Soapbox

The Editor Doth Protest Overmuch, methinks.

Saturday the Columbus Dispatch, which endorsed George W. Bush in ’04, came out with a scathing editorial on the idea that we are going to spend hundreds of billions on the relief/rebuilding effort for the Gulf Coast….but won’t raise taxes to do it! They pointed out that President Bush ignored advice and pleas to suspend tax cuts when he started the war, and the result has been economic disaster. He surely must do it NOW! They asked why a man who claims to be conservative refuses to ask anyone but the soldiers to make a sacrifice for the war, and no one but the survivors should sacrifice for Hurricane Katrina.

“The bankruptcy of this approach to governance, fiscally and morally, is total. There is a complete divorce between policy and reality. The government cannot forever avoid paying what it owes.
The president said on Thursday that he takes responsibility for the problem and the solution. He should prove it by telling the nation how he is going to pay for the solution.”

I am in complete agreement with these statements, still, I couldn’t help thinking;
“Well DUHHHH!!”

Of course George Bush’s policies are “disconnected from reality”. What else would you expect from a president whose team takes pride in the fact that they don’t deal in reality!!

President Bush’s morally and economically bankrupt behavior is nothing new. The Dispatch knew in 2004 that George Bush had a record of firing people who tell the truth, promoting those who fail and using smears rather than facts–yet they endorsed him anyway!! His policy of refusing to listen to experts even when it leads to disaster was already well recognized last year, but the President showed up to glad-hand with the Columbus Republican elite and presto-chango: the Dispatch pulled an endorsement out of their hat!

To the editors of the Dispatch I would say, What were you thinking?? What in the world did you suppose would happen when you endorsed a man whom you yourself acknowledged to be leading America in the wrong direction? By encourageing the people of Ohio to vote for him, you gave him the opportunity to do to the American economy, the environment, the poor and disadvantaged of this country and to civil rights what he had already done to Iraq: tear it apart! And you have the nerve to feign surprised and dismayed that he is.

And how dare act righteous and complain about it now? When you sow lies and blind party loyalty, you reap the deluge!