Careful What You Say!

“Loose lips sink ships!” That was important advice during the two great wars. It was drilled into military personnel. It should be drilled into political candidates as well. Mitt Romney appears to have a bad case of loose lips and, if not corrected, it could sink his ship.

by Charlie Leck

The presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, made the following two statements in Israel during his stop there. He must learn something quickly about the power of words on the international scene and how his comments must be carefully considered. The following two comments came almost immediately upon the heels of his critical comments about the organization and management of the Olympic Games in the host country, the United Kingdom.

“We should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course, and it is our fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so.” [Mitt Romney]

“If you learn anything from the economic history of the world, it’s this: Culture makes all the difference…  As I come here and look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things. One, I recognized the hand of providence in selecting this place.” [Mitt Romney, in Israel, to a fund-raising gathering.]

Saeb Erekat, an aide to Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, said of Mitt Romney’s remarks to a gathering of his wealthy supporters: “It is a racist statement, and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation… It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people. He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”

Mr. Erekat’s reaction says enough about how the Romney statement concerning Israel’s culture can upset a huge population of non-Jews and non-Christians. When read carefully it also expresses feelings of faith and religion that may be dangerous on the international scene.

Criticism of Romney's remarks came from as far away as China. There, the official Xinhua News Agency called the remarks “hawkish.” The agency called the Romney comment “…irresponsible if he just meant to appeal to voters at home.”

The second of the two statements above seems, at first blush, to be the most dangerous of the two. It is, however, the first that frightens me the most; for it takes up the careless thinking of the George W. Bush administration that drew us into two unnecessary and immensely expensive wars. I think no President should ever carelessly utter the following: “We should employ any and all measures…”

We were carelessly drawn into Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan by “any and all measures” thinking. We need no more of it.

In a remarkable opinion column, Washington Post writer Katrina vanden Heuvel says that Romney is caught in a time warp…

“If this seems like foreign policy out of a twentieth century history book – or the George W. Bush neocon playbook – that’s because it is. A President Romney wouldn’t bring about ‘another American century.’ Rather, he would return us to some of the worst policies of the last century.”

In the column, vanden Heuvel expresses brilliantly the real questions that America’s foreign policy ought to be addressing and that Romney appears bent on ignoring.

Romney’s first outing on the international scene has not gone well. Columnist Eugene Robinson called it “gaffepalooza!” He will likely learn from it. Anyway, one would hope so!

In England, Romney spoke and called the problems with the preparation for the games there “disconcerting.” It does not take a wise man to recognize that such a comment might cause problems within British political circles and among the general population of the United Kingdom.

Romney’s goal in going to the UK was to highlight the strength of the bonds between that nation and ours. Mr. Romney’s trip was also supposed to bolster his foreign policy credentials. It’s done anything but. He’ll need to learn that “loose lips sink ships.”

These stumbles will now probably have a major impact on the selection of his running mate. I think his handlers will now turn in the direction of someone who can carefully and intellectually express a sensible and careful international policy. This is part of the enjoyment of watching these political developments. Let’s see who now emerges as a vice presidential candidate for Mr. Romney.

Now, mind you, Republicans are reacting to the Romney mistakes abroad with total disinterest -- or, at least, they say so. They know that only about one percent (Yup! That’s not a typo!) – only one percent – of the voters care a hang about foreign policy. They still say that it is “only the economy” that matters and the unemployment that ensues from it. So, they say, forget about finding a foreign policy vice president. Hmm! It is that kind of thinking that gave us the world problems we face now!

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Sarah Palin was a Mistake and Condoleezza Rice would be a Winner

In a TV interview, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney said that a Vice President “should be capable of being President.” This is not a staggering or surprising statement. It also seems to make perfect sense. Why then was Sarah Palin chosen to run with John McCain in 2008?
by Charlie Leck

[The following blog is based, in part, on an article in the Washington Post by Ellen Nakashima and on an ABC-TV News interview with former Vice President Richard Cheney.]

