TOURISM : Need an Unusual Gift? How About a Poster of Elvis With Nixon?

Stuck for that last-minute gift idea and dread the thought of hunting for a space in the mall parking lot?

The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace may have the answer. The Yorba Linda tourist destination is hawking dozens of Christmas gift ideas relating directly and indirectly to the late president.

There are Air Force One baseball caps embroidered with the presidential seal, White House china reproductions, a birdhouse made to resemble Nixon’s boyhood home and all of Nixon’s books.

The museum has a special selection of gifts surrounding those few minutes in 1970 when Nixon greeted Elvis Presley. They include everything from an $18 poster to a $34 framed photo, all of them showing a photograph of the two idols of their respective fields--conservative politics and rock ‘n’ roll--shaking hands.

Some of the gifts seem a little, well, bizarre. For instance, there is a “Hail to the Chief” presidential board game. Or a photograph of President Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and four former presidents and first ladies as they sat in the front row for Nixon’s funeral last April.

But strangest of all? That would probably be the “Nixon in ‘96” T-shirt, showing a confident Nixon with his famous thumbs-up pose. Obviously, that kind of comeback would take more than a political resurrection.