"His offense: failing to observe the protocol that former presidents should speak respectfully of their successors, or at least with some measure of restraint."His language was much sharper than what you'd normally hear" from an ex-president, said the presidential historian Michael Beschloss. But he and other presidential scholars roll their eyes at the notion that former presidents do not speak ill of current ones.
"I love how because of our short memories, we come up with these eternal rules that don't really apply," said the historian Tim Naftali, the director-designate of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
write these stories of taboos that you're not supposed to break so lets look at some of these that have actually been broken-if you can believe it.
The big one is private lives, in the 40s all the way to 80s the press coconspired with the president, members of Congress that their private lives would not be reported on, FDR's disability and JFK's womanizing are examples of stories never told.In 1987, in the midst of Ronald Reagan right-wing conservatism, moral goodness from Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and the rest, you had Gary Hart and Donna Rice. Now if you're a biker, you can check out the Gary Hart House in DC where he was caught in the act. Hart thought of himself as another JFK, infact he set himself by saying that the "presidency should be held to by a higher standard" he also said "follow me you'll get bored." Ironically that's what happened, the Miami Herald followed Hart to a ship called Monkey Business in which was Hart's. JFK, FDR had yachts, but after Monkey Business, yachts and presidential contenders got a bad rap. A reporter had the nerve to ask if Hart had marriage problems. That was a watershed moment, a crossing the line moment. And that's how a tabboo was broken. Yet as the Times indicates, we like to think there are all these tabboos, that we just don't break, and yet its a crock pot of shit. Just my take.
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