Another week, another demonstration of the total incompetance of most of those who are elected to serve the public. In a few cases, electoral officials did the right thing and voted or made decisions in the interests of the people that they serve. But in the words of the physicist who could have been a politician {Isaac Newton}, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Let's look at a few of the positives and concurrent negatives that we saw this week.
The most obvious plus and minus we saw this week was the confirmation of John Kerry and Senatorial lunacy over the nomination of Chuck Hagel. The senate, in a rare demonstration of intelligence and near unity {only John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, and James Imhoff insisted on maintaining their credentials as horse's backsides}, confirmed John Kerry as Secretary of State. The longtime senator, near president, and chairman of the senate foreign relations committee was as qualified a candidate for that office as we have seen in decades. It was nice to see the senate come together in a measure of goodwill and national good in that confirmation.
But then, the same senators, had the senate foreign relations committee hearings on the nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. For those who may have forgotten, soon to be Secretary Hagel is the first enlisted man to be nominated to lead the defense department. He also happened to be a republican senator. The feeding frenzy was frightening. Led by Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain, Senator Hagel was grilled and excoriated on almost every issue that was not part of his role as Secretary of Defense. He was not testifying to become a foreign policy decider, but to become the administrator in charge of our defense department. So instead of questioning him on current controversial or difficult issues that face the incoming secretary, such as the epidemic of rape of female enlistees or the implementation of women in combat rules or continuation of the open acceptance of gays in the military or religious discrimination on military institutions, the sitting senators decided to embarrass themselves and the senate by spending the entire hearing attacking Mr. Hagel on previous statements relating to policy on Israel, Iran, the surge in Iraq, etc. These were secretary of state questions, but they became part of the neo-con vendetta against anyone who dared to question their positions during the Clinton or Bush administrations. It was a sorry day for these senators' legacy.
The second area that made some headlines this week had to do with the republican attempt to jury-rig the electoral college to favor republicans even when republicans lose the election. As of last week, there were six states with republican governors and legislators, that were planning to pass legislation allocating electoral votes by congressional districts rather than by state. These all happened to be blue states in the past two presidential elections; Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Interestingly enough, even though President Obama won all these states with margins ranging from 2 to 7%, under this scheme, Mitt Romney would have won enough electoral votes to have been elected president. A frightening theft of the presidency.
Yet, by the end of the week, five of the states decided that this would be bad legislation. The republican governors and legislators decided that, in the interests of the entire electorate, it was more important to allow free and fair elections than elect a president who would have an immediate stain of illegitimacy upon the man/woman or the office. The idea began to move, at least to the back burner, and possibly, to the dust heap of history as one of the worst ideas ever.
But, of course, whenever an intelligent decision is made by the majority, someone has to screw up and make the absolutely wrong decision. In this case, the Commonwealth of Pennsyvania is continuing to attempt to move forward with this lame brained idea. Both the speaker of the house and the governor of the state have stated that this would be an excellent idea to pursue. The question for the Pennsylvania voter, of which I am one, is whether our governor or legislature think that the entire state has been lobotomized. Elections are important. They have to be won or lost fairly in the marketplace of ideas. The thought of stealing elections in this manner is only a demonstration to the electorate that you are suffering from a paucity of any ideas. Be careful, this can easily backfire. Voters will vote you out of office and the other party will keep you out for many years to come. I hate to give Governor Corbett or any of the republican legislators any advice, but you should take your lead from the governance of the other five states that realized that America is more important than stealing elections.
