I, Lobbyist

After reading this short note a while back regarding efforts By Karl Rove, Andy Card and Laura Bush to start developing “the Bush legacy plan,” I’ve come up with an idea for some new legislation. Consequently, I am currently looking for members of either the House or the Senate who are willing to sponsor my bill.

I don’t have a lot of money to pour into campaign coffers in exchange for this support, and I’m not willing to take anyone golfing in Scotland, or let anyone live on my boat. But my proposal does have a catchy name and the potential to build a lot of good will among most of the voting public for anyone in Congress who chooses to take it up!

I call it The Presidential “Incomplete Grade” Initiative, and it would make illegal any effort to raise funds for, or conduct activities related to, “legacy polishing” for an outgoing or ex-president, as long as any war declared by that president continues!

This would mean there could be no planning for an architecturally striking presidential library (such as the Clinton Library shown above), built as a monument to the president’s term in office, as long as a war that he (or she) started is unresolved.

It would mean there could be no “think tank” churning out position papers touting the benefits of the president’s policies, as long as soldiers are dying in the aftermath of those policies, and without the ability to determine the final benefit attached to those deaths.

It would mean there could be no vetting of friendly biographers, or ghost writers who could simulate the deeply contemplative thoughts of a wizened veteran of the most powerful job in the free world, as long as the final, most important, lessons of the presidency remain in doubt.

Such a law would be similar to preventing a student from sending out resumes listing an educational degree that was not received, because the student was given an incomplete grade in a critical class required for graduation.

It would be similar to preventing a corporation from sending out a prospectus that reports actual earnings based on projections that will not be realized until some time in the indefinite future.

It would (perhaps more than anything else) be similar to preventing a child from getting his allowance before he completes his homework or does his chores.