Kicking around Nixon and more
He's back. But you knew he would be.
Suddenly he is everywhere - Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States.
Perhaps you watch "30 Rock," NBC's hilarious parody of a comedy-variety show featuring comedian Tracy Morgan? I especially recommend watching "30 Rock" at work, on NBC.com. The website is very user-friendly, and this may be the highest and best use of your time at the office. Unless you nap, that is.
A week or so ago on "30 Rock," Richard Nixon appeared to Morgan in a dream sequence, to recruit him into the Republican Party. Famed Republican Sammy Davis Jr. also appeared in the dream. "You got to help the party get back to its groovy roots, baby!" Davis pleads.
Nixon, played by Alec Baldwin, notes that the party has lost prestige because of the Bush administration. "And Watergate!" Morgan pipes up. "I'm trying to keep that on the DL [down low]," Nixon/Baldwin responds.
But that's just the tip of the TrickyDick- berg. This month Scribner will publish Rick Perlstein's 896-page doorstop "Nixonland," which should probably be subtitled "More Than You Would Ever Really Want to Know About Richard Nixon." Nixon, of course, remains a great enigma: a right-wing Red-baiter who expanded government beyond the wildest dreams of JFK's New Frontier boys; a Chamber of Commerce mouthpiece who established the Environmental Protection Agency . . . the list goes on.
"Sorting out what Nixon truly was is a mug's game," Perlstein says in a bloggingheads.tv debate; "Talk about opportunists!"
If you want to read long Nixon books, you won't want to miss Fox News reporter James Rosen's 640-page revisionist biography of Nixon's attorney general, "The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate." A Publishers Weekly review notes the contradictory nature of Rosen's tale: "Mitchell is painted as a force for propriety who was framed by others. . . . Unfortunately, Rosen's salutes to Mitchell's integrity and reverence for the law clash with his accounts of the man's misdeeds: undermining the Paris peace talks, suborning and committing perjury, tolerating the criminal scheming in Nixon's White House and reelection campaign."
Nobody's perfect, eh? But you have to agree with Slate editor Jack Shafer's famous observation: Richard Nixon & Co. are the gifts that keep on giving.
Look who else is back; Herodotus! Reviewing Berkshires businessman Robert Strassler's new edition of the "Histories," Daniel Mendelsohn writes in The New Yorker: "It seems that, since the end of the Cold War and the advent of the Internet, the moment has come, once again, for Herodotus's dazzlingly associative style and, perhaps even more, for his subject: implacable conflict between East and West."
Herodotus . . . the new David Foster Wallace? Yes, Mendelsohn says that, while praising "this ostensibly archaic epic with the sense of something remarkably familiar, even contemporary." He loves everything about the Strassler book, except the text. Details, details! Nobody's perfect.
Who else is back? Mike Lowell - thank heavens! - and short story writer Julie Hecht are back. "Grand Theft Auto" is back. More mayhem! Kill the grand jury witnesses! Big hair is back. This summer, it's reunion time (again) at the multiplex: The Incredible Hulk, Maxwell Smart, the Narnia gang, and the ageless Indiana Jones will all be back. David Duchovny will be taking a break from his semi-depressing, semi-pornographic, and semi-uplifting series "Californication" to reprise the "X-Files" movie. Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy" is coming back. I'm game! Break out the Baby Ruths!
Harold and Kumar are already back, awash in bad reviews. If you think the Harold and Kumar movies need reviews to succeed, you have a lot to learn about film business.
"He's Back," a Wall Street Journal headline trumpeted last week, and instinctually, you knew they were talking about Bill Clinton. The article described the "Billification" of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, with him insinuating his cronies into her election team. That is either a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. I say: Not so good. He had his shot.
Then there are the people who just keep coming back, even though you really wish they would stay away. Jimmy Carter; can't he just sit at home and admire his Nobel Prize? The Rev. Jeremiah Wright; this is your time to enjoy your retirement. Fly fishing; Habitat for Humanity - whatever works for you.
If you won't go away, how can we look forward to your return?
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com. 