Richard Fernandez at the Belmont Club equates the President’s fight for socialized medicine with the comic song fight to the death between the Russian Hussar Ivan Skavinsky Skavar and the Turkish champion Abdul Abulbul Amir. The song is a putdown of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, and is little heard or played today, and more’s the pity. Verse-afire has created an updated version, which we offer below. Click here to listen to the original 1927 version by Frank Crumit.

 

 

Miss Pelosi has said that she now has the votes

The Congress has moved very far

The Blue Dogs of course will be filled with remorse

Not so I. Skavinsky Skavar

 

For Ivan has teamed with the Democrat side

In spite of the disdainful sneer

From that bearded old man with the unnatural tan

His foeman Abulbul Amir

 

The House vote was close it came down in the end

To a Blue Dog from Tennessee bar

Who with faltering gait cast his vote very late

Hurried on by Skavinsky Skavar

 

It was then that the victors’ huzzahs turned to groans

As a fierce man tamped down the last cheer

And faced down the lout who had ended the bout

It was Abdul Abulbul Amir

 

The Sergeant-At-Arms cried his vote has been cast

It cannot be changed or denied

Then Ivan stepped in with a devilish grin

And strangled Abdul till he cried

 

They wrestled all night on the floor of the House

Pelosi first hung back in fear

Then with fierce flashing eyes she stabbed both of the thighs

Of Abdul Abulbul Amir

 

So the healthcare was passed by that one single vote

And the next day they named a new czar

Yes they plied him with wealth and they toasted the health

Of Ivan Skavinsky Skavar

 

But the story’s not over there’s more still to come

It will shock you and call forth a tear

Of the terrible fate that befell the once great

Abdul Abulbul Amir

 

He ran for the Congress himself in the Fall

He canvassed his district by car

He arrived in DC quite embarrassed to see

Speaker Ivan Skavinsky Skavar