I miss Larry Hayes. When he was editorial page editor of The Journal Gazette, he had a way of pouring out liberal diatribes that gave my day a fist-through-the-wall, spittle-on-the-chin, howl-in-the-soul start. He could always help me get to work wide awake and ready. And I certainly tried to return the favor for him from time to time, to make sure he was teeth-grindingly alert on his drive home. Since his departure, the JG editorial page seems somehow diminished to me. Oh, they're just as wrong just as often as they always were, but the fires seem banked a little.
But I do still have Dan Carpenter, the reliably liberal op-ed columnist for The Indianapolis Star. His most recent column dismissed GOP candidates Dan Coats, Todd Young and Jackie Walorski as "mediocrities with money" who are trying to disgrace Congress with their presence with the assistance of "massive sums" from "largely anonymous sources intent on buying back Washington." It takes a lot of nerve for someone who accepts the rogues gallery of knaves and clowns the Obama team has as congressional committee chairs to be throwing the "mediocre" label around. Mediocrity would be a distinct improvement. And it's credible to just repeat the Democratic pot's calling the Republican kettle full of anonymous donations?
And here he comes to the defense of the virtuous Washington establishment this hateful trio wants to dismantle:
In all three cases, the Republicans are conjuring the green-faced, pointy-hatted image of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while their Democratic targets are protesting "Nancy Who?"
Pelosi, in fact, is neither a radical nor a lightweight. The first female speaker is one of the most accomplished people in American politics and, like the first black president, unafraid to try out big ideas on entrenched interests.
"Big ideas"? That's how we should describe the ever growing government that is spending us into bankruptcy on schemes that were tired the third and fourth times they were tried?
Thanks, Dan. I won't be falling asleep at the wheel on my drive home tonight.
Comments
I would think it hard for a liberal editorial page editor to muster that "fire in the belly" (or keep a straight face for that matter) when arguing anything for this administration or todays modern "liberal" (read:socialist) agenda.
The sane democrats, along with the independents have come to realize through simple math that we are just plain broke. We spent and and continue to spend way too much and it's all going to come crashing down much sooner than later.
I don't condone the reckless and profligate spending of republicans in the past, we were asleep at the wheel (to borrow Barry's favorite metaphor) and allowed rinos to run up enormous & foolish debts.
That being said, when a house is on fire, you pour water on it not gas, and what Obama & the dems have done in two short years is exactly that, gas on a fire.
Well Leo, if Tim agrees with you, I know for a fact you are wrong.
Thanks Kevin. Let me ask you and the other economic experts you seem to trust this:
At home, in your budget, when you have no cash on hand, no savings left, and your credit cards are almost but not completely maxed out what do you do? Do you drop the cable, drycleaning, landscaper, springbreak trip, friday night out, switch to more casseroles, etc for a while until you get back to a stable financial status?
Or do you just go ahead and cash advance what's left on the credit card to keep doing what you're doing in the blind hope things will get better or you'll hit the lottery?
The nations fiscal condition is not unlike that of all of us middleclass homeowning taxpayers that find ourselves doing exactly what I listed above.
You can blame anyone you want for getting the ball rolling it doesn't matter anymore, what matters is what we do now.
Stop spending. Period.
Or I do the alternative. Find a higher paying job or take on a second job.
AJ
That's very industrious of you Andrew, what do you propose as a second job for the nation?
New markets for our goods and knowhow, including weapons. Cuba is a good example.
AJ
We could legalize and tax the narcotics industry. That would bring in huge revenues!
We also can boost the tax rates for the highest incomes; worked wonders for the economy under Bill Clinton.
AJ
As I think you'll see on Tuesday, most people have come to the same conclusion I have, stop spending.