions bowl a few times. A second camera evidently captured the results so that someday an editor could match them with the right bowlers. Two gutter balls and several spares. You decide.

Block That Elbow!

Ever seen a president through a White House family quarters window? Well, here you go: Barack Obama, holding an ice pack to his mouth, watching the national Christmas tree arrive this afternoon. As we know, he got a bloody lip playing basketball and ended up with 12 stitches.

I'm sorry he got hurt, of course. But there was a little payoff for your curious blogger. On Wednesday the Washington Post ran this review of a documentary about presidential photographers. All it has to say about Richard Nixon is that he was grumpy with Ollie Atkins on the last night of his presidency, which you perhaps can understand. By and large Nixon was gracious to the people he worked with, and he had a great relationship with Atkins.

Atkins' most famous picture showed Nixon with Elvis. What I was curious about was Obama's favorite picture -- which, according to his official chief lensman, Pete Souza, shows him in a more masterly moment on the court, blocking a shot by his regular basketball buddy and body man, Reggie Love. Of course, I wanted to see it, and thanks to today's mishap, MSNBC ran it. May I also note that it was taken, in September 2009, in the gym of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City?

Department Of It Goes With The Territory

The New York Times:

The plot unfolded in dramatic fashion on international television, with scenes of security teams surrounding cargo planes in several countries, military fighters accompanying a passenger plane into New York and a grim-faced president and his aides, many of whom had spent a sleepless night.

Poor dears. I bet the stewards brought milk and cookies!

Pool Reporters

For the first time since the series ended, I'm watching NBC's "The West Wing" from beginning to end. Someone has to keep the classics alive. And who better to probe the frequent Nixon resonances? Who, period?

Here's one: In a subplot during episode #11 of the second season (2:11, the canonically minded might say), "The Leadership Breakfast," broadcast in January 2001, White House aide Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) proposes a space-saving efficiency: Moving the press briefing room from the West Wing to the Old Executive Office Building. Press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) demurs, saying reporters would assume the White House was hiding things from them. "We are hiding things from them," Sam says.

In the course of the show we learn that the press room was built over a swimming pool. What series creator (and 2:11 writer) Aaron Sorkin doesn't reveal is that the pool was installed for FDR and decommissioned and drained by Nixon. The new digs were more spacious than journalists' traditional haunt, the Roosevelt Room, which couldn't contain their burgeoning arsenal of broadcast gear. In addition, Nixon wanted them further away from the Oval Office. He was hiding things from them, too.

Does The Dried Fruit Constitute A Dirty Trick?

The take for the 2,000 kids who'll trick or treat at the White House, according to the AP:

A box of White House M&Ms with the president's signature imprinted on it, a sweet dough butter cookie made by White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, a National Park Foundation Ranger activity book, and a serving of dried fruit mix made up of cherries, apricots, pears, apples and papayas.

Hat tip to Mike Cheever

Imagine

Bill O'Reilly's day as White House chief of staff.

The Silent Majority Lives

A friend sent a link to the Rick Santelli "Rant of the Year" on CNBC, which attracted the White House's ire but which I'd missed until now. Hard to see why people got so upset. He obviously had the moral support of the folks on the trading floor. It's not any harsher that Keith Olbermann's periodic rants, though it comes from a different ideological perspective (or in Santelli's case, a non-ideological, middle-class, "Network," I'm-not-going-to-take-it-anymore kind of a place). Interesting that he invokes RN's silent majority.

Nixon In China

Props for Nixon White House photographer Byron Schumaker here, from a writer and photog in the UK.

Thanks To Pat, "We" Includes "Me"

In a wonderful inaugural package, the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance includes a poem about First Lady Pat Nixon by Nikki Grimes, a bestselling and award-winning children’s author who begins with an author’s note:

The White House did not always belong to us all. For many years, African Americans certainly felt left out. But there was also a time when the deaf and the blind were strangers to the White House corridors. First Lady Patricia Nixon changed all that in 1969, throwing the doors open to finally welcome this segment of the American population. I tried to imagine what that first visit might have been like for one of the blind students who set foot inside those hallowed halls. Known for her personal touch, (As first lady, she personally shook the hands of more than a quarter of a million visitors in her first term, alone!) I’m certain Mrs. Nixon made this visit a memorable one.

Staking Claim

I told myself
it was no big deal.
So, no blind person had ever been
to the White House before.
So what
I wasn’t getting my hopes up
for anything special,
never mind what Teacher said.
But then, Mrs. P got to me,
Kind as any aunt,
though no kin of mine
(her skin, they say, was birch
to my ebony)
it’s her gentleness I remember.
She guided me through the halls
of that grand house,
coaxed my nimble fingers along
the scaled serpent legs
of the wooden Empire sofa
in the Red Room,
and tempted me to touch
the Green Room’s silk draperies,
soft as a hush.
When my fingers tangled
in its tassels,
Mrs. P’s laughter
tinkled like glass.
Then she surprised my warm palms
with the cool silver
of an ancient urn
that once served hot coffee
to John and Abigail Adams.
China Room, Green Room,
Red Room, Vermeil Room—
these were just words to me.
But thanks to Mrs. P
I did “See” the White House that day,
and the memory lodges deep
in the beds of my fingertips.
Now, when others speak
proudly and personally
of Our White House,
their “our” and “we”
includes me.

– Nikki Grimes

Restoring Domestic Tranquility

Since July's earthquake, the Nixon Library's White House East Room has looked a little bare. Martha Washington's portrait had come tumbling down, which meant we had to get them both reframed. Long story! Isn't it always? That's Max, Martin, and Adolpho doing the honors, rehanging GW. We're just glad the father of our country made it home for the holidays. And don't worry: The portraits are facsimiles of the ones in the other East Room.

A Subject Where Everyone Has An Opinion

In a New York Times article about Presidential decorating, the Nixon family stars on the front page, in this photo of the Nixons, Tricia Nixon, and Eisenhowers in the White House family quarters. Several Presidents come up for teasing, along with the PE's family:

For his part, [comedian Andy] Borowitz wondered if Michelle Obama might take “that victory dress and upholster a couch with it.”