TALKING TURKEY

President George Bush just followed tradition when he pardoned a turkey. Or did he?

Tuesday morning in the Rose Garden, President Bush promised May, the turkey, that he would not be served with a side of yams on Thanksgiving. Nor would May8217;s pal Flower. Oh, happy day.

The Thanksgiving presidential turkey pardon. It8217;s a tradition, major newspapers have reported for years, that began in 1947 with President Harry Truman8212;a sentimental reprieve from the man who had thumbs-upped two atomic bombs.

8220;To paraphrase Harry today,8221; Bush said, 8220;you cannot take the heat8212;and you8217;re definitely going to stay out of the kitchen.8221;

Except it didn8217;t. What Truman was doing in the photo, was receiving a turkey. The turkey tale is the same for Dwight D. Eisenhower Rinse and repeat for presidents Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.

Lincoln spared a turkey once8212;it was meant for Christmas dinner, but his son Tad argued the turkey had as much right to live as anyone, and Abe acquiesced. John F. Kennedy casually spared a turkey on November 19, 1963, days before his assassination. It wasn8217;t an official pardon, says Kennedy archivist Steve Plotkin: 8220;It was probably offhand, spontaneous.8221;

In 1987, Ronald Reagan deflected questions about pardoning Oliver North in the Iran-contra case by joking about pardoning the turkey, Charlie, who was already heading for a petting zoo. At some point in presidential Thanksgiving history, the turkeys presented annually stopped heading for the White House table and to petting zoos.

What does it matter, you may ask, if those turkeys were officially pardoned? They lived anyway, for as long as their bloated, factory-fed bodies allowed.

Story continues below this ad

But a pardon is a pardon and a news conference is a news conference, and just because something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is not necessarily a pardoned turkey.

Here is the straight story, gleaned from the public papers of past presidents at the American Presidency Project:

The first officially pardoned bird debuted not in 1947 but in 1989 on the first presidential Thanksgiving of George H.W. Bush. 8220;He will not end up on anyone8217;s dinner table8212;not this guy,8221; Bush said. 8220;He8217;s granted a presidential pardon as of right now.8221;

No one really knows why. 8220;I8217;m sure some speechwriter came up with some unique way8221; of letting turkeys live, says Bush8217;s press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater.

Story continues below this ad

The Bush library is no help; staffers are as surprised as anyone to hear that their president pardoned the first turkey. 8220;Until this morning we didn8217;t know that he started it,8221; archivist Zachary Roberts says. He8217;d always thought, in fact, that it was Truman.

Tuesday morning in the Rose Garden none of it mattered to May, who was content to huddle on his damask tablecloth and occasionally squawk. Post-ceremony, the president said, both May and Flower would be 8220;flown to Disney World, where they will serve as honorary grand marshals for the Thanksgiving Day Parade.8221; He then wished them luck: 8220;May they live the rest of their lives in blissful gobbling.8221; Now that8217;s a nice story.
-monica hesse LAT-WP