Jimmy Carter

WASHINGTON -- Of all the surprises, of all the unexpected turns, of all the disappointments in the seemingly endless Washington drama, this may be the greatest: There were no heroes in the impeachment and trial of President Clinton.In the 13 months in which the president's personal life dominated U.S. national life, there emerged no great voice of reason, no great figure of integrity, no great moment when the principals rallied to the national interest rather than the special, the personal or the partisan interest.

So now it's all out. All there. It's all about the 42nd president of the United States; it only reads like a 15-year-old's clumsy erotic adventures in his mother's house. It took place in the White House, but not the White House as you see it if you take the tour. This is White House as highway rest stop.The information began crossing the national wire in a series of dispatches early Friday evening: "StarrReport-LongExcerpt," "StarrReport-MediumExcerpt," "StarrReport-ShortExcerpt." By this morning, Friday afternoon will seem like some golden age of American innocence.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Former presidential candidate and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson has an interesting theory about the next presidential election."

Jimmy Carter tried to downsize the presidency a tad by wearing cardigans and walking to his own inauguration. Americans didn't like it. At the time we still wanted our presidents big, big, bigger than life. For his just-folks style and a lot of other reasons well beyond Carter's control, we sent him back to Georgia.However, Carter's legacy is a strong one today - not as a president, perhaps, but as a man. He's one of our most respected Americans, one of our truly honest citizens.This other Southerner in the White House can't hold Jimmy Carter's Habitat For Humanity hammer when it comes to integrity.

I CAN THINK of few prospects less appealing than being treated to a recitation of Dan Burton's sleepovers. Yet that intelligence seems imminent. Word is widely about that this avidly unsought information will soon surface in Vanity Fair magazine, and if not there then in other, as-yet unnamed publications.There is suddenly a run on the sex life of the Republican chairman of the House's Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which has been investigating Democratic political fund-raising.

In his 1982 memoir "Keeping Faith," Jimmy Carter recalled a White House banquet in the last week of his presidency: "Slava Rostropovich [the Russian cellist and human rights advocate] gave an excellent little speech pointing out that the masses of the people were often wrong. He pointed out that the masses made a mistake on Nov. 4, as they had when they rejected Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, rejected 'La Traviata' and 'Tosca.' said history was going to treat my administration the same way they did Verdi, Puccini and Beethoven.

WASHINGTON -- Given Bill Clinton's general loquacity, and particularly his propensity for speaking brassy nonsense, it is difficult to select his most amusing effusion. Difficult, but fun to try.It might have been his claim to have read 300 books -- Dostoyev- sky included, he emphasizes -- in his first year at Oxford. Or: ''I am the only president who knew something about agriculture when I got there.'' (Let's see: Washington, tobacco farmer. Jefferson, agronomist. . . . not to mention Jimmy Carter, peanut farmer.

Charles H. Kirbo,79, who never held public office but became known as former President Jimmy Carter's "one-man kitchen Cabinet," died Monday of complications from recent surgery in Atlanta.Mr. Kirbo, a trial lawyer, was a longtime partner at the influential King & Spalding law firm.His association with Mr. Carter began in 1962, when Mr. Kirbo helped successfully argue a vote-tampering case that led to Mr. Carter being declared the winner of the election for a state Senate seat. Mr. Kirbo later served as chief fund-raiser for the Carter Presidential Library.

Edwin C. Pakish, 71, an artist who designed Christmas cards for two presidents and two vice presidents, died Friday in Strongsville, Ohio worked for American Greetings Corp. of Cleveland for 35 years and designed cards for Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter.

Havre de Grace. -- It's with some awkwardness that many of us look back today at the debacle that took place in Saigon 20 years ago.Long before the final collapse, hawks and doves alike had accepted defeat there. It was not a military defeat, perhaps, only a political and psychological one, but that's a distinction without a difference. Nonmilitary defeats often have military consequences, and this one certainly did.Once we lost our will to defeat an enemy who never lost his will to defeat us, the outcome was inevitable.

Tomorrow is the national holiday celebrating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Atlanta, the birthplace and resting place of King, is a great destination for exploring the rich cultural heritage of African-Americans. The Sweet Auburn Historic District, along Auburn Avenue, features several preserved sites reflecting the civil rights movement and King's legacy. 1 Honor history : The Martin Luther King National Historic Site is one of the most-visited attractions in Atlanta. Here you can take a guided tour of the two-story house where King was born and see the tomb where he was laid to rest.

