If You Pay to Play, You Just Pay

As we join George W. Bush in hoping for “a hopefuller country”-- to use a phrase he coined last week--let us send him warmest wishes for Inauguration Day as he prepares to put the lame duck Bill Clinton out to pasture, or wherever it is ducks get put.

Warm wishes, W, literally.

On a frosty March morning 160 years ago, when William Henry Harrison took the oath, he caught pneumonia. Harrison lasted 31 more days. He expired 3 years and 11 months before his term did.

Harrison was the one who campaigned with the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.” In case you don’t know, or are ever asked by Regis Philbin, you should be aware that Tippecanoe is an Indiana river where a 1911 uprising of Shawnee Indians was quelled by 900 of then-Gen. Harrison’s troops.

John Tyler was Harrison’s running mate. Tyler became our 10th president but was mocked behind his back as “His Accidency.”

Hmmm.

The accidental president.

Some might label Bush the same way, after that wreck of an election we had. But the fact is, George W. got the electoral votes, he got five big thumbs-up from the Supreme Court and he got two concessions for the price of one from Al “Tipper and Joe Lieberman Too” Gore, a guy so nice, he gave up twice.

All Bush needs now is a credo, something to bring us together. “A Uniter, Not a Divider” was his campaign pledge, but it doesn’t trickle off the tongue. “A Hopefuller Country” needs work.

James Monroe promised an “Era of Good Feeling.” Now, that had a nice ring.

By the way, it is Monroe who’s actually responsible for Bush winning the presidency. One of our fifth president’s top accomplishments in office was persuading Spain to sell us Florida.

*

We’ll just have to wait and see what Bush has to say in his inaugural address. Bush is a lot better at reading than he is at ad-libbing. Left to his own devices, this is a guy who is likely to say something like: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what your country can do for you.”

Stick to the script, George.

The last son of a former president was John Quincy Adams, who had the presidency delivered to him by the House of Representatives because he was unable to win enough electoral votes. (This was 177 years ago, and we still can’t get it right.)

Q wasn’t a man after W’s heart. He was a Harvard alumnus who campaigned with strong opposition to the United States’ annexation of Texas.

Just think, had Monroe not done what he did, and had Adams succeeded in his goals, Florida and Texas wouldn’t be in the electoral college today, and President Gore could be sworn in next Saturday.

Oh, about that inauguration:

It appears that a Los Angeles newspaper columnist courted by Republican Party leaders to join their “Inner Circle” and attend the inaugural festivities--for a $1,000 fee--wasn’t alone in getting such a handsome offer.

In fact, the Republicans now seem to be a come-as-you-are party.

Democrats and independents alike have been sending word that they too received last-minute invitations to this week’s inaugural festivities. (Say, maybe this George W. really is a uniter!)

“I’ve never given money to a Republican candidate,” says reader Scott Moore, who received his invitation last Monday. “In fact, I made my first political contribution ever to Al Gore last summer. I had an Al Gore bumper sticker on my car.”

“My wife got an invitation as well, but for the $5,000 inner circle,” says Dr. Irv Loh of Thousand Oaks. “Very weird, since she heads the women’s leadership forum for the Democratic National Committee.”

As inner circles go, apparently there is a $5,000 inner circle as well as a $1,000 outer inner. TV personality Meredith Vieira said on ABC’s “The View” that she was hit up for five grand.

So was Margaret Connors of Dana Point, not a Republican, who said her invitation “informed me I would be among 30 presidential ‘roundtable’ members reserved for California.”

Same for reader Connie Harris, who asks if it would be immoral to participate in a “grand celebration of Republican principles and ideas” if she believes in Democratic principles and ideas.

Robert Ready of Charlotte, N.C., says although he still hasn’t registered to vote since moving from Texas four months ago, an invitation found its way to his mailbox a week ago Saturday.

“Monday, I called and left my credit card number for the $1,000 so I could go. I got a call back and was told they were completely sold out for the inauguration, but thanks for the $1,000 and I could go to a spring event. I have been scammed.”

Judy Rosener teaches a class in government at UC Irvine. She’s collected many such invitations over the years.

“The letters illustrate a political use of technology, symbolic language, fund- raising,” she says, “and how easily most citizens can be fooled.”

*

Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to: Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com