It was Rush Limbaugh who set the tone and tenor for choosing Sarah Palin to run as the Vice Presidential candidate back in 2008. In the year previous, long before a presidential candidate was established, Limbaugh was touting Palin for the second spot on the ticket. Many listeners bit on the Limbaugh idea and pushed hard for Palin to get the spot. The pressure for McCain to pick the Governor of Alaska was intense. In the end, McCain caved to the intense pressure from Limbaugh and the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Did anyone ever ask if she was capable of taking over the reins of government if such circumstance might arise? You cannot pick a candidate who can help win the office but can’t run the office if circumstances require it. The voters will recognize such a person.

“I don’t think she passed that test,” Cheney told ABC’s Jon Carl, “of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake.”

That is where candidate Romney is right now. He is looking over the field and looking for that precious person who can do both – help win the office and run it if necessary.

Romney’s best possible choice – and the absolute killer nightmare of Democrats – is Condoleezza Rice. The woman has the essential experience and she has an extraordinary mind. She’ll appeal to women and to minorities. And, in the event it becomes necessary, she could run the office capably.

Though I don’t agree with many of Rice’s positions, I admire her. I hope to goodness that Romney does not choose her as a running mate. I don’t personally think Romney could beat President Obama. Rice, running with Romney, might!

The likely question for Rice, a very exciting intellectual, is whether she could stand running with a very ordinary and bland thinker like Romney.

Two women stand out in America as extraordinarily good presidential timbre – women who could both win the election and run the office: Rice and Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s time, unfortunately, appears to have passed. Rice’s is immediately at hand if she wants to leap. If there is a problem with her Vice Presidential candidacy it might be that she would out-shine the man with whom she would run.

Condoleezza Rice is currently on the academic staff at Stanford University. She is a professor of Political Economy in the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is also a professor of Political Science and Public Policy. She formerly served as the United States Secretary of State and, prior to that, as President George W. Bush’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (2001-2005).

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Flight 93 National Memorial Monument

     My brother, Frank, walked the grounds with me at the Flight 93 Memorial Monument

Outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, I visited the memorial monument to honor those who died in the crash of Flight 93 on 9-11. Two phases of the work are complete as of now (July, 2012). The third, and final, phase has yet to begin. It was a hot and humid day and the sun beat down hard on those who walked about the grounds.

by Charlie Leck

It was a moving experience. I felt a great silence stirring troubling memories around inside me. I held back the tears, but I found it difficult to say anything to my two brothers, who walked with me, because of the lump in my throat.

It’s a great, open field of tall grasses and wild fescue, which on this day were blowing gently in the strong breezes, where one goes to visit and remember the events of 9-11 and the passengers of flight 93.  The massive, sloping hillside was once a strip mine where coal was harvested. A large junkyard, where old, unusable pop and snack vending machines were collected, was in a sizeable area in the northwest corner of the property. The plane, on that clear, beautiful September morning, came right in over a couple of fellows who were working among the junk, separating out some of the good and useful parts of the machines. At that point the plane was belly-up and doomed to crash. The roar of the plane, as it passed above them at over 500 miles-per-hour, was deafening. Then, the aircraft smashed into the ground and the earth shook and a ball of black smoke rose into the sky as if a bomb had gone off. The sound was heard for miles away; yet, none who heard it understood the significance of what had happened.

A brave group of passengers had probably saved the lives of dozens – or hundreds – or thousands – of other people who were the target of the crazed terrorists who had kidnapped control of the plane. A number of the passengers had received cell phone calls from people who knew they were in dangerous skies. The calls told them of the hijackings of three American Airlines planes and the disastrous crashes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It was clear to the passengers that there was no hope. The plane was 18 minutes flying-time from the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C..

A big rock stands in the crater that the plane made that day. From a memorial wall and gate, one can look down on it – out there, a hundred feet away. The wall holds the names of all those passengers and flight crew who perished. A walkway leads to a tall, slatted gate where it keep viewers respectfully back from the final resting place of the passengers, far from the target that the frightful hijackers had established.

One cannot help but interrogate one’s self about such courage. Would I have had it? Knowing full well that I would die anyway, would I have charged those kidnappers and attacked them, purposefully trying to bring the plane down so that it could not make it back to its intended target, wherever that might have been? One senses that each visitor is asking himself/herself the same agonizing question. In that sad, quiet moment, I tell myself that I would have – that I would have joined them when I heard the command: “Let’s roll!”

It’s a beautiful spot out there in western P-A. Beautiful! The National Park Service has made it so meaningful and it expresses clearly the mournful grieving of the entire nation. I am proud of this place and of those passengers and I feel engulfed by grief for them.

A visitors’ center is yet to be built – up there where the junkyard was – where the plane first came in over the field, flipping and flapping and then rolling over on its back as it fell to its doom. A walkway will extend down hill, following the plane's flight path. And they will build a 93 feet high tower also. It will have a wind-chime for each of the passengers and crew. I imaged, as I grieved that day, what it will sound like to future visitors who come to this spot. How contrasting to the sound of the plane colliding with the earth!

In a hundred years, will the gruesome event be forgot? Will people stop coming here? Will it no longer matter to young people that a group of brave passengers acted for their fellow countrymen?

A Minnesotan – Thomas E. Burnett – was among those who charged the terrorists. He had spoken to his wife via his cell phone and told her of the plan. I passed by his name on the memorial wall. With my fist, I tapped the engraved letters of his name as reverently and gratefully as I could. He was too young to die and he had a loving wife and children.

I’m grateful that my brother brought me to this spot – this place of history and reverence.


In the faces of visitors one could see both great mournfulness and awed appreciation! (Photos below by Charles Leck)

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If you’ve got a lemon, make lemonade!

Turns out that John Sinunu’s claim that President Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand is absolutely correct and I’ll be damned.
by Charlie Leck

I’m out here on a run toward New York City. The sun is newly up and I was on the very early list for breakfast in the dining car. I took along a small log-book and began making notes about something that has been roiling in me for a week. It’s what that two-bit, political draft-horse, punk of a guy, John Sinunu, said about the President.

Sinunu said that President Obama couldn’t even run a lemonade stand. Wow! Couldn’t he have gone somewhere else? Almost anywhere else?

I guess Sinunu had some good information. I’ve got some solid, inside (and anonymous, of course) information that does indeed indicate the President did have a number of problems with a lemonade stand back in Chicago when he lived there. The Obamas had a lovely home in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago’s Southside. When the girls got to that certain stage all little kids get to, they wanted to set up a lemonade stand on the sidewalk in front of their house. Of course, as any dad would, Mr. Obama offered to help them. Well, he wasn’t the senior operations guy on this project, but we have certain and undeniable word that the lemonade stand took some pretty hefty losses (for those days) in the neighborhood of twenty or thirty bucks.

Damn! That Sinunu has more going for him than just that alliterative name. He’s got someone on the inside providing solid information about the President’s business acumen. Now Mitt Romney would have worked it differently and you can bet on it. The former chief-executive-officer and sole stock holder of Bain Capital from uh, uh, uh – well, from back then in, let’s see, in about 1984 – would have made that lemonade stand a huge success. The President allowed his girls to use home-grown, American lemons that were also organic. Far too costly were these lemons to ever hope for a return. The sugar the girls used was also organic and purchased from American owned companies. Finally, the water was first-class, filtered water that was also a bit too costly. It’s difficult to make money when the President insisted the girls hold the price to somewhere around a dime for a glass of lemonade. It was one of those deals, much like my wife’s lamb business – the more the girls sold, the more money they lost, though the lamb is spectacularly good and so was the lemonade.

Now you can see what I’m getting at and why I’m so damned angry about this attack on my wife – er, I mean on the Obama children. Sinunu has no right to go off on these girls that way.

On the other hand, Mitt Romney can’t seem to clearly explain just when he stopped being the go-to guy at Bain Capital [Read Dana Milbank’s wonderful column in the Washington Post: Romney and His Time Machine]. From the founding of the company, Romney was its CEO and only stockholder. Romney, it seems, took a leave from Bain in 1999 in order to save the Olympics that were to be held out in Utah. Seems that some guy, who couldn’t run a lemonade stand, had tried to manage the Olympics and got everything all screwed up. Romney saved the day and nobody will deny that or argue the point.

The question is, rather, when did Mr. Romney step down from running the Bain operation? Seems Bain out-sourced a lot of jobs after 1999 and that wouldn’t seem good for Romney if he was the company’s CEO. Yet, it seems that Mr. Romney’s name was still listed on legal filings as the CEO and only stockholder during the period that the out-sourcing took place. A spokesman for Romney now says that the retirement was “retroactive” to February of 1999. Retroactive?

“Retroactive? Retroactive? What the hell do you mean, retroactive?”

Dana Milbank describes this as something akin to time-travel. Strange!

“Retroactive retirement! It was a brilliant formulation, perhaps the greatest addition to the political lexicon since “no controlling legal authority.” And it raised tantalizing possibilities: If Romney can do it, perhaps others can go back in time to rearrange events.

“George W. Bush could retroactively end his presidency on Sept. 1, 2008, before the financial collapse. Donald Rumsfeld could retroactively pull out of Iraq before the insurgency. President Obama could retroactively deny government funding for Solyndra.”  [Dana Milbank]

Brilliant! Brilliant! No wonder Romney is such a good business man. Maybe he could take us back to a time period before a Republican president lied to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Or certainly before a time when we foolishly expanded our mission in Afghanistan – back to a time before we spent 3 or 4 trillion dollars on foolish wars.

I’ll bet, if Mr. Obama, could time travel, he would take us retroactively back to a time before he set the price for the girls on their lemonade sales and he would then allow them to charge a quarter for a glass of delicious, organic and pure lemonade – and, they could advertise that they were the daughters of a future U.S. President! Can you imagine the sales?

I don’t know! Train travel does something to me.

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The Stars put on a Show for Free

“On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be; and there the world below can’t bother me. Let me tell you now!”

by Charlie Leck

On the train this week, rolling toward the East Coast, I had my iPod engaged and I wore my noise-reduction earphones. In between reading stints, I was listening to my music.

Let me tell you now!
If one were to investigate and analyze the contents of the music on my iPod, I suppose that “one” could pretty precisely identify me and my era (Ray Charles; Bob Dylan; Peter, Paul and Mary; Nancy Sinatra; Barbara Streisand; Perry Como; Johnny Cash; the Beattles; Van Morrison; Marvin Gaye; the Beach Boys; Neil Diamond; the Drifters; Ben E. King; Carly Simon). Oh well, I’m not ashamed of it – and I even, very occasionally, slip back to some of the music of the fifties (Perry Como; and Bobby Vinton’s You Are My Special Angel). Cleo Laine is on my iPod, too; however, she was a much later discovery that I made in the late 90s (as I’ve written on this blog before), as is Diana Krail and Nora Jones.

Well, that’s just some of them. One of the songs I listened to a number of times on this train trip came from The Drifters. Oh, how I enjoyed them. One of their albums on my iPod is The Drifters’ Greatest Hits. There are so many of them I liked (and I knew the lyrics of many by heart).

When this old world starts gettin’ me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be
And there the world below can’t bother me
Let me tell you now…

Let’s go up on the roof – up on the roof

At night the stars put on a show for free
And, darling, you can share it all with me

The stars, you see, play a big part in my life. How I adore them!

The Drifters Greatest Hits

There goes my Baby

Dance with Me

This Magic Moment

Save the Last Dance for Me

Under the Boardwalk

Up on the Roof

On Broadway

The playlists on my iPod date me and categorize me. There’s an exception or two (lately I’ve developed a taste for classic opera and I’ve downloaded some Verdi, Georges Bizet, Antonin Dvorak, after visiting Prague last fall, Puccinni and Debussy). I also like the remarkable operatic performances of  Andrea Bocelli (I have four of his complete albums on my iPod). The recent additions of segments of operas might confuse an investigator or two, but, by and large, my era and age is pretty well revealed in what I listen to…

A good iPod for travel
There’s nothing like it. I can drift (drifters… you get it?) back to my younger days. And a simple iPod can hold thousands of recordings and play them back for you with extraordinary quality.

