Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Glaring Omission in today's column from Jeff Jacoby

Whenever wingnuts start immodestly praising Harry Truman, sensible people are advised to hold onto their wallets and hunker down, the BS will blow like a hurricane I assure you.
Today Jeff goes to great lengths to laud the simplicity of Harry Truman's post presidential rectitude with the exorbitant speaking fees and lavish money-grubbing of the current crop of Ex-Presidents.
Well it is true that Truman turned down a lot of lucrative deals on the grounds that they would diminish the office of the Presidency. However Jeff declines to note that Former President Truman lobbied then House Speaker Sam Rayburn for a Federal pension, he requested such on grounds that he might have to take some undignified offers down the road owing to his own lack of resources.
That is the little know origin of the current presidential pension system, it is quite literally "keep-em'-out-of-trouble" money.

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