69 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
69 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
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GREAT RECONCILIATIONS
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By M.L. Verb
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Forgiveness is marvelous to see. So cleansing, uplifting, cathartic. So
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rare, too, especially in politics.
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Politics--especially at the presidential level--is full of examples of
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unforgiving attitudes. For instance, more than 10 years ago I sat in a South
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Dakota coffee shop with former Sen. George McGovern and listened to him grouse
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about how Sen. Tom Eagleton, briefly Mr. McGovern's 1972 running mate, had
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ruined chances for Democrats to win the White House that year. Even impossible
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dreams die still clinging to deception.
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There are other examples of twistedness that an unforgiving attitude can
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create in politics, but I don't want to dwell on sorrow. I want to praise an
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example of political forgiveness that may set a new standard for enlightenment
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and tolerance.
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The forgiver is Vice President George Bush. The forgivee is (it embarrasses
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me to say) someone in the newspaper business, the late William Loeb, publisher
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of the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader.
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The Loeb national reputation was achieved by venomous editorial attacks on
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any politician who dared express a position to the left of Friedrich Nietzsche
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or Attila the Hun (aka, the Scourge of God). These vicious Loeb opinions were
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widely read only because of the disproportionate importance each four years of
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the New Hampshire presidential primary election.
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He once attacked kindly President Ford as "Jerry the Jerk." President
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Eisenhower, a man almost anyone would love his sister to marry, was dubbed
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"Dopey Dwight" by the poison Loeb pen. He made Ed Muskie cry. Once he called
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Jimmy Carter an "out-and-out leftist coated over and disguised with peanut
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oil." He described Eugene McCarthy as a "skunk." Henry Kissinger, in classic
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Loeb words, was "a boot-licking supplicant to the communists." He even called
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Ronald Reagan, long a darling of conservatives, "Rudderless Ron."
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And when George Bush campaigned for the presidency in 1980, Mr. Loeb called
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him "The Hypocrite," said he was "incompetent" and suggested voters reject the
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Bush campaign "as if it were the Black Plague itself."
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But guess what. George Bush is bigger than Bill Loeb. The vice president
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refuses to carry a grudge. George Bush has forgiven Mr. Loeb.
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In an inspiring gesture of magnanimity Mr. Bush plans to walk the second
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mile, give up his cloak, turn his other cheek. There is a $250-a-plate
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Washington salute soon to honor Mr. Loeb (who died in 1981). And Mr. Bush
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has agreed to give the keynote "special tribute" to Mr. Loeb.
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But that's not all. The event is sponsored by an outfit called "Project
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'88," organized by Max Hugel, a former CIA deputy director, and there are lots
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of Republicans who say that even though "Project '88" is not committed to any
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candidate yet, it's an anti-Bush group that still thinks Mr. Bush is a closet
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liberal.
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Great reconciliations of history come to mind. Richard Nixon, after all,
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went o China. The pope paid tribute to Martin Luther and the Protestant
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Reformation a year or two back. Liz Taylor remarried Dick Burton (well, not
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ALL forgiveness is forever). Even Ronald Reagan recently sat down with the
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head of the Evil Empire.
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But what are those compared with George Bush forgiving a man who once wrote
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that his election "would lead to the destruction of this nation"?
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It seems too much to hope, but maybe influential Republicans can talk Mr.
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Bush into running for president again himself some day so everyone-- including
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Bill Loeb's widow, Nackey Loeb, who writes editorials for the paper today--can
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have a chance to vote for a man whose capacity to forgive is so vast and
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undiscriminating.
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