I should have noted, three weeks ago, the 118th anniversary of the birth of Bruce Barton (1888-1967), who in his long and varied life served in Congress, founded and ran a major advertising agency, and wrote a famous religious book, The Man Nobody Knows, that portrayed Jesus as a salesman and advertising agent.
Mr. Barton had one more claim to fame, though he might have done without it; he was one of the three Republican congressmen lampooned by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election as the obstructionists to the New Deal. President Roosevelt punctuated his speeches that year with jabs at the isolationist Republicans, ending each paragraph with the line (you have to imagine his chirpy cadence here) "Martin, Barton, and Fish." He would repeat the line to the general rhythm of "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" until the audience joined in the chant. He outcampaigned his opponent, Wendell Willkie, but the serendipitous euphony of the Republican House leadership didn't hurt. Or, in verse:
