Word: taft
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...idea that a legal act can be made a crime retrospectively is alien to U.S. constitutional law -- as Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, often termed the conscience of the Republican Party at mid-century, noted in criticizing the Nazi trials. It is a "fundamental principle of American law that a man cannot be tried under an ex post facto statute," said Taft. "About this whole judgment there is the spirit of vengeance, and vengeance is seldom justice." Vengeance is precisely the point for some Germans who have grievances against the East German state. But even if one views...
Fine. But whatever happened to William Howard Taft? And John Fitzgerald Kennedy? And Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Why doesn't anyone ever use middle names--or at least initials--anymore...
McKinley got shot. Nevertheless, Theodore Roosevelt didn't have a middle name. William Howard Taft made up for it, though, and used all three--especially after Teddy got shot, too--during a 1912 Milwaukee speech...
...Taft was wholly unimpressive and didn't even want to be president anyway (he wanted to be on the Supreme Court, where three names were a must--see Charles Evans Hughes and especially Oliver Wendell Holmes). He was also our first Dan Quayle president: Holland says his response to a reporter asking what to do about unemployment was "God knows...
...After Taft, the presidency was all business and no one had time for middle names (least of all Warren Harding, who understandably avoided use of "Gamaliel"). Anyway, no one was having much luck with them. William Jennings Bryan was a three-time presidential loser...