Train Travel
Let me say it again: It’s quite peaceful traveling by train. Train travel is not elegant in America, but it’s peaceful and there is space to stretch out and you can move around (though you’re occasionally thrown from side to side).

This is part of my AmTrak Memoirs…

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ABE Books

Does Amazon own everything? The vast reach of this company is incredible and, to me, startling.
by Charlie Leck

So, I was lazing around on the Internet on a morning last week, trying to figure something out about a web site call LibraryThing.com and whether or not I should join it, WHEN my eyes spotted a note about my favorite place to buy books, ABE.

“Online bookseller AbeBooks (now owned by Amazon) bought a 40% share in LibraryThing in May 2006 for an undisclosed sum.^[9]”

“What?” I sat up, startled, and said that to myself aloud. “My wonderful web site, where I buy an awful lot of books for used prices from independent book dealers all over the world, is owned by the massive sales giant known as Amazon?”

I stuttered and stammered; and I wanted to spit.

“This can not be! It cannot!”

I’ve been purchasing books from ABE since 1996. Back then, its name stood for American Book Exchange. Now, I guess it stand for Amazon Buys Everything!

My books have come from independent used book dealers from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine – and from Terre Haute, Indiana to Sidney, Australia. My most expensive purchase was for a rare book at $600. I thought it was a steal! It was a steal! I cherish it still. My cheapest purchase was $1. Most of the books I’ve purchased from ABE were for a dollar, with a couple of bucks added for shipping.

I don’t buy from Amazon! I don’t know why! It’s just something I decided to not do when I realized what a giant they’ve become and that they will now sell you just about anything and everything you want. Someone told me a couple of years ago that Amazon had become the largest and busiest friggin’ web site in the entire world – that many times you are dealing with Amazon and don’t even know it.

“Not me!” I replied to him. “I know where the heck I’m buying my stuff – and from whom!”

Yeh, sure! And then I came upon this little note in Wikipedia when I was trying to find out something about LibraryThing. It’s all very distasteful.

Will the entire world soon be owned my mega corporations? Will we no longer have a little confectionary store where we can walk in and greet the owner and take a chair by his nice, warm pot-belly stove?

“Hello, Henry! What’s the good woman cooking up for lunch today? Oh, heck! Whatever it is, that’s what I’ll have, okay? And with a good, hot cup of black coffee if you don’t mind. Here, take it out of this,” I say as I slide a dollar bill over to him.

I swear by the stars above, the world has changed so much that my late old man must be spinning wildly around in amazement out there somewhere in the vast universe. Whatever little star he made his eternal home upon is probably now owned by Amazon!

Whatever am I going to do now about buying my used books?

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Train Travel

I’m about to board a train – to do some traveling – and I’m thinking about trains and how much I love them!
by Charlie Leck

I’m on my way to see a couple of my grandkids and their parents. Then I’ll be off to visit a daughter in the Big Apple. Then into Pennsylvania to visit my two brothers. I’m waiting to board an AmTrak train (the Empire Builder) as I write this. I’ll spend 60 hours riding trains in the next week. I have sleeping rooms arranged, so I’ll be comfortable even though the travel is slow. I’ll be able to get up and walk around. I’ll sit in the observation car for a while and I’ll spend time in the dining car. I’ve got some good books loaded on to my iPad, a copy of the day’s paper, and a writing pad.

What more does a fella need? Perhaps, a glass of wine a bit later!

I’ll keep you posted from the road.

Since today is Saturday, I’ll try to catch Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me on the radio and, after that, Radio Lab. I brought a little, gadget radio along and I’ll see if it works on the train. Tonight I’ll be having dinner with two granddaughters, a daughter and a son-in-law in their new home.

I got used to train travel when I lived in Europe as a young man for awhile. I so hoped the U.S. would catch up to our allied European nations when he came to train travel, but, alas, it seems like something our national leaders can’t get their collective heads around.

