The Other Roosevelt

Uncle Dick's Private Reserve
The Drilling Fields, Alaska

One of the biggest lies being surgically inserted/insinuated into George W. Bush's 60 day/60 city Bamboozle Palooza Tour is the notion that Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself wanted 'private' accounts to be part of Social Security way back in the beginning.

Of course, this makes about as much sense as suggesting that FDR supported the rise of Hitler because a War in Europe would help America claw its way out of the Great Depression.

Which is not to say that the latter scenario won't be recycled by the Rovians in, say, the 'Jeb Years' when Rupert Murdoch's designated screamer replacement for the newly annointed FCC uberBoss Bill O'Reilly, Ashton Kutcher, declares:

'Like, Dude, don't you know we had to invent that Mushie guy in Pakistan so we could put the people to work building all these bunker-busting nukes so we could, like, punk him!'

Which got us to wondering if the current Bush out front of the Carlyle Curtain, his Twiggness, has ever heard of that other Roosevelt, Theodore.

Because, as Joel Connelly of the Seattle PI points out, with yesterday's Senate vote to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, now is a good time to remember Teddy:

"Under President Theodore Roosevelt, America was coming out of the Gilded Age. Given its name by Mark Twain, the Gilded Age was the opulent, corrupt era of the late 19th century in which corporate moguls ruled the country.

The trust-busting Roosevelt inaugurated a progressive era.

He created our national forest system and designated national monuments in the Grand Canyon and Olympic Mountains. He protected the vast estuary of Alaska's Copper River Delta from exploitation by greedy coal barons."

But we won't hold our breath. After all, rumour has it that the only Theodore the Twig is familiar with is the one who sings with Alvin, and we're not talkin' about Dave and the Blasters.

And besides, as he has stated many times before, the Twig only learns new stuff when his minions put it right under his nose (or sneak it into ESPN-2 "editorials" between bouts of celebrity poker and the tractor pulls).

And those minions sure as heck aren't going to start dredging up the legacy of the Tedster at this moment of inflammatory infamy.

Why?

Because TR was a Republican.

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Update: As a couple of South of 49th readers have pointed out, Eisenhower was a Republican too - and it was he who signed off on the ANWR just prior to cleaning his out his desk for Jack Kennedy in 1960.
DoubleSecretProbation Update: We on the Left Coast of Canuckistan should not be smug and/or complacent on this issue. After all, Disco Dick Neufeld has his 6 million dollar propaganda man, Steve Simons working overtime trying to do the same thing in the Hecate Straight.

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