Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004300220
SECTION: F-3 EDITORIAL PAGE: EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Modern grave-dancing is popular with some liberal Democrats, though occasionally one sees it tried on someone such as Lyndon Johnson. His final resting place has been disturbed by Robert Caro's scathing biography which portrays Johnson as someone with only slightly more appeal than those wild and crazy guys in the film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Grave-dancing is becoming as popular as the lambada and just as obscene. You don't even have to be dead. Notice how the grave-dancers are already warming up for their work atop the final resting places of Ronald Reagan and, of course, Richard Nixon.
Nixon seems to be the most hated president of modern times - not by the people, a vast majority of whom elected him twice to the White House - but by the press, which has busied itself lately trying to bury Nixon alive.
The occasion for the latest Nixon-bashing is his new book, "In the Arena," which Time magazine excerpted in a cover story issue. Nixon's admissions of wrongdoing are couched in the formal language that has always betrayed his inability to fully express deep-seated emotions. He continues to deny his critics the groveling and self-flagellation they seek, but since they have not submitted guidelines about what might qualify him for their political absolution, we do not know what would satisfy them.
It no longer matters. In the 16th year since he resigned from office, it is time for Richard Nixon to be forgiven, not for his sake, but for ours. As his former top aide, Charles Colson, tells me, "Nixon has become a scapegoat in the Hebrew sense of that word. We can transfer our own sins and shortcomings to him, absolving ourselves of wrongdoing and allowing us to feel smugly self-righteous so long as we have Nixon to kick around."
Having been a "black cat," as Colson says, in the eyes of the press since the Alger Hiss case in 1948, Nixon "now laughs at his detractors. The more they snipe at him, the more he's elevated, the more important he is seen to be." Colson says Nixon "is smarter than any reporter I've ever met and they can't stand it. The only way they can gain an edge is to make him morally inferior."
The real tragedy of Richard Nixon is that he believes his resurrections have all been self-generated. He has learned no spiritual lessons from his various crises, only political ones. He is a man who has not found peace, but lives only to fight other battles.
Still, we ought to declare that the statute of limitations on Nixon-bashing has expired and that nothing new can be said about Watergate or about Nixon. Let's leave the legacy of the man to the historians, whether they are biased or fair. For now, we need his mind and the contributions he can make, particularly his contributions to the international scene.
When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency following Nixon's resignation, he said, "Our long national nightmare is over." It is not over as long as the vultures continue to circle overhead and dive-bomb him whenever he opens his mouth.
It is time for Richard Nixon to be welcomed back into the arena where he can contribute his considerable knowledge and skill at a time when the United States and the world, which have little left to learn about Watergate, can use it.
The best place to do that would be at the 1992 Republican National Convention, and the best person to make that happen is the kind and gentle George Bush. Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB