ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 1, 1996 TAG: 9607010024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BEN BEAGLE
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
I wonder what Bob Woodward, who can turn out a book in the time it takes most of us to microwave the turkey bacon, would have done if he had been around in Abraham Lincoln's time.
I'm glad he wasn't because Abe obviously had enough trouble with the Civil War and his wife.
Judging from what Bob wrote in his latest book about Hillary Clinton having a psychic in for tea or something and maybe endangering national security, the bottom would have been out of the Lincoln tub....
WASHINGTON - Robert Woodward's 15th book since 1858 says President Lincoln recently had a dream in which he is in a boat approaching an "unknown shore" and there was a lot of black crepe and a coffin in the White House.
Woodward, whose scathing book on the Buchanan administration didn't really start the Civil War, wrote that the first lady was especially disturbed by the eerie quality of the dream and the president called in Harvey Podkiller, a well-known dream interpreter, at her insistence.
Podkiller, the book said, told the president he was either going to die in office or go on vacation to a beach where the prices were too high.
A White House spokesman said the president puts little faith in dream analysis and had agreed to call Podkiller only if Mrs. Lincoln would cancel a planned seance in the East Room.
Mrs. Lincoln reportedly left the White House in a huff - taking the cars to New York where she spent a lot on clothes and carpets.
Mrs. Lincoln is said to have had a dream in which a future president's wife uses astrology to make up her husband's schedule and that this president's wife is also a clothes horse.
The White House said Podkiller was not asked to interpret the first lady's dream.
Opposition members of the House and Senate said privately they want to determine who knew what and when and if the government paid Podkiller's expenses from and to Lonesome Ford, Neb.
"There's a smoking gun here somewhere," said a senator who begged to be identified.
Podkiller, set upon by reporters after his arrival back in Lonesome Ford, said he would stand by his interpretation of the president's dream and he said he has analyzed the dreams of many other prominent people.
"You guys should hear the lulu Stephen A. Douglas laid on me one time," Podkiller said.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB