by Richard Stern

Cass Sunstein's graceful post on the post-election graciousness of President Bush and Senator Santorum bespeaks the enlightened political climate sometimes called "Jeffersonian" (well, he was less vituperative than Adams and Hamilton), and today the president dedicated the Martin Luther King memorial site under the same smiling sun, acknowledging "my predecessor ... and fourth brother," Bill Clinton, sitting a few yards down the platform. For some perverse reason, memory kicked up one of the first jokes I remember hearing: A Jew walks down a back street in 1938 Berlin and is suddenly confronted by Hitler who, infuriated at the sight of this noxious being, pulls out his revolver, forces him to his knees and orders him to eat the horse turds in the street. The Jew gets down on his knees, eats and then, enraged, knocks the gun from Hitler's hand and says, "Now you eat." Hitler eats, the Jew flings the gun away and runs all the way home where, opening the door, he calls out, "Momma, Momma, guess who I just had lunch with."