Blue Elephants, Red Donkeys

Lets see if they’re really different or not;
Why Blue Elephants made the difference- by a Red Donkey
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper Schleswig Leader, Thursday, November 16, 2006 Page 3

Last week a very dear Republican friend of mine sent me an E-mail: “So...Have you calmed down since the election is over and Rumsfeld is out? What is your reaction to the fact that a number of states have voted for protection of/clear definitions of marriage amendments?”
I don’t know... what’s calm? Political and news junkies like me get off on letting our blood pressure boil over pundits, party talking points and politicians. Other people watch football or bet on basketball.

I’m fine with defining marriage as one man and one woman as long as you don’t deny anyone equal treatment under the law. Of course I think that having to pass a law defining marriage as between one man and one woman is superfluous, it’s like passing a law to define the sky as blue, so it was obviously a flawed attempt by extreme right wingers to “activate their base” and get the gay-hating Christians to come out and vote.

Some of us are Christians, agree that the Bible pretty clearly prohibits homosexuality, and agree that marriage by definition is only for one man and one woman, yet we don’t have a huge irrational fear and hatred of gay people and we believe that they live under the same Constitution.

Should Rumsfeld have been removed from office sooner? Heavens yes? Would that have helped Republicans fare better in the election that was just held? Gee Wilikers? Who knows? Is it pretty convenient that since he’s getting the boot now, his replacement (who was pretty involved in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980’s) will be confirmed by the current 209th Congress rather than the newly elected 210th with a Democratic majority in January? By Golly, you betchya!

You know what? Now is when the rubber really hits the road. It was pretty easy for the Democrats to win a majority. They didn’t have to run for anything. The Republicans were so steeped and soaked in scandal, corruption, hypocrisy, mistakes, extremism, and of course the muck of a miss managed war and a stubborn, Presidency.

Some Democrats would like to think that the voters sent President Bush and the Republicans a strong message, that they’re ready for change. But I don’t put much stock in alleged “mandates.” I don’t think that Liberals have any more mandate than Bush mistakenly claimed when he was barely reelected.

Democrats won because most Americans are centrists. They won because moderate Republicans jumped ship because they got tired of people who talked about compassionate conservatism but really aren’t either.

This election saw a new development. “Goldwater Democrats.” That’s right. Sound like an oxymoron? No more than “Reagan Democrats.”

Growing up in Arizona, I came to see Goldwater, our senior Senator for most of my life as sort of a patron saint. When the shrimp hit the fan with Watergate, he went to Nixon and told him to step down. Goldwater was angry that Nixon had been lying to him.

Now mind you, I disagree on his stand on states-rights in opposition to civil rights, especially integrating schools and of course there was the idea he had about using “strategic” nukes in Vietnam. Nobody’s perfect. But time and time again, I find myself agreeing with him on many things that I used to be able to find common ground on with my Republican friends- things like deficit reduction, government reform and smaller, streamlined government. Not to mention keeping the Government out of your private life.

Democrats won this recent election because, like Goldwater, American voters don’t like lies and secrets and have no patience for ineptitude- not because Americans suddenly all became progressives. Many of the Democrats who won consider themselves fiscal and social conservatives. Some are Iraq veterans who felt abandoned or betrayed.

What the Democrats had better do now is deliver. House Speaker elect, Pelosi promised the most uncorrupted, moral and reformed Congress ever. Its easy to be the “reform” party when you’re on the outside. If they let power corrupt them then they’ll deserve to get kicked out just like their predecessors.

We can only hope that the Democrats will finally put the brakes on the out of control spending habits of Bush and the Republicans.

We can only hope that they’ll REFORM (not raise) taxes in a way that benefits the middle class, not corporations and the super rich. But only time will tell.

Please get rid of Steve King

Tuesday can make all the difference
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, November 2, 2006 – Page 3

This upcoming Tuesday is going to be interesting, to say the least, for political news junkies like me. I may have to take my radio along when I take my daughter to dance class so that I can listen as the returns come in.

The fact that there are three candidates, two independents and a Democrat running against Fifth District Republican Congressman Steve King suggests that people are tired of being represented by him. Unfortunately, it also probably means that the traditional conservatives, moderates and what few progressives there are here will have their votes split three ways, so the radical neoconservatives will be able to get King reelected.

One of the independents is Cheryl Broderson, a nurse at Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison.

She believes that representatives need to be accountable to their constituents, not a political party. She’s for reducing the deficit (that kind of thing used to be conservative) but also for health care reform (something often thought of as traditionally liberal idea). She’s also concerned about alternative fuels and national security (who isn’t?).

Another independent is Roy Nielsen, an Orange City small businessman and had been a Republican.

Nielsen told the Sioux City Journal recently that he kept waiting for some other Republican to challenge Steve King for their party’s nomination. When no one did, he decided to step up and run himself as an independent. I guess I don’t understand why Nielsen didn’t just oppose King for the Republican nomination himself in the first place, but whatever, he’s running now.
Nielsen, like a lot of moderates and traditional conservatives, feel like King, like the Bush Administration have abandoned the needs of families and the middle class.

