So yeah, like I said [1], people aren't happy about the developing primary in the Third Senatorial District between Democrat Dahroug and republican Bodkin. At least one person was unhappy enough to sit down and go through Newsday's archives, apparently.
Which is where one can find this letter to the editor, penned on the passing of Richard Nixon, by one Christopher D. Bodkin of Islip, published on May 1st, 1994 (Nixon died on April 22nd, 1994):
I met Richard Nixon three times. Each time he was sitting behind the Mets dugout at Shea Stadium. My seats were always close by, and between innings small groups of people would go over to him to ask if he would autograph their programs or to just shake his hand and say hello. He always wore a jacket and tie, no matter how hot it was, and he was always gracious and friendly and only too happy to chat, mostly about baseball.
While I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, there was never a time when his name was not a household word.
To me, he was a man who appeared to be unexciting, yet he kept doing exciting, even extraordinary things. Nixon the politician was much like Hamlet the prince. Unexplainable character flaws created an atmosphere, an environment, that led to the tragic, needless and mysterious felony that was called Watergate. It was his undoing.
Yet, all of us are much more than the total of our mistakes. I believe that, in the fullness of time, Richard Nixon will be seen as the great man he was. In the meantime, it will be hard to think of political life in this country without him.
More immediately, it will be hard for me to go to Shea Stadium and look over to the Mets dugout and know that he will never be there again. I will miss him. [Emph. added]
Because nothing says "more and better Democrats" like paeans to Richard freaking Nixon, I suppose.
There's nothing inexplicable about Richard Nixon's character flaws. The man was deeply paranoid and vengeful [2]. Sample quote [3], one of many:
"Now here's the point, Bob," Nixon tells Bob Haldeman, "please get me the names of the Jews. You know, the big Jewish contributors to the Democrats. Could we please investigate some of the (expletives)? that's all."
He was also, obviously, a hateful, vindictive anti-Semite [4]. And then, there's that Southern Strategy [5] business. By the way, he was also anti-choice.
Richard Nixon was not a great man; he was a serviceable President mainly in comparison with his republican successors, if you manage to ignore the bigotry, the lawbreaking, the full-frontal assault on the Constitution.
Is it really any wonder that there is open dismay at the grassroots over the idea that Chris Bodkin is trying to run as a Democrat with the backing of the Democratic establishment? Is anyone surprised?
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