D.C. needs more Bull (Moose, that is)

I’ve been thinking a lot of my favorite Republican lately. Mom? No, not Mom. Clarence Hoffman? No, as much as I like and respect him and appreciate his years of service to our communities and love his family, no, not him. Barry Goldwater? No, even though I’m an Arizona native and many of his positions are more aligned with today’s Democrats then contemporary Republicans. Ron Paul or Chuck Hagel? Even though I admire their political courage to oppose the Iraq war, putting them out of step with their party.

No, my favorite Republican is the President with the coolest first name, Teddy Roosevelt.
Some of my Republican friends may resent my admiration of this GOP icon. I have a Republican Aunt who will probably tease me that I’m becoming Republican. And I’m sure I have plenty of Democratic friends who will accuse me of selling out by singing the praises of such a bully cowboy.

I know that he was only human and certainly not pure as the driven snow. Long before there was a CIA, Teddy is suspected of sending Marines (in civilian clothes) down to encourage a revolution in Panama when Columbia wouldn’t let us dig a canal there. Sure, he led a volunteer regiment in the Spanish-American War and probably would’ve gotten us into WWI much sooner than Woodrow Wilson did, when it got down to it, he was a much more shrewd and wary leader when it came to foreign policy then some Republican Presidents we’re having to endure.

Teddy Roosevelt knew it was better to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” than to talk loud and throw stones. Of course, he’s not the only Republican to have such a wise, mature attitude.

In a recent Omaha World Herald I was proud to read, “Rather than acting like a nation riddled with the insecurities of a schoolyard bully, we ought to carry ourselves with the confidence that should come from the dignity of our heritage, from the experience of our history and from the strength of our humanity — not from the power of our military," Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said in a speech hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week. "Loose talk of World War III, intimidation, threats, bellicose speeches only heighten the dangers we face in the world," said Hagel, clearly being critical of President Bush’s recent comment and policies.

One of the saddest things about the current wars we are fighting is how we’ve been letting out veterans fall full the cracks when they come home. The state of affairs was seen clearly this year at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Roosevelt told veterans on July 4, 1903 "A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have."

Those who keep denying both global warming and our need to become independent of foreign oil let alone from fossil fuels altogether need to consider Teddy. I don’t know what he would’ve thought of Al Gore, but I do know that no president did more to protect our natural recourses. Republicans could start whoopin’ Democrat butt if they’d adopt the motto that nothing’s so conservative as conservation.

In 1907 he told a group of school children that they would blame his generation “not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted...So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life."
A hundred years ago he knew that the environment was the main issue we had to grapple with, "The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others."

Teddy Roosevelt was a reformer. While he was on the U.S. Civil Service Commission and as police commissioner of New York he fought corruption. Whereas the Bush Administration politicized the Justice Department, Roosevelt was dedicated to cleaning up government.
He told Congress in 1903, "No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's permission when we require him to obey it...Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor."

In 1905 he talked about the kind of people who we should really be worried about. "This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country."

Since 1980, Reagan-Republicans have been systematically dismantling the reforms made by Teddy’s younger cousin Franklin which promoted and protected the middle class with safety nets, regulations on big corporations and a tax structure which asked people who could afford to bare a greater portion of the burden to do so. Bush handed huge tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% and never asked anyone but military and National Guard families to sacrifice anything even after 9/11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

More than anything, Teddy Roosevelt wanted everyone to have a fair shake and on an even playing field. He demanded that both government and business be square with everyone.

"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense...” he told people at the 1903 New York State Fair, “We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less… The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us."

I for one think that America is ready for a president like Teddy Roosevelt again. In fact, I think we need someone like him pretty badly.

Political Cartoon

Chuck Hagel's Non-announcement

Editorial cartoon for the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and the Schleswig Leader Thurs. March 22, 2007

How about that?! I CAN draw a whole cartoon without using photos off of the internet or computer fonts. Not a bad Hagel charicature either, even if I do say so myself- makes me hope he runs and wins, just because I can actually draw him. Last week, I think my Cheny was lousy and my Scooter Libby looked a little like Al Gore. Of course, by the tim ethis runs it will be 2 and a half week old news, but whatchyagonna do?

I used to teach cartooning as a class, sometimes as a unit in an Art class. Sometimes my students would ask me why I'm not a professional cartoonist instead of a teacher. Well, it's a pretty elite field that is next to impossible to break into. There are less than a hundred accross the country who can do it full time and more and more Papers are cutting their's loose because it's cheaper to either run syndicated editorial cartoons or none at all. Enterprise Publishing pays me like $6 per week to draw them for the two tiny small-town newspapers that they run me in, so it's really more of a hobby. I know I'm no Brian Duffy of the Des Moines Register, but I kinda think that I'm at least as good and most weeks better than that Ed Fisher guy that Denison and other papers around here run.