Train travel is growing more popular as air travel gets so much tackier than it used to be. The train I'm about to get on is completely sold-out. The airlines have taken the fun out of flying – and charge us ridiculous rates to handle us like stray animals when we travel with them. I don’t like sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers. Nor do I like some strange person in front of me, lowering his seat into my lap and stealing from me most of what little space I have.

The conductor on the train still calls me “sir” and asks me if I’d like him to make a dinner reservation for me. And, if I accept his offer, he’ll get it done with a wide, bright smile on his face. At dinner time, he’ll knock on my door and tell me my table is ready.

AmTrak is not as good as the elegant TGV in France, but it’s one heckuva lot better that being stuffed into one of Delta’s regional jets.

They’re calling for us to board now. I’ll write more tomorrow.

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Best Newspaper in America

As I sat waiting for my train, I realized I had the New York Times from yesterday in my backpack. What a great way to kill some time.
by Charlie Leck

What a great read the NY Times was this morning (even though it was yesterday’s paper). I read a half-dozen good pieces in half-an-hour and it felt like I’d had a civilized conversation with someone with patience and a willingness to make sure I understood. (I’ll give you links where I can.)

David Brooks, not exactly on the left and not often complimentary of Democrats, had nothing but good things to say about President Obama’s foreign policy (Where Obama Shines).

“It won’t help him win many votes this year, but it should be noted that Barack Obama has been a good foreign policy president. He, Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary Hillary Clinton and the rest of his team have created a style of policy making that is flexible, incremental and well adapted to the specific circumstances of this moment.”

Brooks goes on to generally heap praise on the way Obama has carefully measured situations and not shot from the hip.

I’ve written the same thing about Obama here and I remain extremely impressed with the work of Secretary of State Clinton. The woman is danged good.

Paul Krugman had a good column called “The Pathos of the Plutocrat.” My wife has been arguing for some time that we’ve become a plutocracy in America. Krugman says we’re close. He builds his column off of an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”

Krugman does a good job of explaining why the candidate, Mitt Romney, doesn’t get it about the American economy. Most of the rich, he says, don’t fit this quick, little estimate by Fitzgerald; however, Krugman seems to think that Romney does.

“Clearly, Mr. Romney believed that he could run for president while remaining safe inside the plutocratic bubble and is both shocked and angry at the discovery that the rules that apply to others also apply to people like him. Fitzgerald again, about the very rich: ‘They think, deep down, that they are better than we are.’”

Let’s see those tax returns, Mr. Romney! Let’s see them!

Mark Edmundson wrote a good column about “the trouble with online education.” It boils down to this… “Internet courses are monologues. True learning is a dialogue.”

I guess Edmundson is correct, but I’ve had a lot of fun taking some of those online Yale University Courses and now Stanford is putting a wad of their courses online for us to take a look at – FREE!

An editorial needles the Republicans for not being able to understand a Democrat threat to hold the Congress hostage until the current tax cuts run out and taxes all go up. Democrats are willing to postpone this little deadline if Republicans will only agree to allow taxes to rise for the wealthy. The editorial says that the Democrats might be learning about power games from the Republicans themselves.

But what hit me the hardest were a number of letters castigating the Boy Scouts of America for their position that disallows gays to be scouts. One short letter really nailed it.

“Alas, gay boys who want to wear uniforms and engage in all sorts of outdoor activities will have to wait until they can join the military.” [Kathy Heggemeier, Portsmouth VA]

A front page story covered a number of the legal challenges that are arising over the current voter identity laws that so many states are passing. The piece was written by Ethan Bronner and I’m sure you can find it if you google both his name and “voter id.”

I’ve written here about my opposition to voter id laws. They’re a phony attempt by Republicans to disenfranchise the very, very poor. Republicans simply want to control the nation and they don’t care how they do it. Voter fraud is a really minor problem in America – a very miniscule one at the worst. They’re bad asses, these Republicans in control right now! [Read my blog about the Voter I.D. movement and Poll Taxes.]

