Passing thru Penn Station on my way home from NR editorial meeting, I

browsed one of the magazine stands. Noted with interest the cover of The Nation, issue dated 10/25/04. Cover headline: CAN WE STOP PRESIDENTS FROM

LYING? Accompanying full-cover illustration: old photograph of some

convicts in old-style striped convict fatigues, chained together.

Superimposed as the convicts’ heads are Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan,

George W. Bush, and Richard Nixon.

Interesting. But wasn’t there a president who actually lied under oath to a

court of law, and was impeached for it? Perhaps I dreamed that…