say nothing that put
momentary slight even
on that great office

Taft had been tempted to go to New York and personally welcome Roosevelt home.

According to one report in the Indianapolis Star, his advisers had suggested that “this demonstration of amity would be appreciated by Col. Roosevelt and would do more than anything else to drive away the suspicion that seems to have gained ground that the relations between the chief executive and his predecessor are strained.”

Upon reflection, however, Taft concluded that it would diminish the status of the presidential office “if he were to ‘race down to the gangplank,’ to be the first to shake hands with the former President.”

He explained to his military aide that he was “charged with the dignity of the Executive” and was determined to “say nothing that will put a momentary slight even on that great office.”

No matter how much he would rather be Will, welcoming his friend Theodore, he was now President Taft.

“I think, moreover, that [Roosevelt] will appreciate this feeling in me,” he concluded, “and would be the first one to resent the slightest subordination of the office of President to any man.”

“Charged with the dignity of the Executive” and was determined to “say nothing that will put a momentary slight even on that great office.

Charged with the dignity of the Executive.

Say nothing that will put a momentary slight even on that great office.

Oh well.

Excerpt from The bully pulpit : Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2013).

set aside to suit
vanity, obstinacy, and
one man’s ignorance

In a letter to Winston Churchill, Oct. 1, 1938, during the Munich Crisis where Europe gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler in hopes that Hitler would go away, Guy Burgess wrote:

Traditional English policy since the reign of Elizabeth, the policy of Marlborough, of Pitt, of Eyre Crowe, of Vansittart, has been blandly set aside to suit the vanity, the obstinacy, & the ignorance of one man, no longer young. We shall be told he has saved the peace, that anything is worth that. This is not true. He has made war inevitable, & lost it.

Young Mr. Burgess at the time was the BBC representative at the House of Commons, responsible for the Week in Westminster program and had gone to interview Churchill about the efforts of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to placate Hitler and found Churchill, of all people, at a loss for words and unable to take part in a radio interview.

In respect to transparency, it must be mentioned that later in life, Mr. Burgess would be part of what became known as, The Cambridge Five. Five notable figures in Britain who became committed communists during their time at Cambridge and were secret agents for the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, the words, the vanity, the obstinacy, & the ignorance of one man ring loud today.

As does the warning:

We shall be told he has saved the peace, that anything is worth that.

This is not true.

He has made war inevitable, & lost it.

*As recounted in Winston S. Churchill – The Prophet of Truth (1922-1939) The Official Biography of Winston Churchill: Vol 5, by Martin Gilbert (Houghton, Mifflin, Boston, 1966).

not create any
right or benefit at law
by any party

A current Presidential Executive Order begins:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

And ends with:

Sec 6 General Provisions, Part C: This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

As President Lyndon Johnson said, and take him for all in all, he would had the current person in office for lunch, that the goal of his programs was to write it in the books of law.

Why go to all the trouble of legislation and dealing with bills and committees and votes when you can issue an Executive Order that is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

Not making anything up, here is the order in question.

If you learn anything in TV it is the triumph of perception over reality.

justice is coming
and everybody seems to …
to be dreading it

Adapted from the line: Inside the Richard J. Daley Center, they passed through security scanners and took the elevator to the sixteenth floor. The place was bustling with lawyers and litigants, clerks and cops, either hustling about or huddled in little pockets of serious conversations. Justice was looming, and everyone seemed to be dreading it.

In the book, The Litigators by John Grisham.

Really nothing from nowhere about anything in particular but the idea of the folks in this current Executive Branch of the Government are, in the back of their minds, in their hearts, where they are truly honest with themselves at 3 in the morning, there are thinking this.

The know that what they are doing is wrong.

Justice is looming.

And they are all dreading it.