Like Brodersen, he feels that the Republicans currently in power have been fiscally irresponsible, turning a surplus into a massive deficit. He also thinks that current tax policies favor the “investor class.”

He also thinks that the situation in Iraq has gotten out of hand and while he supports securing our Southern border, he fears that Steve King’s plan for hundreds of miles of electrified fencing may replace the statue of Liberty in many peoples minds as a symbol of a less welcoming America.

Finally there’s the Democratic alternative, Joyce Schulte. I suspect that people write her off as unviable just because she ran against King before and lost. Of course, the fact that she doesn’t have access to massive amounts of money from Republican PACs like King probably doesn’t help her either.

Schulte is the Director of the Student Support Services program at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa. She’s been a farmer and educator and the widowed mother of two.
Schulte is concerned about the message having King as our congressman sends. Verbally demeaning people, discriminating against minority groups, and reinterpreting history are just some of the ways she thinks he’s been irresponsible.

Her priorities would include reauthorizing the Farm Bill, reforming immigration, addressing the Mideast , including Iraq, and health care as well.

She’d like to have “Iowa Produced” marked on food products grown here. She also supports the development of alternative fuels including wind and ethanol.

Like Nielsen, Schulte believes that the tax system needs to be reformed to favor families and the working and middle classes instead of corporations and the extremely wealthy.
The oldest of the four candidates, she’d like to see a repeal of the Medicare bill that charges more prescription drug programs for seniors. She’d rather have the government negotiate with drug manufacturers to achieve acceptable prices for medication.

She also believes that health insurance plans should regard mental illness and chemical dependence on an equal footing with all other physical conditions.
She supports small and medium sized businesses and family farmers.

Schulte would like to increase Pell grants and other forms of financial aid and student assistance to make the dream of higher education a reality. She also thinks that it would be important to try to find funding for Head Start, Special Education, after school programs, and teacher recruitment and training programs.

I said it before and at the risk of offending anyone, I’ll say it again. We really have an opportunity to make a difference by replacing Steve King. I consider him a loose cannon on the sinking ship of state.

With the vote split four ways, maybe his seat is safe, but at least we can send him a clear message that we’ve had enough of his radical, ultra right-wing bombastic rancor. If he returns to Washington with a small enough plurality, maybe it will be a wake-up call for him to start paying attention to the real needs of real Iowans, not just wedge issues and National Republican rhetoric.

exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing truth

Ted, here is a little comment about your column this week.

----------
From:
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:50:27 -0500
To: <mpress@longlines.com>
Subject: Mallory column

What exactly is that column suppose to be? Opinion, editorial, news article ? The column in the Oct. 19th

Paper was totally out of line. If it is an opinion column it should be named as such if it is the views of your paper, I am sure you will lose a lot of subscribers, republicans and democrats a like.

A republican with self respect,

At least one reader was very offended by my column that ran Oct 19 that skewered Fifth District Congressman Steve King. I never enjoy having people angry with me or disliking me, so in the tradition of so many American politicians, I’d like to offer a non apologetic apology: I’m sorry if anyone was offended that I so severely criticized Congressman King, but I’m also sorry to have to tell you, that I’m not sorry for criticizing him.

We all have the right to redress our government for grievances, we all have the right to free speech and free press. I’m constantly encouraging readers to submit their own writing, letters, comments, opinions or otherwise for publication. Many of King’s positions, actions, attitudes, and especially things he’s said have grieved me and embarrassed me. I’m sorry if my being offended by him offends any of you. I’m sorry if more people aren’t grieved, embarrassed or offended by King, I think that that either means that they aren’t paying much attention or that they don’t care. I’m also sorry if King hasn’t grieved or embarrassed everyone in our district, because that means he’ll probably get reelected. It’s just a really sorry situation all around.

In 1935, Andrew Hamilton told a New York court that New York Weekly Journal publisher Peter Zenger should not be locked up for criticizing Colonial Governor William Cosby because freedom of the press “is not of small nor private concern nor is it the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone. No, it may affect every Freeman to deny the liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing truth.”

I’ve always thought that this was something noble to aspire to; exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing truth. Granted, I may look at the facts and interpret the “truth” differently than someone else. That should make you think, maybe even rile you up, but it doesn’t have to raise your blood pressure too much or cause you to cancel your subscription.

One should just assume that any newspaper column is an opinion piece and that the opinions are those of the columnist, not of the paper itself or anyone else. Even sports columns, food columns, and humor columns. I wanted to be an editorial cartoonist since I was in sixth grade. That’s probably part of why, when I attended Concordia Teacher’s College, a Church school, I majored in History and Art. You can guess what some of my great passions are; American history and politics, faith and theology, and helping people understand things. If I can do these things with a little humor, all the better.

