Presidential Library

RUSSELL, Kan. -- Some thought the presidential library should be near the boyhood home, while others fancied sites near the county courthouse.Either way, weary travelers on Interstate 70 would pull off in Russell, to visit "Bob Dole Country." They'd hear how the 43rd president of the United States grew up humble. International scholars would peruse his official papers.This was the dream that Russell shared with Bob Dole, until it was shattered last night."In Russell you've got BD and AD -- Before Dole and After Dole," said Dean Banker, a Russell clothier.

It will be many years yet before historians can make their full assessment of the presidency of George W. Bush, but we have a sneaking suspicion their conclusions will not be nearly as generous as the puffery that has accompanied the opening of his presidential library this past week on the campus of Southern Methodist University. That's to be expected, of course. Presidential libraries have become less about housing presidential papers and more like modern (and enormous - at 226,000 square feet, the George W. Bush Presidential Library is bigger than the average Walmart)

WASHINGTON - A House committee approved a measure yesterday that would require presidential libraries to publicly disclose the names of donors and the amounts of their contributions. The measure was proposed after a Congressional investigation into whether contributions to Bill Clinton's presidential library were linked to last-minute pardons he granted, most notably to fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich. Rich's former wife, Denise, who pressed for his pardon, gave $450,000 to the Clinton library foundation, and her friend Beth Dozoretz, a Democratic Party fund-raiser who also lobbied for the pardon, pledged to raise $1 million for the project.

Since exiting the White House in January 2009, George W. Bush has effectively managed to keep himself out of the spotlight. While a handful of news stories have captured Mr. Bush's promotion of his cancer initiative in Africa and furnished updates on the progress of his presidential library, the former president has deliberately resisted the temptations of political life. Even his endorsement of the GOP presidential candidate, made public through a spokesman - "President Bush is confident that Mitt Romney will be a great president" - seemed tepid at best.

Samuel Cooper, a retired law professor who as a young lawyer in New York represented Franklin D. Roosevelt when he established his presidential library, died Tuesday of cancer at his Pikesville home. He was 79.He had taught contracts, mortgages, suretyship, legal accounting, corporate taxation and securities regulation at the University of Baltimore Law School from 1972 until his retirement in 1985.In describing his friend and associate, college president H. Mebane Turner, said, "Both the students and his colleagues had great respect for him. He was the consummate professor, and I had the privilege of knowing him for many years -- he was a close personal friend and associate.

YORBA LINDA, CALIF. -- Nixon and Mao? Nixon and Ike? Nixon and JFK? No. No. And no.The first duo you see upon entering the gift shop of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace is the famous 1970 image of Richard M. Nixon shaking hands with a bloated, bleary-eyed Elvis Presley in the Oval Office.On a T-shirt, captioned "The President and The King." Yours for $14.50.The shirt sells, which is very important to the Nixon library, which does not receive government operating funds."We have the most successful gift shop in the history of presidential libraries," says Kevin Cartwright, the Nixon library's assistant director.

It will be many years yet before historians can make their full assessment of the presidency of George W. Bush, but we have a sneaking suspicion their conclusions will not be nearly as generous as the puffery that has accompanied the opening of his presidential library this past week on the campus of Southern Methodist University. That's to be expected, of course. Presidential libraries have become less about housing presidential papers and more like modern (and enormous - at 226,000 square feet, the George W. Bush Presidential Library is bigger than the average Walmart)

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - In 1966, actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan crisscrossed the state in a powder-blue Mustang convertible, campaigning for his first term as California governor. Next month, that car will go on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley, as will the restaurant booth in which Reagan proposed to his wife and the conference table from the Situation Room at the White House. The new exhibits will be unveiled as the library completes its first extensive renovation since it opened 12 years ago. "We could think of no better way to celebrate the anniversary of the Reagan Library than with the opening of these new galleries," said library director Duke Blackwood.

What's shaking at museums these days? Just about everything. At the Lincoln museum in Springfield, Ill., the floor trembles and cannons belch smoke in the theater while in the library wispy holographic ghosts haunt the artifacts. At the Pirate Soul museum in Key West, Fla., visitors experience the sounds and tumult of a high-seas battle after being menaced by an animatronic Blackbeard. At the "Cosmic Collisions" show at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, guests feel the simulated jolt of a meteorite hitting Earth 65 million years ago. The biggest kaboom you hear in these places isn't from artillery or space rocks.