WASHINGTON - In the strange world of politics, the worse your party does, the better its top job looks. The chairmanship of the Republican National Committee grew a lot more attractive recently, after John McCain failed to win the presidency and the percentage of voters who call themselves Republicans fell to the lowest level in nearly 30 years. Republicans are without an obvious leader - Sarah Palin's celebrity notwithstanding - and the job of RNC chairman, which comes up in January, is a valuable perch for someone with national ambitions.

Finally, blessedly, it's over. After the longest, most expensive campaign in American history, the voters have decided who will be the next Great Man to take the helm of our ship of state. Sen. Barack Obama has been swept into the presidency on a wave of contrasting yet complementary emotions. There is the positive enthusiasm generated by the 47-year-old's "transformational" identity, the idea millions of Americans have seized upon that here is a leader who reflects the multicultural, multiracial reality of present-day America, who seems thoughtful and careful and is a full generation younger than his opponent.

A horrendous national shortage gripped America in the 1970s. The forces of progress rallied the American people in a spirit of shared purpose. The leader of this movement donned a sweater and went on TV to lift the nation from its malaise. Jimmy Carter and the energy crisis? Feh. That was nothing compared to the more acute scarcity that plagued America in those dark days. I'm referring, of course, to the 1970s self-esteem famine, during which cardigan-sporting Fred Rogers heroically served as a Jimmy Carter for the preschool set. These investments in self-esteem paid off royally, according to a report, "Egos Inflating Over Time."

WASHINGTON -- There were glasses of fine wines, plump Massachusetts oysters dotted with California caviar and plenty of rollicking stories. It was too much of everything and that, of course, made it a fitting tribute for R.W. "Johnny" Apple, who for the past four decades wrote with legendary gusto about politics and food for The New York Times. Yesterday, bright lights from politics, journalism and cuisine filled the 1,100-seat Eisenhower Theater in Washington's John F. Kennedy Center to celebrate the colorful life of the correspondent, who died in October at age 71. After a string of speeches recounting Apple's antics, the crowd was treated to lunch prepared by chefs of Washington-area restaurants.

ATLANTA -- The controversy surrounding the funeral of Coretta Scott King is a fitting coda to the final chapter of her story. After all, her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., spent his life generating controversy, something we conveniently forget when we commemorate a sepia-toned and softly lighted version of their lives. Since the funeral, conservative commentators have been fueling the fires of partisan outrage over remarks made by former President Jimmy Carter - who, in a pointed allusion to modern-day government eavesdropping, noted that Dr. King was a victim of FBI surveillance - and the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, whose bad verse made valid points about an unjustified war and neglect of the poor.

A COUPLE OF WHOPPER STORMS, some really bad poll ratings and growing panic at the gasoline pumps can prompt a president to some pretty odd behavior. Who would've thunk we'd ever see George W. Bush, former oilman and darling of the industry, reprising Jimmy Carter's national appeal for fuel conservation? Yet there was our conserver-in-chief at the Energy Department yesterday, talking about curbing nonessential travel and peak-hour electricity use, while encouraging carpooling and (gasp!

White House political advisor Karl Rove "This is going to be more like the conflict in Northern Ireland, where the Brits fought terrorism, and there's no sort of peace accord with al-Qaida saying, 'We surrender." Congressman Henry Bonilla of Texas "There's a huge myth that exists out there for people of color that your skin color dictates your political idea. ... And that is the biggest insult anyone can make." Former President George H.W. Bush "When you see Michael Moore sitting in a box with Jimmy Carter -- come on, what does this say to the voters across this country?"

WASHINGTON - If the rags-to-riches story line of Howard Dean's campaign strikes movie producer Gerald Rafshoon as a sequel, there's a reason: He had a big hand in scripting the original. As Jimmy Carter's adman, Rafshoon helped an obscure former governor run a successful outsider campaign for president. Now, he's trying to do it again. "This is the perfect year for a Jimmy Carter-type campaign," said Rafshoon, who has been advising Dean's campaign. Dean became the Democratic front-runner (and still is, despite polls showing retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark in first place)

WASHINGTON-Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, a fifth-term Maryland Democrat who is the state's longest-serving senator, cast his 10,000th vote yesterday, on an amendment to the 2004 budget. Sarbanes, 70, is one of 23 senators in history to reach the milestone; 12 of them are still serving in the Senate. His first-ever vote, on Jan. 19, 1977, was in opposition to an attempt by then-Sen. James B. Allen, an Alabama Democrat, to bring up a resolution stating that it would be "ill-advised" for the president to pardon draft-dodgers.