Blasts from the past!

The CBC amazes with Prime Ministers and Presidents:

In his book The Presidents and the Prime Ministers, author Lawrence Martin mentions how John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, "would alienate all of Washington with displays of contempt for the presidents and their men." Indeed, the subtitle of Martin's book catches the true spirit of relations across the world's longest undefended border: Washington and Ottawa Face to Face: The Myth of Bilateral Bliss 1867-1982.
...
1962 - Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on President John F. Kennedy: "He's a hothead. He's a fool - too young, too brash, too inexperienced, and a boastful son of a bitch!"

1965 - at the height of the Vietnam War, Prime Minister Lester Pearson visited President Lyndon Johnson at the White House. Pearson gave a scathing speech one night about the war, then appeared at the White House the next day to confront a livid Johnson. As Martin describes it, LBJ grabbed Pearson by the shirt collar, lifted the prime minister off the floor and shouted, "You pissed on my rug!"

I believe diplomats call those "frank exchanges of views."

And while we're digging up the past, Thomas Roeser has a US History quiz in the Chicago Sun-Times:

He was ''personally opposed, but'' -- the nation's most prominent pro-choicer. A nationally known U.S. senator. Straddled the most divisive domestic issue of his day. Sought the presidency by flip-flopping to please all sides. Beset by clergymen he charged were mixing politics with religion. Married a controversial heiress whose vast holdings spurred severe criticism.

John Kerry? Sounds like him, but guess again.

Well, enough historical hijinks, time to get back to Lurch and his butler:

An April 28 article in the newspaper that prints all the news that fits its agenda (which makes one wonder how this one got past the 43nd Street editorial trolls), Kerry’s butler has on him at all times, or within instant reach, such absolute necessities of stressful political life as:

Loose change, Tylenol, Advil, Advil Liquid Gels, Advil Sinus pills, Swedish hand cream, Halls cough drops, Scope mouthwash, a tube of Blistex, Band-Aids, a sewing kit, little zip-lock plastic baggies containing made-fresh-daily peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil of course, cans of strawberry diet milkshake, Imodium and Handiwipes.

Wipes? That raises the question – not answered here, you can bet your bippy – of just what it is the pampered senator can or can’t or won’t do for himself, unassisted, on his very own, now that he’s over age 3.