Since exiting the White House in January 2009, George W. Bush has effectively managed to keep himself out of the spotlight. While a handful of news stories have captured Mr. Bush's promotion of his cancer initiative in Africa and furnished updates on the progress of his presidential library, the former president has deliberately resisted the temptations of political life. Even his endorsement of the GOP presidential candidate, made public through a spokesman - "President Bush is confident that Mitt Romney will be a great president" - seemed tepid at best.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Shelley Hoelscher spent a long time standing in the hot sun, a young son and baby girl in tow, for a chance to pay her respects to Lady Bird Johnson during an emotional public viewing yesterday. She could almost feel the cool air from the entrance when she was amazed to see Luci Johnson Turpin, the former first lady's daughter, greeting her mother's admirers as they came through the door of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. "Thank you so much for coming to your library," Turpin said.

HOUSTON -- Southern Methodist University has all but won the competition to host a $200 million George W. Bush presidential library. Officials announced this week that the school will be the "sole focus" of talks next month. That means the two other finalists - Baylor University and the University of Dallas - will wait on the sidelines as the selection committee enters what chairman Don Evans in a statement called the "next phase of deliberations." A final decision could come in late January or early February.

What's shaking at museums these days? Just about everything. At the Lincoln museum in Springfield, Ill., the floor trembles and cannons belch smoke in the theater while in the library wispy holographic ghosts haunt the artifacts. At the Pirate Soul museum in Key West, Fla., visitors experience the sounds and tumult of a high-seas battle after being menaced by an animatronic Blackbeard. At the "Cosmic Collisions" show at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, guests feel the simulated jolt of a meteorite hitting Earth 65 million years ago. The biggest kaboom you hear in these places isn't from artillery or space rocks.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - In 1966, actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan crisscrossed the state in a powder-blue Mustang convertible, campaigning for his first term as California governor. Next month, that car will go on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley, as will the restaurant booth in which Reagan proposed to his wife and the conference table from the Situation Room at the White House. The new exhibits will be unveiled as the library completes its first extensive renovation since it opened 12 years ago. "We could think of no better way to celebrate the anniversary of the Reagan Library than with the opening of these new galleries," said library director Duke Blackwood.

WASHINGTON - A House committee approved a measure yesterday that would require presidential libraries to publicly disclose the names of donors and the amounts of their contributions. The measure was proposed after a Congressional investigation into whether contributions to Bill Clinton's presidential library were linked to last-minute pardons he granted, most notably to fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich. Rich's former wife, Denise, who pressed for his pardon, gave $450,000 to the Clinton library foundation, and her friend Beth Dozoretz, a Democratic Party fund-raiser who also lobbied for the pardon, pledged to raise $1 million for the project.

JIMMY CARTER must have felt a special kinship with George Bush that goes beyond their intertwined political fortunes when he attended the recent dedication of the $83 million George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. Just two weeks earlier, Carter had announced a $150 million fund drive for his own presidential library and museum, a sprawling, multimillion-dollar, ultramodern complex near downtown Atlanta.In sharp contrast to the raw revelations in recent weeks of alleged ethical and moral transgressions by President Bill Clinton and three of his predecessors in the White House - Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy - the shortcomings that helped send the last Democratic and last Republican presidents into retirement pale into insignificance.

RUSSELL, Kan. -- Like the hard red winter wheat that is its lifeblood, this lonely town on the prairie is waiting to bloom.At least, that's the view of some in wind-swept Russell, Kan., where Bob Dole was born 73 years ago today. The actual spot where he entered the world is no longer standing: his family's three-room house, not much bigger than a shack, beside the Union Pacific railroad tracks -- on the wrong side of the tracks, as Dole has said.Other landmarks from his early days remain, though.

JIMMY CARTER must have felt a special kinship with George Bush that goes beyond their intertwined political fortunes when he attended the recent dedication of the $83 million George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. Just two weeks earlier, Carter had announced a $150 million fund drive for his own presidential library and museum, a sprawling, multimillion-dollar, ultramodern complex near downtown Atlanta.In sharp contrast to the raw revelations in recent weeks of alleged ethical and moral transgressions by President Bill Clinton and three of his predecessors in the White House - Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy - the shortcomings that helped send the last Democratic and last Republican presidents into retirement pale into insignificance.

Anyone planning to see the United States, or any part of it, this summer can discover a lot about history and its makers by visiting presidential libraries.From Boston to Austin, Grand Rapids to Atlanta, presidential libraries dot the nation's highways and byways. Besides permanent collections, many of the libraries often feature special exhibits.More and more, the libraries are presenting collections aimed at drawing a broad audience and spreading the word that these resources are not just for scholars.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Americans are a restless people, and George Bush is clearly no exception: Over the years, he and his wife, Barbara, have moved at least 30 times. Their final move will be way out here, in rural East Texas.The Bush Presidential Library Center, perched on the fringe of the Texas A&M University campus, will begin greeting visitors later this year. It will include an airy two-bedroom apartment and private offices that the Bushes plan to use.College Station, a university town of 50,000, is worlds apart from the Bushes' old addresses in Washington, New York and Beijing.