There are some really good newspapers in America, like the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, but the best newspaper in America is, hands-down, the New York Times.

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P.S. On his blog, former Minnesota Governor, Arne Carlson, says Jeb Bush would be the best man for the V.P. slot for the Republicans. Arne is probably correct, but I don't think Jeb wants to dirty his hands with the current Republican Party. If he can stay active, and Obama wins in November, Jeb could be a possible leading candidate in 2016. Really! The GOP needs someone with common sense and a more moderate approach to bring old Republicans back in the fold.

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John McCain’s Decency

Michele Bachmann appears to be sticking to her guns about Muslims infiltrating key government offices and positions. Well, I look forward to the terrible scene that comes at the end of this fight. I am old enough to remember the communist purges and blacklists of Senator Joseph McCarthy; and I remember the man* who shook a finger in his face and asked: “Have you no decency, sir?”
by Charlie Leck

John McCain is a very decent sort of man. I have a number of Republicans I think highly of and he is one. Senator McCain could try to run a dirty and mean campaign, but he can’t do it. He is a decent man who prefers honesty to scandalous lies and down-right dirty meanness. It’s probably why he wasn’t able to get elected to the highest office in the land even though he had the credentials and toughness to serve in that office.

Now don’t get me wrong. I voted against him. And, given the same circumstances I’d vote against him again. Yet, I’ve never failed to salute him as a genuine American hero, a hard working U.S. Senator and an honest and decent man.

What higher tribute can anyone pay to one than this: “He (she) was an honest and decent man (woman)?

When Michele Bachmann snapped in the last few days and began seeing Muslim Brotherhood representatives seeping into our federal government – and in nearly every quarter of it – John McCain faced her down and said: “No! You go too far! Don’t go there! Don’t harm innocent and good people!”

I got the clear impression that John McCain, as he spoke (it was in his eyes), was remembering the damage that Senator Joseph McCarthy did to so many people. If you’re of a generation that doesn’t understand about Joe McCarthy, I have a recommendation for you. Run! Don’t walk! Go to somewhere where you can rent or buy the Woody Allen movie called The Front. Put your feet up on your hassock and watch it and don’t let anything disturb you.

Senator Joseph McCarthy needlessly and recklessly destroyed the productivity and creativity of a great many American citizens. He destroyed them! Innocent people, with their lives in wreckage and with nowhere to turn, gave up their lives (killed themselves) because Joe McCarthy had poisoned the American public against them. Senator McCarthy was – with no exaggeration – a fool and an evil man.

Senator John McCain heard the chorus singing behind U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann and it worried him. He said it quite simply: “Stop!”

He knew it was a trail down which we must not go.

I salute you Senator McCain. I commend you and thank you.

And I? I want nothing more to do with the dirt and scum and lies that drive Representative Bachmann so recklessly within American politics.

Thank you, Senator McCain! Thank you.

*Joseph N. Welch, distinguished Boston lawyer, who was born in Primghar, Iowa, in 1890.

In 1994, before a nationwide television audience, Welch defended one of the young lawyers of his firm, who had been accused by Senator Joseph McCarthy of communist leanings because of his law school association with the National Lawyers Guild. On 9 June, the 30^th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings Welch stood his ground and dressed-down McCarthy.

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do any injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale and Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentle man but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.

McCarthy, unaware of the deep historical power of the moment, renewed a rambling attack on the Guild and the young man. Welch interrupted him and spoke again.

“Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You’ve done enough. Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?”

McCarthy, totally involved in himself, at the center of the stage, tried to ask Welch another question. Welch, again, cut him off.

“Mr. McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out. And if there is a God in Heaven it will do neither you nor your cause any good. I will not discuss it further...”

Watch this dramatic and historic exchange on the American Rhetoric web site.

[NOTE 2]
Rumor abounds, and perhaps they are set in motion as a result of internal polling in the Bachmann camp, that shows she is not doing well against her new opponent, Jim Graves; and that is why she is trying to awaken her base and get them more stirred up about this election.

We wait with anticipation some of the official non-partisan polling that will soon be made available.


