Do you think the late Charles Schulz, the cartoonist-philosopher who gave us Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and the rest of the Peanuts cast of way-too-mature-for-their-age kids ever realized before his untimely demise that he had also given us a perfect analogy for government and politics?

No doubt you recall the infamous strips wherein Lucy would promise faithfully to hold the football extra-point style for Charlie Brown. After considerable doubt and ruminations, some of which recalling similar deceptions, Charlie Brown, convincing himself this time would be different, would run to kick the ball thru invisible uprights, only for Lucy to snatch it away at the last minute, sending the hapless hero flying into the air and crashing down; a victim once again of his gullible naiveté.

Here Schultz has given in several cartoon panels and comparatively few words, a perfect template for the reality of government – specifically, government that chooses to function outside the boundaries of its Constitutional restraints. In the analogy, Lucy is the Government. The football represents promises and programs meant to elicit public approval as desirable, even needed. Charlie Brown is you, me, our fellow citizens correctly doubting and questioning the sincerity and integrity of Lucy/Government – but somehow always buying the pitch and running for the “ball”, after finally rationalizing that this time, Lucy will not disappoint.

To appreciate the Schulz Analogy, take a look at the last few days. The President has nominated a nice Born Again Christian lawyer to be a Supreme Court justice. Yes, Harriet Meirs went to law school. Yes, the President knows her very, very well. Yes, she is a “minority”. All desirable qualities. All allegedly needed. Despite serious objections from learned people of all persuasions, President Bush insists that we (Charlie Brown) should trust the President (Lucy) and run with full confidence for the football with full confidence in his nomination.

Put more succinctly: “Trust me”.

Why?

To paraphrase the late John Houseman’s old Smith-Barney line, “Trust is obtained the old fashion way – you earn it.”

Has the President earned your trust to be confident about Meirs’ “shallow resume”, the down-the-road hoped-for Originalist judicial talents a la Thomas and Scalia? Some quotes:

“Being on the Supreme Court isn't like winning a "Best

Employee of the Month" award. It's a real job.”

Ann Coulter, Columnist

"There is very little in Harriet Miers' background to suggest that she is

the best person President Bush could have nominated."

Roger Pilon, Cato Institute's Center for Constitutional Rights

"My initial reaction is that this is the Michael Brown of Supreme Court

nominations."

Prof Paul Berman, Un.Connecticut School of Law

"Being a Bush loyalist and friend is not a qualification for the Supreme

Court."

National Review Online

"The Supreme Court is the big league of the legal profession, and Ms.

Miers has never even played the judicial equivalent of high school ball,

much less won a Heisman Trophy."

Boston University Law Prof. Randy Barnett

Now take a look at the last few months. Hurricane Katrina smacked down the Gulf Coast. More than enough ink and bandwidth has been spent chronicling Katrina’s costs. The fact in focus is that prior, during and after Katrina’s dirty deeds, the government promised and failed to provide timely promised protection, assistance and comfort bought and paid for by a willing citizenry, then squandered at the last minute by incompetent government minions at local, state and Federal level. In Shultz’s perfect analogy, (Lucy) Government again and again failed to “hold the ball” (services) while Charlie Brown (citizens) convinced themselves this time would be different.

Why?

Take a look at the last few years. Remember in the Peanuts strip, Lucy always snatches the ball away at the last moment. Analogously, Government agencies have snatched the ball away, too. War in Iraq? Whatever happened to the reason to be there: the “weapons of mass destruction”? Snatched away at the last moment. (But as long as we’re here, let’s import a little Democracy).

President Bush, a conservative Republican, promised limited government and reduced spending even after 9/11. Even after funding the reconstruction costs of Katrina/Rita damage. Check the Federal budget: fiscal restraint snatched away at the last moment by the biggest spending government administration since FDR.

Education reform? A bill co-authored by the noted small government/lower taxes conservative from Massachusetts, Teddy Kennedy (D- Chappaquiddick).

Remember Bush’s promise to cut farm subsidies? Remember he promised to cut them twice? Remember the two subsequent bills that sent farm subsidies into the stratosphere? Remember Bush saying how great this all was? Remember how much it cost, Charlie Brown?

How about the signing of the Campaign Finance/”Incumbent Protection”/Anti-Free Speech law? A reasonable immigration policy? NEA funding? Steel tariffs? $400 billion Prescription Drug Benefit? Income Tax Reform? Janice Meyers?

Wilson Sporting Goods (no relation) doesn’t make enough footballs for this or any other Administration. But then, Bush and Co. is no different than any of his predecessors. Just as the “Football” theme in Peanuts always had a dependably predictable conclusion, Government and politicians on both sides can be counted on to snatch the football at the last minute and the Charlie Brown public will go flying, crashing down disillusioned and disappointed,

Borrowing the refrain from the Pete Seeger classic,

“When will they every learn?

When will they ever learn?”