Calvin Coolidge

WASHINGTON -- The British historian Paul Johnson was in Washington last month to address a gathering at the Library of Congress on the subject ''Calvin Coolidge and the Last Arcadia.'' The visit was timely, coming as it did in the heat of the war between the Clinton administration and the Republican Congress over whether and how to balance the budget.''We have too much legislation by clamor, by tumult and by pressure,'' said Coolidge more than seven decades ago. Who could disagree?In normal times, Coolidge believed, minimal government must be the norm.

Calvin Coolidge David Greenberg Times Books / 202 pages / $20 In 1924, Bruce Barton, the legendary public relations man, told a colleague, "We might as well recognize, frankly, that we have nothing to sell but Calvin Coolidge." Barton had few problems sending back to the White House the man who looked like he had been weaned on a pickle and "could be silent in five languages." In the Roaring Twenties, after all, policies promoting low taxes, speculation and a small, business-friendly government "seemed the essence of wisdom."

Nineteen ninety-eight was a very good year for the president. President Calvin Coolidge, that is. Routinely disparaged in the past, he is getting new-found respect. He was treated respectfully in two 1998 hardcover biographies: ``The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge'' by Robert H. Ferrell (University Press of Kansas, 244 pages, $29.95), and ``Coolidge: An American Enigma'' by Robert Sobel (Regnery, 462 pages, $34.95).Plus there was a 1998 hardcover collection of 12 long essays based on papers delivered at a 1995 Library of Congress symposium on Coolidge: ``Calvin Coolidge and the Coolidge Era: Essays on the History of the 1920s'' edited by John Earl Haynes (Library of Congress, 329 pages, $50)

Richard Shenkman is a presiden tial historian and editor of the on line magazine TomPaine.com. Appeal: Likability is an important, though not crucial, quality for aspiring presidents to possess. By Richard Shenkman WHO IS GOING to win the White House a little more than a week from now? Two forces are tugging at Americans, one pulling them toward Al Gore, the other toward George W. Bush. That's why the polls keep switching back and forth. One day people feel that this election is about peace and prosperity, the next that it's about personality.

Kisha Ford, a 6-foot sophomore guard, scored 29 points and Dana Johnson, a dominating 6-foot, 2-inch senior center, added 26 as Western opened its season with a 71-31 victory over Archbishop Spalding.The victory came in the first round of the Project Survival-Greater Baltimore Women Inc. Second Annual Pre-Christmas Mixer Invitational Tournament at the College of Notre Dame."Everybody played and got quality time," said Western coach Breezy Bishop. "We really didn't play that well, but we accomplished our goal of having all 10 players contribute."

Richard Shenkman is a presiden tial historian and editor of the on line magazine TomPaine.com. Appeal: Likability is an important, though not crucial, quality for aspiring presidents to possess. By Richard Shenkman WHO IS GOING to win the White House a little more than a week from now? Two forces are tugging at Americans, one pulling them toward Al Gore, the other toward George W. Bush. That's why the polls keep switching back and forth. One day people feel that this election is about peace and prosperity, the next that it's about personality.

Calvin Coolidge David Greenberg Times Books / 202 pages / $20 In 1924, Bruce Barton, the legendary public relations man, told a colleague, "We might as well recognize, frankly, that we have nothing to sell but Calvin Coolidge." Barton had few problems sending back to the White House the man who looked like he had been weaned on a pickle and "could be silent in five languages." In the Roaring Twenties, after all, policies promoting low taxes, speculation and a small, business-friendly government "seemed the essence of wisdom."

HE [H. L. MENCKEN] remained a newspaperman because he liked to sound off, to make a noise. In that respect he did not, in one sense, differ from any other person who has written for a living, whether fiction or fact, prose or poetry. . ."But there were particular compulsions at work within him that made it vital that he do his sounding-off in newsprint. . ."I will remark only on a few of the various needs that propelled him along his way, without attempting to inquire into why they might have done so. These were:"(1)

Washington. -- Last weekend at the Willard Hotel, near the White House he proposes to move into in 17 months, Pete Wilson occupied the Calvin Coolidge Suite. That was not incongruous.Like Coolidge, whose flinty demeanor concealed a considerable wit, Mr. Wilson only seems as bland as oatmeal. He can be funny and scathing (on foreign policy President Clinton ''doesn't appreciate the gravity of his own inadequacies'') but rarely lets those aspects of his personality interfere with the sedative effect of his public persona.

Yesterday's game between Archbishop Spalding and Calvin Coolidge (D.C.) began with a sloppy first quarter that included 17 turnovers and a combined 6-for-24 shooting from the field.Things only got worse for Coolidge, but Spalding settled down and rolled to a 53-27 victory in the Greater Baltimore Women's Basketball Mixer at the College of Notre Dame.Senior point guard Amy Langville scored a game-high 20 points -- including three three-pointers -- to lead the Cavaliers, who improved to 5-0 after an 8-17 finish last season.

