Were We the Losers Instead of the Winners?

Maybe it helps if you know that Dennis Rohatyn wore a T-shirt during the last presidential election year showing a mock picture of Richard Nixon with a Mohawk haircut.

And the slogan: “He’s back, he’s hip, and he’s really, really, really sorry. Nixon in ’88 for the hell of it.”

Rohatyn, a professor of philosophy at University of San Diego, likes to approach life from his own angle. He proved that during his years doing “Thinking Things Through” on KPBS-FM.

A student publication on the staid Catholic campus called him “Tevye in Reeboks and red suspenders.”

Maybe, then, it’s not so surprising that Rohatyn is ready--nay, eager--to sprinkle a little rain on the parade mentality that is sweeping the U.S. after Operation Desert Storm.

Rohatyn sees a new American belligerence, an intolerance of dissent, rampant media-bashing, unmet social needs: in sum, a country where Homer Simpson and U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson (“Peter Arnett is an Iraqi sympathizer”) are more alike than we know.

Hence the title of Rohatyn’s presentation Tuesday night (7 o’clock at the University Center): “The Simpsons Watch CNN--Or Is It the Other Way Around?” Three other professors will join the discussion.

“The 1990s are going to be quite different,” Rohatyn said. “The only way to practice politics will be satirically, Swiftian, ‘A Modest Proposal.’ Or like Matt Groening (creator of ‘The Simpsons’).

“Dissent is going to be viewed as unpatriotic. The First Amendment is going to be in a very bad way. We’re going to need more Robo-Cop wars to fight.”

Is there a wave of pro-U.S.A. sentiment around the globe? Don’t believe it, Rohatyn said:

“You can’t love a super-cop. You might fear and respect him, but you can’t love him.”

What of the new can-do American spirit?

“President Bush said he wanted to kick ass. But the ass we kicked may turn out to be our own.”

Police, Politics and Lectures

Items are us.

* Bad example.

San Diego cops will be shown that infamous videotape of three Los Angeles cops kicking and beating a man with their nightsticks while a dozen other cops watched.

The intended lessons: Any cop who does that in San Diego will lose his badge and more. And any who watches without intervening is equally culpable.

* To the victors go the lecture fees.

On the postwar lecture circuit: Navy Reserve Cmdr. Lewis Hoyt, a Rancho Santa Fe resident and former Top Gun instructor. He has also trained fighter pilots in Kuwait, Egypt and Israel.

* Four priests with the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese were called to chaplain duty as military reservists during the Persian Gulf crisis.

* Tom Carter says he’s thinking of running for mayor of San Diego: “I think there’s strong sentiment out there in favor of someone from outside the political world running for mayor.”

Carter, 50, is on the boards of Children’s Hospital and the Centre City Development Corp. A Democrat and big-time political fund-raiser, he runs a financial consulting firm.

* A crew from the CBS show “48 Hours” is filming the trial of Raymond Stone, accused of seducing and murdering an El Cajon woman. For a program on court woes nationwide.

A Day to Remember

War within a war.

The Recall Linda Bernhardt Committee is seeking reimbursement of $101.20 from the embattled San Diego councilwoman.

That’s how much the committee paid to have Bernhardt’s official amended response to the recall movement published in the San Diego Daily Transcript.

Dunning letters failed. So committee leader Michael Pallamary sued Bernhardt in Small Claims Court.

On Friday, a judge set the hearing for the earliest opening.

Bernhardt shouldn’t have any trouble remembering the date: April 9, which is also the day of the recall election.