Fate is a wonderful/terrible thing to tempt

From the be-careful-what-you-ask-for-because-you-just-might-get-it-good-and-hard department comes a delightful and timely tale from Michael Reagan on the 100th birthday of his father, the 40th president of the United States.

In this piece published Saturday in the “Monday” edition of Investor’s Business Daily (that’s how they do it), Michael Reagan tells of the day in 1962 that General Electric fired his father from his gig as host of  “General Electric Theater,” the highly popular and long-running television series. In it the son gets in a few digs at the modern-day version of GE, its management and the current Democratic administration.

Then, as now, GE was angling for some lucrative government contracts. But actor and Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan had said some unkind things about the Kennedy administration.

Here is how Michael Reagan, who recently penned a book on his father’s principles, recalls the event:

“General Electric wants us to feel warm and fuzzy every time we screw in a GE made-in-China twisty light. But I haven't felt warm and fuzzy toward GE since that day in 1962 when Dad came home and told us he had just been fired by GE and his show, ‘General Electric Theater,’ was canceled.

“Dad explained that CBS hadn't canceled the highly rated show. Instead, GE had pulled the plug. As the company was negotiating some government contracts, Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general of the United States, bluntly informed GE that if the company wished to do business with the U.S. government, it would get rid of ‘General Electric Theater’ and fire the host.”

Within 48 hours his father was jobless. Had it not been that, Michael doubts his father would have run for governor of California. The rest is history.