I wondered about trying to sell my cartoons to more local community newspapers around Western Iowa and Nebraska, so I asked my publisher for advice. He told me that the Missouri Valley uses Ed Fisher like Denison. They pay $4.75 a week and get 9 cartoons to pick from and use. Usually 2 or 3 of them are geared to Minnesota since that is where he is based, so being in Iowa our pool to pick from is more like 6 or 7. Being twice weekly we will use up to 4 each week, at least one per edition.

So as they say on American Idol, I decided to "keep my day job."

If you're interested in seeing any of my other cartoons visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2 there are over a hundred there, including plenty from my college and high school days.

The race is on

In case you didn’t know it, the 2008 Presidential race is already underway. I know, I know, it’s as bad as the stores and Christmastime. I think I saw Wal-Mart employees stocking the shelves with Halloween costumes the Monday after Easter.

In the interest of civic participation, this feature would like to present you with a number of potential candidates for your consideration- since most of them will begin visiting Iowa this summer, if they haven’t been here already.

Since they’re the current party in power, lets start with the Republicans.

The front-runner for the GOP nomination seems to be a woman named Dr. Condeleza Rice. She’s a PhD doctor, not a medical doctor. You’d think that would be a plus, but she doesn’t really seem to have a brain of her own. Her ideas, thoughts, policies, plans etc. are pretty much those of her bosses, Dick, Rummy, and the one known only as “W.”

Right-wingers will try to sell her as the historic, because she’d be both the first woman and the first Black president. But let’s face it, voting for the current Secretary of State would pretty much be voting to continue the Bush administration. With the numbers, the war, the personnel changes, all the retired generals criticisms and the price of gas- this may not be our best bet.

Next there’s Senate Majority Dr. Bill Frist. He’s a medical doctor, not a PhD and he tried to prove it when he diagnosed the late Terri Schiavo as not being in a persistent vegetative state and having plenty of brain activity by watching a few minutes of news clip video of her. Hmmm... the autopsy showed that she had very little brain left let alone brain activity.

If you believe in religious freedom, you may also not be comfortable with the fact that he participated in the whole “Justice Sunday” thing where he and televangelists railed on independent judges who refuse to set up a fundamentalist theocracy.

There’s also Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker who spearheaded the Republicans’ “Contract on America” back in the 1990’s. He pretty much invented “Talking-point memos” and gave Rush Limbaugh office space in the Capital building. Scary, isn’t it time for the pendulum to swing a little more toward the center?

Now I always used to love Senator John McCain. He’s from my home state of Arizona, he’s a Vietnam Vet, he used to be his own man, a straight shooter who’d break party ranks when it was the right thing to do. Best of all he wanted a balanced budget and to clean up campaign finance.

But alas, he has started to kiss up to the fundamentalist like “guy-smiley” Jerry Fawell and Pat Robertson. How “base” can you get?

My favorite Republican has to be Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. He’s still a deficit hawk who believes in fiscal responsibility and he’s been very skeptical of the Bush administration’s mishandling of Iraq. Unlike McCain, he seems to still be willing to stand up for what’s right, even if it means standing alone.

Now, in the interest of equal time, let’s turn to the left.

The biggest name among Democrats is still New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. Okay, is she capable? Probably. Is she electable? possibly. But there are plenty of problems.

First of all, merely by being who she is, she’s divisive. There’s nothing she does or believes- all Democrats considered, she’s pretty moderate, but people vehemently hate her. Even more viscerally than her husband, and even though he was a liar and a philanderer, he was still a Rhode’s Scholar brainiac student of the law and economics.

I for one think the best way of keeping America sharply divided, keeping the wing-nuts on the extreme right angry and active, and guaranteeing that either Jeb or Prescott Bush will run for President would be to elect Hillary.

Who else is there? Well, there’s Virginia Governor Mark Warner. Centrists and even Republicans may like him. He believes in fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction. Even if it does mean, yes, rolling back the massive Bush tax cuts that benefited the richest 2% of Americans. He’s very articulate, clear, and smart. And yes, he’s a Southerner.

Hmmm. Moderate/Conservative Democrat from the South. He may have appeal.

Don’t forget Former Vice President Al Gore and former Vice Presidential Candidate North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Handsome Southern gentlemen both, but these two are probably more aggressively progressive and have lots of creative ideas for things like health care, education, and tax reform.

Bringing up the rear; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, former Clinton Secretary of Energy. Hmmm, what was that about working toward not being dependent on foreign oil that President Bush mentioned in his State of the Union Address?

Oh yeah, did I mention that he’d be the first Hispanic President?

Finally may I introduce Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold. He co-sponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“McCain-Feingold Bill”). He is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He actually voted against the Iraq War Resolution and yet voted in favor of funding to support our troops.

