These are the Tines to Remember...

'cause they will not last forever...
These are the tines to hold onto,
but we won't, although we want to...

Speaking of old-school reporting (and I mean that in a very good way, so help me Mike Royko), one of the best things about those who have been around the block a few times -- on foot even, is they know the stories well. 

Not so much where the bodies are buried -- though they might have a lead or two on that too -- but an accurate recollection of how things went down in the past. 

With so much short-term memory loss abounding these days in political and populist circles alike, it's important  to still have some writers who can make comparisons to others they've known...

...
I would like to speak up on behalf of the fledgling New York mayor’s de Blasphemy, now universally deemed his first mistake and possibly grounds for impeachment: daintily carving up his smoked-mozzarella-and-sausage pizza at Goodfellas in Staten Island with a knife and fork.
...
Pizza can be hazardous to an administration. We all remember what happened when a Clinton intern delivered a pie to the Oval Office during a government shutdown.
...

Unlike de Blasio, some pols use food as a way to seem more populist. The aristocratic Poppy Bush pretended his favorite snack was pork rinds, offsetting his request for “just a splash” more coffee at a New Hampshire truck-stop diner.

...

As with Christie the Bully, embarrassing incidents hurt politicians when they resonate about a deeper suspicion.

 

Sargent Shriver calling for a Courvoisier in an Ohio mill town bar. Jerry Ford at the Alamo, biting into a tamale without removing the corn husk. Jimmy Carter’s fishing trip that turned into “Paws,” fending off a Killer Rabbit. Michael Dukakis advising farmers to grow Belgian endive, and Barack Obama talking the price of arugula. When John Kerry ordered Swiss cheese on his Philly cheesesteak in 2003, it buoyed Republican efforts to paint him as a Frenchie, fromage-loving surrender monkey.

“The whiff of a limousine-liberal factor,” G.O.P. strategist Mike Murphy told me, does not hurt de Blasio because he comes off as such “a humble, likable guy.” ... The question lurking beneath the surface with de Blasio is: Has he been promoted out of his league?

...and if they're funny enough, in a positive way, they'll still be on the job whilst their subjects are off, busy painting their toes in the bathtub.