ABSTRACT
Defending his 1987 nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, Ronald Reagan invoked another battle against all odds: “You may remember,” his speech ran, “in the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, when Jimmy Stewart stands in the well of the Senate and says that lost causes are ‘the only causes worth fighting for . . . I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room . . . is filled with lies.’ ” Casting himself in Stewart’s role, Reagan then asserted, “So will I.” Five years later, discussing a politician who himself seemed to be playing a role popularized by Reagan, the Wall Street Journal likened presidential candidate Ross Perot to “Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the pure idealist who triumphs over corrupt insiders.” One year after this, in the Los Angeles mayoral race, candidate (and eventual victor) Richard Riordan used his campaign material to characterize his position in the contest “as the Southern California equivalent of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”1