Too many sides to too many issues

Before President W. Bush I considered my self "post-partisan," a moderate, a "pro-life Democrat." I was disappointed in and felt betrayed by President Clinton's infidelity and dishonest. I always tried to see past party lines. I believe in hashing out issues and getting to hard compromises. I made every effort to try to help Republican friends see that Democrats and "Liberals" weren't all a bunch of pro-gay, pro-communist, evil, hedonistic atheists out to destroy our way of life. Now, I will freely admit that I am angry about the war, just as angry as many of my dearest friends and neighbors have been about abortion for years.

The thing is none of us (my self included) ought to be single-issue voters. The other thing is that there are scores of issues that are every bit as ugly, wrong, immoral and "un-Christian" that our society and both our parties need to wrestle with.

I hope that this column provokes readers to think and talk about some of them. One of the purposes of a newspaper (and of the internet, I guess) is to be a forum for the free expression and discussion of ideas. A couple people have emailed or signed my guestbook anonymously instead of writing letters to the editor for the NEWSpaper & LEADER to publish. Please write the paper, don't be afraid, your ideas are just as legitimate and certainly as passionately held as any of mine. I'm not always right and I hope I never intentionally put anyone else down.

Here is a note that some one left on my website's guestbook. I could write them back because they left a bogus email address.

"tina - Many Democratic officials warned of Saddam's weapon capabilities and stock piles of biological weaponery since 1998: Clinton, Albright, Pulousi, Gore, Kennedy, and more .... before Bush was even in the White House. If you are going to spout off as some sort of expert you should know your facts and not just talk out of frustration and anger. The last time I checked ... Congress basically handed the President a blank check in 2002 and backed him with full support. He did not do this alone. Your column is unclear as to intent other then another flaming liberal trying to burn everything around him. Beings as though you are a Lutheran I find this even more appalling. Do you really wish to support the killing of innocent unborn babies in the ballot box, because we have soldiers willing to fight to protect you and what you have to say? I would certainly hope the cost of fuel would not cause you to jump that direction. There are many issues to consider, and your angry column was irresponsible to your neighbors."

I know that the administration didn't go in without support. Heck, I was won over for a while. That only makes it worse. Because many of us (Republicans included) feel duped and used and yes, guilty. Tina is absolutely right, I shouldn't just write out of anger- that part did make me "flaming," although (except for the blank check that Congress gave Bush) I try really hard to include as many facts as I can any time I write about politics. I do not support the killing of innocent unborn babies, but I also don't support killing innocent live babies, youth, adults or elderly. I don't support cutting programs for the poor while maintaining and even increasing tax cuts for the super rich and for corporations. I wish I'd never supported a unilateral, pre-emptive, unprovoked invasion of a tiny, weak nation that had nothing to do with the terroist attack on us. I don't attack rape, torture, and denying basic human rights to anyone, even to terrorists.

Please forgive me whenever any of you feel that any of my columns are irresponsible. I want to be a good neighbor. But please, can I just tell you that I feel like your questioning my faith or impugning how "Chirstian" I am if you assume that I am totally pro-choice or somehow must want to see babies die because I vote for Democrats or criticize Republicans. Sin is sin and wrong is wrong, unfortunately there is no escaping it in this world, especially in politics.

In Boy Scouts I was taught, "God, Country, and Family- in that order." I believe that God created us with a nature that asks questions. I believe that our founding fathers designed our system of government so that we are not only allowed to scrutinize it and express our displeasure with it, but that it is our duty to do so. And I believe in supporting families, even the unborn members of those families, but I have not seen the current administration neglect support for middle class and poor families while flaunting faith and values for political expedience. If I were a Republican or a Fundamentalist Evangelical I would feel abused.

I'd like to leave you with some quotes from Republican leaders. Three of the four are some of my favorite politicians, no sarcasm intended, they really are (sorry to disappoint any of my fellow Democrats). My point in sharing them is that the bush administration may have won your votes by being "pro-life," but I contend that they've pursued policies that are cruel and abusive of life.

All of us, Democrat and Republican, Green Party and Libertarian, Lutheran, Fundamentalist Evangelical, Catholic, Methodist, whoever All of us need to stop accusing each other of being less-Christian, less-moral, less-right. We need to see past our differences so that we can be alert to how un-Christian, immoral, and wrong we can sometimes be.

"If we are viewed as a country that engages in torture ... any possible information we might be able to gain is far counterbalanced by (the negative) effect of public opinion... This battle we're in is about the things we stand for and believe in and practice. And that is an observance of human rights, no matter how terrible our adversaries may be." -- Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

"I think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing John McCain's amendment on detainees and torture." --Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE)

"I'm a strong supporter of Senator McCain's amendment. I don't think the White House should veto it." -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

"The United States can win the war on terrorism without sacrificing our values." --Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

PS- Torture is NOT "Pro-Life"