What’s wonderful about this column is that by promising to talk about “sex, politics, and religion…not necessarily in that order” I’m free to write about political issues, religious issues, and silly or funny things without being restricted to writing in only one of these categories.

I can’t help it if Steve King is a drip who embarrasses me. I suppose that you can’t help it if I’m an over-opinionated left-winger who offends you. I’m sorry that that’s the way things go.

Sorry.

District 5 can make a difference

(Okay, 25 from the time I post this, but only 19 from when it's published in the NEWSpaper!)

District 5 can make a difference
Page 3 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig Leader- Thursday, October 19, 2006

I can’t believe how many yard signs there are for political candidates. But it’s puzzling why there are so few yard signs for Democrats. Maybe it’s because Iowa’s Fifth District is so staunchly Republican. It’s a little fishy to me that in such a “Red State,” all of the Republican candidates have used blue ink.

It could be because the Democrats are notoriously less organized. A progressive friend told me that it was because “Lefties” have too much good taste to clutter-up their yards with advertising.

It could be that the Republican National Committee has truckloads of more money to spend on state and local races than the Dems.

Nah, lets face it, Western Iowa is about as red as congressional districts get. Political Junkies know that Steve King’s is just about the safest seat in the House of Representatives this election.
Which is too bad, because if there was a list of the nuttiest House Republicans, King would be near the top.

A friend of mine who is a Democrat, told me that he’d met King and found him warm, friendly and personable. Maybe so, but even a dog can shake hands. There are pitbull owners who think their dogs are good with kids.

A dear Republican friend of mine was pleased that he won the nomination because he isn’t from a major city, instead he’s “one of us,” a rural, regular guy. But the rural Iowans I know are wise and kind and use common sense.

He brought out props he had made to argue on the House floor for an electric fence that he designed for our border with Mexico. He even volunteered his family to help build it. He compared imigrants to cattle.

Helen Thomas was a respected member of the White House Press Corps. She’s been a reporter covering every President since Nixon. She happens to be of Lebbanese decent. When terrorist al Zarqawi said that he wasn’t afraid to face the death penalty because as a Muslim, e expected to receive 72 virgins in Heaven. King commented that Zarqawi was probably headed for Hell (fair enough, except for what he said next). Then King said that the 72 virgins would probably all look like Helen Thomas.

If I had my way, that would have gotten King kicked out as fast as Foley.
King has called Joeseph McCarthy a “great American hero.” The leader of the ‘red-scare’ witch hunts of the 1950’s, a hero? How many people had their lives ruined by his insinuation and slander? No one has violated American’s First Amendment rights more until the current Bush administration’s un warrented wire-taps. A hero? What does that mean King would like to do or that he’s already allowed? McCarthy and “McCarthyism” are a dark page in history, not a hero.
King was the chief sponsor of the English language only law (which by the way Republican Gubinatorial candidate Jim Nussle supported). Please. America has always been a melting pot. English is already the language of commerce and economic success by default, the only reason to make it the “official” language is to exclude people or to discriminate against them. That would be like making Christianity the official religion of the United States, or making “White” the official race.

I’m sure he’d like that. He opposed extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He doesn’t think that peace and civil rights activism is “consistent with American values.” A letter that he wrote against extending the Voting Rights Act turned out to have been “ghost written” by a leader of an anti-immigration group.

King has called Union organizers “economic weapons of mass destruction.” Yet he called the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Grab little more than fraternity hazing. Excuse me? If college kids do with broomsticks what was done to those prisoners, they should be locked up too.
King claimed that Washington D.C. was more dangerous to civilians that Iraq. He was one of only 11 lawmakers to vote AGAINST emergency relief funds for Hurricane Katrina victims.

A major backer of Steve King’s campaign, through his “Americans for a Republican Majority PAC is indicted former House Majority Leader, Tom Delay.

Last year at this time the Des Moines Register asked us (District 5 voters) in an editorial to “Spare us more embarrassment: Replace King.”

The Chidren’s Defense Fund gave King a zero on their scorecard that ranks lawmakers on how well they try to protect kids. The AARP also gave him an “F: for failing the middle class with his voes on taxews, small business, and family issues.

Surely we can do better. Replacing King could be the best thing Iowa Republicans could do for their party, even if it does help give Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives. If you can’t bring yourself to vote for Joyce Schulte on Nov. 7, then please consider writing in the name of some sane, smart, stable, Republican other than Steve King.

Democrats, take back the house. Republicans, please, take back your self respect.
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Ted Mallory lives in Charter Oak and teaches at Boyer Valley Schools in Dunlap. ‘Ted’s Column’ has appeared weekly in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper since 2002. The feature’s motto is: ‘Sex, Politics, and Religion...Not necessarily in that order.’ Okay, so there’s no sex. There’s usually at least as much humor as politics or religion.