on the lam from Dewey back in the 1930’s. Hot Springsrnwas connected. You ever heard of anybody from HotrnSprings?rnAcouple more small vodkas and I realized that Bugsy is important,rnall right, though perhaps not exactly as James Tobackrnand Barry Levinson and Warren Beatty presented him.rnThey didn’t go far enough. He stands for several notable Americanrnimpulses besides self-transformation, which was in his casernas in most others a form of lying. He stands for the principle ofrncomplete unscrupulousness in all aspects of existence; for therntriumph of image over realit)’; and for pandering to people’srnworst instincts as a form of liberation. For Bugsy, desire was reason.rnThat and his style was what made him such a great guy.rnNo wonder Hollywood loved him, and still does. The satanicrnBugsy Siegel is the saint of a view of life which we recognize asrncontemporary America. And not only that. Because there is arnlegend that Siegel wanted to bump off Mussolini (in one version)rnor even prominent Nazis (in another), he has been presentedrnas a hero of Jewish strength as well. Would I kid you?rnAfter all, what is exempted today from revision according tornidentity group politics? But perhaps we can turn to another example.rnWith my head so clogged by drugs and booze and tryingrnto remember what the vig is on my gambling debts and alsornto call my broker and the guy who cooks my taxes, it was hardrnfor me to sort out all the stuff in my head but I gave it a tr)’.rnI always liked The Godfather and I’ll never forget thosernmovies but I was sorry they had such an unhappy ending. Becausernfor the country there was nothing but a happy ending. Irnmean they gave the countr)’ Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe andrnthey agreed to distribute drugs and they did the numbers andrnthe gambling and everything else that was what the peoplernwanted or they would have been out of business. They shot thernguy in the eye who was Bugsy Siegel under another name inrnthe movie and everything turned out great except for their enemiesrnand Michael Corleone who was miserable because hernwas married to Diane Keaton and also he had to kill his brother.rnSometimes you might have to clip somebody because businessrnis business, but the way I look at it, nobody has to marryrnDiane Keaton and that was the part that really tore me up.rnBut the greatest thing about The Godfather was what I callrnthe patriotic or the national part. Like when the old man toldrnMichael that they would have to wait a generation until one ofrnthem became a senator, and by God I think some of them have.rnThen later there was the crooked senator and Michael had hisrnnumber all right. Michael had said they would go legit but byrnthe time they did, they found that the legit stuff was crookedrntoo. Because with the senator at his place, Michael had it madernexcept for Diane Keaton and had more or less taken over therncountry. And the country was more like him, crowding intornLas Vegas for the buffet and everybody having a great time exceptrnfor Michael. Maybe it wasn’t only Diane Keaton. Maybernit was Al Pacino because he always looks like he swallowed arnbad olive.rnBut there are so many other movies like that, with the sadrnending. Men of Resperf is one of them. I recognized the plotrnfrom the tenth grade because back then you had to read in highrnschool. The whole thing was Macbeth, but I think it was a mistake.rnShakespeare didn’t know as much about business as hernthought he did. I mean, he has this guy clipping his boss becausernof a g)’psy fortune teller. Now it’s been known to happen,rnbut never because of a fortune teller. The other thing I didn’trnlike was that the Macbeth guy was all the time naked in his bedroom,rnbut the woman, a tough guy until she freaked out at thernend, never was even once. Somebody got their priorities backwards,rnbut you know those artistic types.rnAnyway, we don’t have a Godfather now. What we have isrn”Godfather Pizza,” which everybody likes. The guys in ThernGodfather were mostly Italian-Americans. They knew how tornmake good tomato sauce, and after a hit, they didn’t forget therncannoli. But remember what Joseph Valachi said, even whenrnhe was squealing to the feds: “I’m not talking about Italians. I’mrntalking about criminals.” He got that right.rnI was starting to get clear again. I wished somebody had toldrnRich Cohen about how criminals aren’t ethnic groups nor vicernversa because I found his new book. Tough jews: Fathers, Sons,rnand Gangster Dreams, in the new acquisitions section of the libraryrnand wished I hadn’t. Mr. Gohen’s view of America is a bitrnweird though published by the establishment (Simon & Schuster).rnBut nothing has damped his sales or kept Mario Cuomornand Larry [Zieger] King from endorsing his book, even thoughrnKing is cited numerous times in the book he touts. I guess businessrnis business.rnI was real let down that Rich Cohen would write even onernsentence in Tough ]ews which would mislead anyone intornthinking that it is not a love letter to dead thugs: “I don’t want tornglamorize what these men did.” Why doesn’t he? He did, anyway.rnHe really smarms over those hitmen but let me tell you.rnMurder, Inc., wasn’t any Hadassah meeting. Anyway, he writesrnlike he was there when he wasn’t even born then, he tells usrnwhat the hard cases “must have” felt, and he keeps making withrnthe poetry. He’s got all the hits and all the deals mixed up withrnthe holocaust and the raid on Entebbe. Yeah, with RichrnCohen like in the movies, vou get violins with your violence.rnBut back in the old days, the guys didn’t have any violins inrnthose violin cases, you know what I’m saying? Ice-picking a guyrn60 times isn’t exactiy planting trees in Israel. I wondered whyrnRich Cohen never figured out that Nazi goons had a lot inrncommon with his Jewish gangsters, but not for long. Like I say,rnthere are a lot of confused people in this world. I mean, therernit was right in the library for all to see but he wouldn’t look itrnup. Paul Johnson drew us the picture in Modem Times ofrnRibbentrop in the Kremlin, setting the stage for World WarrnII—and the holocaust: “As the tipsy killers lurched about thernroom, fumblingly hugging each other, they resembled nothingrnso much as a congregation of rival gangsters, who had foughtrneach other before, and might do so again, but were essentiallyrnin the same racket”rnSo I decided to blow that dump of a library because I neededrnto get my shirts and my money laundered. I figured I hadrnlearned two things. One was that vodka corrupts, but Absolutrnvodka corrupts Absolutly. The other was that you could find arnGideon Bible even in a Las Vegas suite. By the time I got offrnthe red-eye and adjusted my attitude, I would be ready to readrnabout the golden calf before I hit the tables, looking for somernaction.rnI racked the slide on my Sig in the parking lot, just like in anrnElmore Leonard novel. It’s unregistered, chambered for 9 mil,rnand loaded with hollow-points. If any one of those old broadsrnfrom the circulation desk had been there to mess with me, Irnwould have cleaned her clock for her. As it was, there was nothingrnwrong with me that a Diet Pepsi couldn’t fix. To hell withrnthe library. Forget about it. Books are just another racket, onlyrnwith no buffet, no chicks, and no payoif. £rn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn