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Tuesday, June 2. 2009
Date Night
So, the president takes his wife to a night on the town in New York City, dinner, a Broadway show and then back to the White House. Expensive “Date Night,” but that’s how you roll when you’re the President of the United States. You stop traffic with your motorcade, the show delays it’s start 45 minutes until you get there and there’s no waiting outside for cheap tickets, you’re the president and First Lady so that’s all taken care of by the aids.Presidents have been doing this type of thing my entire lifetime. Can’t count the number of times I’ve seen on the news or read in the paper about a presidential motorcade in New York, Los Angeles or some other metropolis stopping traffic for something. And it’s always on the taxpayers’ dime. Well yeah, we pay the president’s salary too.
When the news hit the airwaves Sunday morning I didn’t think too much of it, this type of thing has happened as I said, too often to take notice. Glad I don’t live in Manhattan though. Their traffic grinds to a halt just because. Same with L.A. I digress.
But the people at Fox News went apeshit! How could the president do such a terrible thing? How could the president spend so much of the taxpayers’ money just to take his wife on a date to New York! It was the lead story all day Sunday and every commentator criticized the President and First Lady, right down to the restaurant they chose for their dinner, the Bluehill Restaurant. I’ve never heard of it, but apparently it’s popular because of its “locally grown” fare.
Republicans are searching for an issue, any issue, to attack the president and Democrats; to successfully attack the president and Democrats. Date Night was just one feeble attempt. There is of course the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The right wing fringe is still calling her a racist, but the Congressional Republicans are keeping their traps shut for the time being, waiting until the confirmation hearings take place. And the Republicans who have spoken on Sotomayor say she is likely to be confirmed.
Republicans shot their wad in April with the “big” tax day “teabagging” event. Fox News had live coverage from all over the United States, including Neil Cavuto in Sacramento. Cavuto justified Fox’s coverage of the event by saying the news network did as much for the “liberal” event, the Million Man March. Well, that turned out to be a lie since Fox News didn’t come on the air until 1996 and the Million Man March took place in 1995. But I digress once again.
Diehard, never give in Republicans hoped their faux grassroots movement, funded by some of the most fringe right groups in the world, would catch fire with the American electorate and they, once again, would have America back in their pocket.
What we got of course were jokes about teabagging, the funniest part of the whole event, and a whole lot of people who made it a decidedly partisan event with racist signs about the president as well as calling him a socialist and worse. The majority of Americans who support the president, over 60%, didn’t really like seeing that, so while many Americans might have had concerns about the various bailouts and the economic stimulus plan, the tone and tenor of teabag day put most Americans off.
Then there was that alleged to be “non-partisan” event staged by Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and Eric Cantor in the Virginia pizzeria. I can’t remember what it was called! Had to go back through my digital files and look it up: The National Council for a New America.
It took place early on a Saturday Morning: fresh pepperoni pizza for breakfast. Just like college, except we had pizza left over from the night before back then. I’ve watched the video several times and can’t help noticing the look of pain on Jeb Bush’s face. Clearly he didn’t want to be there, but, what the Hell, the Bush name is so far down the toilet, he had to do something, even a meaningless charade trying to “rebrand” the Republican Party.
Jeb Bush is the “smart one,” the Bush that should have been president, if the eldest of the three Bush’s didn’t hijack Jeb’s political career. Now young Jeb is relegated to the dustbin of history, with no chance of becoming president, although he could get elected to the Senate from his state of Florida. Maybe that’s his angle.
Do you ever wonder whatever happened to Neil Bush? He’s the one that got caught up in the Silverado Savings and Loan scandal back in the ’80’s, avoiding prosecution because his daddy was president at the time the scandal broke.
As director of Silverado Savings and Loan, Neil Bush was giving multi-million dollar loans to his business partners, who, in turn, kicked back some of the money to Neil Bush in the form of investments in Bush’s oil exploration company. He claims he doesn’t see how that constitutes a conflict of interest with his job as director of the S&L. Few — if any — of the loans were ever paid, just about all of them defaulted.
Silverado went out of business, taking the life savings of its members with it and leaving American taxpayers on the hook for two billion dollars. Neil paid a $50,000 fine to avoid criminal prosecution. Last we heard from Neil Bush: about six years ago. He was going through a messy divorce that revealed in stark detail all his financial shenanigans.
Jeb Bush, in the ’80’s, also defaulted on a $4.5 million loan to a Florida S&L, Broward Federal Savings of Sunrise, Florida. He “borrowed” the money to subsidize a building that was later appraised at $500,000.00. Jeb and his partners paid that and left the other four mil for the taxpayers to pick up. Wonder how Florida voters missed that when they elected him governor — twice.
But, I digress, although the Bush family history is quite interesting if one chooses to look into it.
The issues for the Republicans have evaporated. Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed, teabag day was a flop, Eric Cantor’s little group is now mostly forgotten and the president taking his wife to Broadway on a date? Please!
Rush Limbaugh is the head of the Republican Party, whether the Republican officials want to admit it or not. They bow to Rush every time they run afoul of Limbaugh’s opinion. In Marathon County, Wisconsin, a Republican spokesperson was removed from his party post for penning an editorial criticizing Rush. The Republicans in Marathon County don’t want any moderates in their party, but that’s not really the worst of Conservatives.
Sunday, abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered in the vestibule of his church. Rabid radical fringe conservatives have been calling Tiller and his colleagues baby killers for decades, exhorting their followers to commit all types of harassment and intimidation on medical staff who provided health care to women. Tiller’s murder is just the latest.
What does the fringe element have to say: Tiller had it coming. Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, when commenting on the murder, referred to the victim as a mass murderer, as did Bill O’Reilly on his Fox News program. Opposition to Roe v Wade and abortion is the only issue for the people who now control the Republican Party. Everything else is just window dressing. You can bet not one Republican politician will come out and denounce not just the murder, but also all the violent rhetoric from the right that inflames people like the man who murdered Dr. Tiller. That is unconscionable. It’s just one more reason why the Republican Party will continue to lose support across America; they haven’t the backbone to standup to the crazies who now control their agenda.
What to do? Criticize the president for taking his wife on a date to New York. They just keep digging that hole deeper. Me? I’m wondering if the president got lucky Saturday Night.
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