Groundhog Day: Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton ... ...

I've been a bit remiss in failing to note that my favorite New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, who grew up on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Ore., has recently returned to his column after an extended book leave.

Kristof has often been a solitary light in the mainstream media consistently trying to draw attention to the tragic genocide taking place in Darfur.

And you'll remember that he was one of the loudest voices in the MSM willing to question the accuracy of Bush Administration claims that Iraq posed an "imminent threat." It's certainly good to have him back. That's especially true when he writes about things nobody else wants to seriously discuss. His Jan. 31 column "The Dynastic Question" is a great example.

We Americans snicker patronizingly as "democratic" Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, India and Argentina hand over power to a wife or child of a former leader. Yet I can’t find any example of even the most rinky-dink "democracy" confining power continuously for seven terms over 28 years to four people from two families. (And that’s not counting George H.W. Bush’s eight years as vice president.)

Perhaps there is some such "democracy" somewhere: If you know of one, report it on my blog, and I’ll support you for president in eight years time ... and then your spouse ... and then your eldest child.

...We remember John Quincy Adams as intelligent and diligent, but his presidency is diminished by the hint of dynastic succession and is seen as emblematic of a parochial time when America was ruled by an incestuous elite. Some day, I suspect we may detect the same narrowness in the rise of the Bush Dynasty and, if there is one, in the Clinton Dynasty.

...Certainly, it’s easy to see why voters nostalgic for peace and prosperity might yearn for a Clinton Restoration. Maybe we want another political dynasty, but we shouldn’t back into one without discussion — again.

In a country of several hundred million people, the idea that two families are put in charge for nearly three decades really flies in the face of a populist democracy. And it doesn't speak well for the imagination of our populace or its leaders.

Maybe we ought to start calling this government a "nepocracy" and change the National Anthem to the theme from Sanford & Son.