We cats apologize for leaving the ever-creepy Mark Sanford at the top of the blog for so long — but we were on the road the last couple of days, for a conference at The Carter Center. You didn't know that they allowed cats to attend meetings there, did you? Well, they do.
The gathering was nonpartisan: a report to donors about the wildly successful programs that the Center conducts around the world, fighting disgusting third-world diseases and monitoring elections in developing countries. But occasionally discussions can revolve around politics, old and new.
This time, the subject was one of President Carter's most important accomplishments: two treaties that gradually returned control of the Panama Canal to, believe it or not, Panama. Those too young to remember this kerfuffle may be puzzled as to why it was controversial, but believe us, it was a really big deal in 1977-78. And right now, somewhere in right-wing blogosphere someone is probably still screaming about it.
Looking back, what strikes us most is how Congress managed to pull off approval of the treaties in a way that would be absolutely impossible today. In fact, some Republicans actually threw politics to the wind to cooperate with the White House, and we're sure that Howard Baker's leadership on the issue ended up costing him the 1980 GOP nomination.
The peaceful resolution of the Panama Canal is just one reason why the "Carter-is-a-great-ex-President-but-was-a-lousy-President" meme is a canard. We doubt that many Americans today would say that the canal would have been worth an invasion — and we're proud that our country fired no shots in anger while Jimmy Carter was President.
No comments:
Post a Comment