Idiocy

I was yelling and screaming in my car today.

It was a good thing I was alone.

Listening to the news I heard President Bush say this:

"And years from now, when America looks out on a democratic Middle East growing in freedom and prosperity, Americans will speak of the battles like Fallujah with the same awe and reverence that we now give to Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima."

I could not believe my ears. Our President does not understand history, and he certainly does not understand what a mess he has made of Iraq. How could any thinking person make that comparison? What an insult to the Marines of The Greatest Generation! What a cavalier attitude regarding the Marines who have lost their lives or been maimed in the totally needless and frightfully mismanaged war in Iraq!

His continuous obnoxious attempts to compare World War II with his War on Terror are downright maddening. His immoral preemptive war in Iraq has made not only the Marines less safe, it has put the world and all Americans at risk.

November Surprise?

No, Rumsfeld's leaving the Defence Department is not a surprise. The surprise is that Bush saved it until the day after.

It is a good start. Now we will see if Bush can govern without majorities in Congress. Can you see the realities in front of you instead of stubbornly sticking to ideology and adapt Mr. President?

Memo to Democrats

Pulitzer prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts had some good things to say in his most recent column (also published in The Buffalo News).

We have suffered through a very divisive time in politics and we need some real change. Here are a few of my thoughts:

• The changes in the House of Representatives, Governors' Mansions and possibly in the Senate are a repudiation of Bush's disaster in Iraq. Get us out.
• Enough of the Red States, Blue States. How about some purple (or as Pitts writes, red, white and blue)? We need a sense of national destiny again. I never much agreed with Reagan, but he got "the vision thing."
• We don't want too many hearings. Don't waste time on the trivial. Keep it simple, find out who broke the law by lying to us about WMD in Iraq. Otherwise, move on and focus on healing our country.
• We need to repair our image overseas. We are the world's only super power, but can we please stop the arrogance?
• Close the gap between the rich and the poor that has grown so large during the Bush years.
• And, Health Care. Do something to fix our broken system. That would require political bravery.
• Social Security needs attention not partisanship.

Real leadership will require compromise. Compromise, but keep your principals with humility not hubris.

Family Values

That was Tom Reynolds wife Donna behind him and to his right at his acceptance speech last night. It was a brief speech and I think he thanked her.

But when he finished he turned around and walked right by her to shake hands with people on his right, turned and walked by her again to greet people on his left. It was as if she was invisible. She looked uncomfortable, slowly fading away off camera.

It was a remarkable moment to this observer. In the pursuit of power we can get caught up in the busyness of our lives and we can ignore the people who should be foremost. Remember, he had a plane to catch because he is the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Things were not going well for him across the country.

Probably it struck me because when I was younger the mother of my children, Grammy in Chief, used to say that she sometimes felt invisible in my milieu.

The Republicans bill themselves as the party of family values. Recent events have made it clear that includes a strong element of hypocrisy. But there is a real lesson too. Tom Reynolds' political legacy will be that he was a part of the power structure of the meanest most divisive administration in my lifetime. He is part of the clique that is the most incompetent in memory and gave us Iraq.

Hopefully Tom Reynolds can leave a more positive legacy with his four children.

Hindsight is 20/20

Tom Reynolds just left Buffalo. He had a plane to catch. During his victory speech he said that tonight he would celebrate his personal victory with his supporters, but that tomorrow he would deal with results for Congress as a whole.

Jack Davis thanked just about everybody in his concession speech. He thanked the Working Families Party and their workers. He thanked Len Lenihan, the Erie County Democratic Chair. He said that Len enrolled him as a Democrat and encouraged him to run.

Not to speak for Len Lenihan, but when he and his party endorsed Jack Davis, it was for a losing cause. No one last spring would have ever expected a real race for the 26th District of New York. So, it made sense to endorse a candidate who could spend more than $2,000,000 of his own money. Hey, spending that kind of money would at least make Tom Reynolds take notice.

Then came the Foley affair. Tom Reynolds knew about those emails last spring, but Len Lenihan did not. What if there had been a real Democrat running, one who actually got out and met the voters? Sure such a candidate would still have had to face The October Surprise, our devastating snow storm, and Tom Reynolds' power in Washington. Reynolds immediately brought $5,000,000 to Western New York, and eventually persuaded Karl Rove that the President had to declare a disaster which will bring many more millions.

Back to hindsight. Right now Tom Reynolds has about an 8,000 vote plurality. "My district has seven counties," Reynolds said tonight. What he did not say is that there are 44,000 more Republicans than Democrats in his district, the one he constructed. If there had been a real Democrat (yes, no one seems to know what that is these days) this is a district that could have been won. Tom Reynolds is a key member of the clique that gave us Iraq and tax cuts for the very rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class. The good people of those seven counties are sending him back to Washington because of an October Surprise and because no one could predict that he would be part of a scandal.

Don't Come Back This Time Roger

First Ballot Hall of Fame. No doubt about that.

But, it is time to hang up the spikes, Rocket. You have had a great career; been a dominating power pitcher even in your 40's. Many of your games are classics, including two with 20 strikeouts, still a record. Your place in the game is secure, don't sully it.

You are quoted today as saying, "Full season, half season or at all, I haven't even thought about it," "I just think it's too early to think about it. ... Right now, I don't have any thoughts of playing or not playing."

I have thoughts. The rules of free agency gave you an out this year. Houston failed to pick up your option and they could not talk to you until May. So, you came back in June and pitched well for mere mortals (7-6, ERA of 2.30). From what I saw you were good, but not great.

I have another reservation. The baseball season is long, 162 games, guys get dinged and play through pain. It is not good for the game to have a potential Hall of Famer get a pass for half the season. Play the whole season or retire. That is what everyone else did, it is time for you to live by those rules.

I have another more selfish thought. I want you to retire. I want to still be around to join you in Cooperstown at your Hall of Fame induction.

Can't Tell a Joke?

Senator Kerry need not apologize to me. I got the joke. If you don't pay attention in school, even joke that you were a "C" student in a graduation address at your alma mater, then you get us stuck in Iraq.

Maybe the trouble is that the 2004 Democratic standard bearer can't tell a joke without messing up the punchline. His family says he's a very funny man but you cannot see that when he's campaigning. Not a bad guy, maybe a good senator, but not much of a campaigner, especially when giving a speech in public.

Kerry did the right thing when apologizing to the troops, their parents and the country. But Democrats should not back off. This is no time to be intimidated by a dummy in the White House who refuses to hold his people accountable or take responsibility for his stupidity