Having been away for part of the week, I spent last evening lopping off the blooms that had “gone by”, the point of which is to make the rest of the plant strong and healthy.
I wish we could do the same with Congress.
Speaker of the House Denny Hastert and the disgraceful Senator John Cornyn of Texas have, much to their dishonor, been the latest member of the Bush administration to launch the “anti-patriotism” mantra against two members of the Senate who have served with distinction in the military, John McCain and John Warner.
McCain, of course, is the nation’s most famous POW, having spent five years at the notorious “Hanoi Hilton”. Senator Warner, better known outside the Beltway as one of Elizabeth Taylor’s legion of former husbands, served in not only one but two wars, and was a Navy secretary under Nixon.
So, how does this play in Peoria? Is _anyone_ in the United States really stupid enough to buy the argument that McCain’s insistence on fiscal restraint and Warner’s even-handed chairmanship of the Congressional hearings on prisoner abuse make them unpatriotic?
McCain interprets this latest abuse of his character to “payback” for Campaign Finance Reform. As to the continuing revelations of more and yet more abuse of Iraqi prisoners, he concludes “I believe from my experience that the only way you get one of these things behind you is to get everything out as quickly as possible.”
Good advice, let’s hope the voting public reflects the same “put it behind us” attitude about the despicable Bush administration this November.