For some reason, the two or three hours I spent watching random segments of the recently concluded Democratic National Convention gave me a case of deja vu dating back to the 1980s.
It started with a speech by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who channeled 1988 Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen's classic put-down of Republican counterpart Dan Quayle, who, during a nationally televised debate, tried to make the case that the path that led to his nomination paralleled the one blazed by John F. Kennedy to reach the White House.
"I served with Jack Kennedy," Bentsen replied. "Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
Quayle, as it turned out, may have lost the debate, but he and George H. W. Bush won the election. Quayle celebrated by taking a raft trip with his family down the New River, where he was wrongly accused of having the Army Corps of Engineers turn down the river flow to give him an easier ride.
Trumka's target at the Philadelphia convention was, no surprise, Donald Trump.
"He thinks he's a tough guy," Trumka said. "Well, I worked in the mines with real tough guys. They're my friends. You're not a tough guy, Donald Trump. You're a phony."
I spent time with Trumka, then the UMWA's youngest-ever president, a number of times in the 1980s at mines in the Southern West Virginia coalfields, making small talk while waiting for shifts to change so he could speak with his constituents and I could write about it. As I recall, he was pumped about hunting elk and antelope in Wyoming to help relieve tension when he wasn't battling A.T. Massey Coal and the head of one of its subsidiaries, Don Blankenship, to organize their mines.
Meanwhile, back at the convention, as I watched Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, once eyed as a running mate for Hillary Clinton, deliver an impassioned speech about his party's nominee, I was reminded about the time in 1985 that his older, lookalike brother, West Virginia Attorney General Charlie Brown, launched an investigation into an out-of-state security company hired by Massey during the UMWA's attempt to unionize its mines.
That brings me to Jerry Springer, a guest of the Ohio delegation in Philadelphia. In a speech to the Ohioans, Trumka rebuffed Trump's claims that American wages are too high and asked delegates how many of them thought they were overpaid. Springer alone raised his hand, drawing laughs from the crowd of swing state Democrats, according to an account in the Columbus Dispatch.
Springer's appearance made me remember the title of one of his shows from decades ago that I thought at the time set a new low-water mark for television: "You're Too Fat to be a Hooker."
All this reminiscing about events from the '80s connecting with the present political scene has made me feel old. I just hope that Springer, a former Cincinnati mayor and an unsuccessful Congressional candidate, feels even older and tireder, and won't let his elbow-rubbing at the convention stimulate, as rumored, a renewed interest in seeking public office.
* * * * *
According to USA Today, police in Orlando, Florida, arrested a 64-year-old resident of their city on drug charges, after they mistook dried glaze fragments from Krispy Kreme donuts found on the floor of the man's car for crystal methamphetamine during a speeding stop.
You'd think the officers would be more familiar with the substance.