GOP DEADHEAD: You remember how Ronald Reagan...

GOP DEADHEAD: You remember how Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale both tried to tie themselves to Bruce Springsteen’s coattails during the 1984 presidential election. Well, a new generation of hot-dog politicians are at again, this time led by Ohio Rep. John Kasich. The conservative Republican congressman says he’s been a big fan of the Grateful Dead for years. So when the Dead were in Washington for a recent concert at R.F.K. Stadium, the congressman, armed with a backstage pass, made every effort to see the band up close--in fact, right on stage. Just think--on stage with the Dead! Surely it would make a great story to tell his youthful constituents. And besides, his political clout was at stake--there were already two Democratic congressmen backstage at the show, Oregon’s Mike Kopetski and Hawaii’s Neil Abercrombie, both guests of the band. But when Kasich tried to join the band on stage, Grateful Dead tour security blocked his entrance, even after he yelled his name out several times, so people would know he was a congressman, and even after, according to a witness quoted in a Washington Post story on the incident, he told Dead staffers he could prevent the group from ever playing in Washington again. Kasich acknowledged trying to argue his way on stage. “I said, ‘Hey, why won’t you let me on? I can’t understand why you’re not letting me on,’ ” he recalled. “I probably should not have argued with the guy. But I don’t think I was angry. I’m a pretty upbeat guy.”