The spirit of Roderick Spode lives *

But Francisco Franco is still dead. Admirers of the late Spanish dictator marked the 30th anniversary of his death with stiff-armed salutes.

Others less nostalgic dig up his opponents' bones, and recall an ostensibly Catholic regime installed by German Stukas and Moorish bayonets.

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Disagreement over Franco split the Commonweal editorial board in the late '30s, writes Paul Baumann:

In contrast to [founding editor Michael] Williams, Commonweal managing editor George Shuster proved loath to sacrifice the magazine’s support for liberal democracy in deference to Franco’s Catholic credentials…[Shuster] had no brief to make for socialism or communism. He simply refused to accept the idea that Catholics had to chose either fascism or communism. Given the horrendous crimes of the Communists in Spain, Shuster’s position must have seemed like the worst sort of temporizing to many. Yet he was right.

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* In some precincts of St. Blog's, apparently.

The enthusiasm in some quarters for El Caudillo (pictured above, with Moorish Guard) warrants a dose of Wodehouse:

"The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: 'Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'" —Bertie Wooster speaking to Spode in The Code of the Woosters