Nineteen ninety-eight was a very good year for the president. President Calvin Coolidge, that is. Routinely disparaged in the past, he is getting new-found respect. He was treated respectfully in two 1998 hardcover biographies: ``The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge'' by Robert H. Ferrell (University Press of Kansas, 244 pages, $29.95), and ``Coolidge: An American Enigma'' by Robert Sobel (Regnery, 462 pages, $34.95).Plus there was a 1998 hardcover collection of 12 long essays based on papers delivered at a 1995 Library of Congress symposium on Coolidge: ``Calvin Coolidge and the Coolidge Era: Essays on the History of the 1920s'' edited by John Earl Haynes (Library of Congress, 329 pages, $50)

RECENT REPORTS SAY the Clinton White House has put a pretty stiff price tag on the right to spend a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.Fat cats apparently have to raise or fork over $750,000 to $1.2 million for the Democratic National Committee in order to curl up in the Lincoln Bed.President Clinton can't be accused of deceptive advertising in billing that commodious second-floor bedroom in the White House as Lincoln's. The designation stretches back over administrations of both parties.But any deep-pocketed political contributor who lands himself a night in the Lincoln Bedroom, will be doing something Abraham Lincoln never did. In fact, historians are certain he never even slept in the ''Lincoln Bed.''The wandering bedWhen the White House celebrated its 200th birthday in 1992, Life magazine and other publications marked the occasion with lengthy articles on the mansion, its inhabitants and lore.

WASHINGTON -- The British historian Paul Johnson was in Washington last month to address a gathering at the Library of Congress on the subject ''Calvin Coolidge and the Last Arcadia.'' The visit was timely, coming as it did in the heat of the war between the Clinton administration and the Republican Congress over whether and how to balance the budget.''We have too much legislation by clamor, by tumult and by pressure,'' said Coolidge more than seven decades ago. Who could disagree?In normal times, Coolidge believed, minimal government must be the norm.

Washington. -- Last weekend at the Willard Hotel, near the White House he proposes to move into in 17 months, Pete Wilson occupied the Calvin Coolidge Suite. That was not incongruous.Like Coolidge, whose flinty demeanor concealed a considerable wit, Mr. Wilson only seems as bland as oatmeal. He can be funny and scathing (on foreign policy President Clinton ''doesn't appreciate the gravity of his own inadequacies'') but rarely lets those aspects of his personality interfere with the sedative effect of his public persona.

HE [H. L. MENCKEN] remained a newspaperman because he liked to sound off, to make a noise. In that respect he did not, in one sense, differ from any other person who has written for a living, whether fiction or fact, prose or poetry. . ."But there were particular compulsions at work within him that made it vital that he do his sounding-off in newsprint. . ."I will remark only on a few of the various needs that propelled him along his way, without attempting to inquire into why they might have done so. These were:"(1)

Second-ranked Hammond made its share of runs last night against Lake Clifton in the finale of the Greater Baltimore Women's Basketball Mixer at the College of Notre Dame.But in the end, the fourth-ranked Lakers simply ran away.Led by guards Lashina Gross and DaShawn Coleman, who each scored 20 points, Lake Clifton took an early lead and then answered every Hammond challenge, holding on for a 54-50 win.The Lakers' speedy backcourt seemed unstoppable at times, with Gross, the point guard, slashing through the lane for layups and Coleman -- a second-team All-Metro transfer from Walbrook -- consistently making three-pointers time and again to stop Hammond's comebacks.

FIVE PRESIDENTS were at the dedication of the Reagan Library Monday. They were Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. This is the first time in history that five presidents have ever been together for any purpose.In fact, only rarely have there been five presidents alive at the same time. The last time was 1861-1862, when six -- Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, John Tyler and Martin Van Buren were alive. That's the record.

FOUR physicians have been elected to the U.S. Senate from Maryland, I recalled here Monday, one of whom challenged an incumbent president for his party's presidential nomination.That was Sen. Joseph I. France, M.D. Dr. France was as interesting a pol as this state has produced.He earned his M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, and practiced here. He was from Cecil County and was elected to the State Senate and the U.S. Senate from there, where he lived on a large dairy farm -- Ararat Farms -- overlooking the Susquehanna.

FOUR physicians have been elected to the U.S. Senate from Maryland, I recalled here Monday, one of whom challenged an incumbent president for his party's presidential nomination.That was Sen. Joseph I. France, M.D. Dr. France was as interesting a pol as this state has produced.He earned his M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, and practiced here. He was from Cecil County and was elected to the State Senate and the U.S. Senate from there, where he lived on a large dairy farm -- Ararat Farms -- overlooking the Susquehanna.

WASHINGTON -- Stan Greenberg, President Clinton's pollster, was talking the other day about the ups and downs of his boss' ratings as gauged in the various public-opinion surveys. Some show Clinton climbing slightly and others have him running like a dry creek. While he seems to have gotten a temporary bump from the raid on Iraq in retaliation for the alleged plot to assassinate former President George Bush, his numbers on his economic performance have plateaued or fallen.Greenberg reported that in his own polling, after a few rough weeks, the president had "steadied himself a couple of weeks ago" and had "stabilized" his favorability at about 40 percent of those surveyed.