[NOTE 3]
Last night on the Glenn Beck Show, Michele Bachmann stood her ground and renewed her charges against Huma Abedin (Secretary of State Clinton's aide de camp). Then she opened up on Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison. If you wish, read a report of Bachmann's appearance on Beck's radio program.

  

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Michele Bachmann’s Islamophobia

The Congresswoman from up in the sixth district has apparently launched some sort of inquiry into whether the U.S. Congress has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood. No, no! I mean it. Get up off the floor and stop laughing. This is serious!
by Charlie Leck

“It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood.” [Congresswoman Michele Bachmann]

[UPDATE] This blog must be updated because of U.S. Senator John McCain's extraordinary and wise statement today that completely takes Michele Bachmann to the wood-shed and scolds her for what I deal with in this blog. You can read about McCain's comments here.  In his comments, McCain strongly defended Huma Abedin and her work as aide d'camp to Secretary of State Clinton. He also scolded those who would instill a sense of irrational fear within the American public. [This update was posted at 7:00 P.M. on 18 July 2012]

Here's what I originally wrote...
Why does this embarrassing woman have to be from Minnesota? I mean, I need to constantly explain to my friends from around the nation that she is not indicative of the intelligence level of our state.

“How can she continually get reelected? Are you all nuts up there?”

I really don’t know what to say anymore. I can’t keep answering that question. The sixth district doesn’t seem all that bad. The city of St. Cloud is the largest community in the district and the home of a very good state university – Saint Cloud State University. Another highly respected college is just northwest of St. Cloud – Saint John’s University in Collegeville.

When I meet folks from the sixth district they don’t seem to blabber or anything. Their eyes seem focused and they don’t carry massive weapons on their belts. What is it about Michele Obama that attracts them to her?

It can only be their love of comedy and farce. Yes, maybe that’s it. Perhaps it’s for the comedy that they elect her.

Yet, this time she’s gone just too far. Does she not remember Senator Joe McCarthy and how he fell from glory to ruin? Representative Bachmann appears to be running down the same track at incredible speed.

The Huffington Post thinks that the Congresswoman must just be “in need of some attention.” Yet, even for attention, one wouldn’t go this crazy, would one?

Representative Bachmann seeks to launch an investigation into deep penetration (her words, not mine) by the Muslim Brotherhood into the U.S. Congress itself. I mean it! I swear! She really has. She wants various investigative units of the government to find out if there are “policies and activities that appear to be the result of operations conducted by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.” She says that it “appears” there are “individuals who are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have positions – very sensitive positions – in our Department of Justice, our Department of Homeland Security, potentially even in the National Intelligence Agency.”

Honest to God!

In writing, (Really! She put it in writing!) Bachmann implicates the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Society of North America and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. She fails to include what evidence she has that these organizations are spying on our government and “penetrating” it.

She even implicated one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chief aides, Huma Abedin. Bachmann is worried about Ms. Abedin’s security clearance.

Now, there have been lots of unforgettable Bachmann moments – moments I thought could never be out done – but this one is perhaps the greatest, most comical and most unforgettable of all time.

Anderson Cooper, of CNN, went after these Bachmann assertions with fierce disdain last night on his broadcast. I sat in my big arm chair with dropped jaw. I had never heard of this nonsense, but it was true and there were real live, serious representatives of Congress who were supporting the Bachmann claims – though, be aware, not one single one of them could produce a shred of evidence (even highly circumstantial types of evidence) that any of this should be taken seriously. Cooper plugged and plugged and plugged his way into each interview, asking for credible evidence of these charges – even slight, little bits of evidence. There simply was (is) none. None!

Just read the Salon.com report on this ludicrous charge by the Minnesota Congresswoman. You won’t believe that it is not The Onion that you are reading.

If you want to see portions of the Anderson Cooper report on this Bachmann stupidity, you can watch several segment here.

I’m so embarrassed! Really!

Want to do me a favor? Contribute a few bucks to the election campaign of her 2012 opponent. You can do so here.

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Why not become a follower?
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