Out of Left Field - Nixon Slammed in Human Interest Story

Surely you've heard the phrase "out of left field" when something is part of a discussion yet it makes no sense to be included? In this case, I have an example of leftist sentiment slamming Richard Nixon at the end of a story that has nothing to do with modern political "sides." It strikes one as quite odd to be where it is. When you see it, you'll cock your head and say, "What the heck is THAT all about"?

You know what I mean, I am sure. It's jarring when someone in the media is talking sports and then suddenly takes a jab at Bush, or when they're talking about fashion and they abruptly throw in a crack at those "evil conservatives", always when it is quite off topic. It makes you go "huh?" It makes you wonder if their hatred of the right is so ginned up in their tiny little minds that they cannot even talk about movies and sports without taking shots their political enemies -- and those enemies are us, folks.

This particular head spinning "Huh?" is in a story in the UK's Telegraph titled, "One filing cabinet held 500 years of history." This is a story that has nothing to do with politics per se, yet this UK paper can't resist a shot at an American Republican. The slam is completely gratuitous and makes no sense in context to the story.

The story is about a quiet collector of letters penned by famous people throughout history. The man passed away and his family asked an appraiser from Christie's Auction House to come by and see what the collection might be worth. Apparently this collection is amazingly diverse and unexpected and will bring the family of the deceased man millions at auction.

In any case, right at the end of the story is the following paragraph (my bold emphasis):

"Only two weeks before his death he was handing out the last of a series of wish-lists which contained not only well-known figures as Walt Whitman and, rather oddly, Richard Nixon, but a series of eastern European authors and historical figures whose obscurity would have had the most learned polymath running for his biographical dictionary - Jan Zizka, for example."

Why should it be "rather oddly" that this collector would be interested in a Nixon letter? Nixon led the USA in one of the most momentous times in our history. He is famous for many things besides Watergate. His engagement with China and the "Kitchen Debates" with Kruschev alone, not to mention his anti-communist work and his terms as Vice President, as well as his part in the Vietnam war are enough to make him a political figure from history worth having inclusion in a collection of letters by famous historical figures. Heck, even his supposed notoriousness with Watergate, the consequences of which we are still dealing with today, is enough to make him a figure of historical interest.

Yet, here we have the Telegraph publishing something seemingly astonished that anyone would be interested enough to add a Nixon artifact to their collection, as if they just cannot believe anyone would want to do so.

Not too much hate is so infesting their souls, eh? They can't even write a human-interest story without taking a shot at an American Republican. It makes you realize that those who say leftism is a sickness might be on to something. It really is a sickness, you know?