Leave it to Beaver

Remember Eddie Haskell?

If you're over 55 then of course you do.  For anyone who doesn't, he was one of Wally's sidekicks.  Wally was Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver's older brother on "Leave it to Beaver."

"Leave it to Beaver" was one of the great shows of the late fifties and early sixties.  Any self respecting little boy of that time wanted to be "The Beav."  He got into benign trouble but always got out of it with not too much effort.  His brother loved him but was aloof enough to leave him alone while being uber cool at the same time.  His father knew everything and his mother, while not being Jayne Mansfield (full disclosure...I have a crush on Mariska Hargitay of "Law and Order, SVU"), was pretty enough not to be embarrassing.

Beaver had nice friends like Larry and Whitey and his teacher, Miss (not Ms. thank you...) Landers was a fox.  At least to a ten year old...

And Wally's friends were ok too. Like Lumpy Rutherford, even though his father was a bit tedious.

But then there was Eddie Haskell.  He was the guy who came over, always unannounced at dinner time, to see Wally, shined Mrs. Cleaver on, shook Mr. Cleaver's hand, patted "Young Theodore" on then head and bounded up the stairs to visit Wally leaving the impression that he would win Eagle Scout, The Congressional Medal of Honor and the presidency all before dinner was over.

But cut to Wally's room and Mr. Hyde appeared.  A trash talking  (even though that wasn't a phrase back then...unless you were talking about the garbage in the can in the alley out back...) wiseacre with nothing nice to say about anybody, especially "Young Theodore..."

He always had some scam that he was running and inevitably conned Goodie Two Shoes Wally into coming along on the caper only to get caught and then to deny all culpability as Wally took the fall and, honorably, never implicated Eddie The Schmoozer.

Eddie was the guy you hated.  But you hated him for all the right reasons. 

He was a BS artist and a two faced phony.  He was a know-it-all who knew very little and he was the worst possible influence on the teenagers and pre-teens in his life.  He was the kid your folks warned you about and didn't want you to play with.

In short, he was an asshole of epic proportions. So much so that, today, among people of that generation, to be likened to Eddie Haskell is one step away from being likened to Ted Bundy except without the Volkswagen.

Interestingly, Ken Osmond, the actor who played Eddie, turned out, in real life, to be a decorated and well respected member of the much maligned L.A.P.D with a long career in law enforcement.  Go figure...

When I see and hear Congressman Paul Ryan pontificate about the budget and domestic budgetary policy I am reminded of Eddie Haskell.

Paulie just has that Eddie Haskell essence, smiling in your face while stabbing you in the back.

If he represents the future of the Republican Party then God help the G.O.P.

Funny (not really...) how the family name in "Leave it to Beaver" is Cleaver.

Cleaver...

The same word that Ryan uses when talking about his solution to our budget problems.