He's Never Heard of You, Either

Of all the volumes of Doonesbury book I have unearthed in one of my buried boxes this week, the best walk down memory lane comes from "He's Never Heard of You Either." The title and cover shot for this collection of G. B. Trudeau's daily strips from 1979-1981 comes from John Anderson's run for President in 1980. A Republican congressman from Illinois, Anderson lost his party's nomination to Ronald Reagan but ended up running a third party campaign. Of course, when Mike Doonesbury decided to work for Anderson's campaign he was the only one sitting in the audience, totally impressed by Anderson who certainly did not sound like a Republican (but what would Mike know? As he points out, he is a Democrat). I remember hearing Anderson talk early in his campaign and sitting around with people in college talking about how this guy had some good ideas but no change in the world of ever getting elected (but what do I know? It took me four Presidential elections before I ever voted for a party twice). In this collection you will also find one of my favorite Doonesbury strips of all time depicting a press conference with Senator Ted Kennedy, who was challenging President Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980, and who is constructing a run-on sentence of great length before the press corps pleads "A verb, Senator, we need a verb!" That was a punch line for months after we read that one. However, there is much more than losing candidates running around in this collection (although Phil Slackmeyer is supporting John Connally). Joan brings home Zeke Brenner to meet mom (he is working on an expose about Duke), Ambassador Phred is chatting with the Soviet Ambassador to the U.N., "Conscam" has Congressmen (posing as themselves) breaking up the largest entrapment ring in FBI history, and Zonker is working on this year's tan.I told you this was good stuff.But politics remains the focus of Trudeau's best materials. After attending a Reagan press conference, Rick gets to see the Governor's amazing clipping collection (including a clipping on "Wilson to sign treaty at Versailles"). Meanwhile, the White House gardener is talking about what all these signing ceremonies are doing to the rose garden and Reverend Scot heads to Iran to try and see if anything can be done about the American hostages. Meanwhile, Mike is trying to help Anderson meet all those pesky deadlines for getting on state ballots. "He's Never Heard of You, Either" is a choice selection of Doonesbury cartoons from this period and a walk down memory lane well worth the taking.