Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Presidential Coattail
Going, Going, Gone
Good news. A large number of Republican voters have had it with President Bush and their anger is affecting the incumbents running for reelection. Jim Vanderhei in the Post: "PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. -- When it comes to President Bush and the Republican Congress, Rep. Jim Gerlach says voters in his suburban Philadelphia district are in a "sour mood."
Robbing the Poor
The report by Larry Margasak of Associated Press is not a surprise to most of us -- that our elected representatives are by and large unethical is a generally accepted fact. Nevertheless, the details about their blatant waste of taxpayers' money are sickening. Scandal after scandal and yet they shamelessly carry on feeding their egos. The term "corrupt politician" has become an oxymoron.
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Good news. A large number of Republican voters have had it with President Bush and their anger is affecting the incumbents running for reelection. Jim Vanderhei in the Post: "PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. -- When it comes to President Bush and the Republican Congress, Rep. Jim Gerlach says voters in his suburban Philadelphia district are in a "sour mood."
That's why when it comes to his reelection, the two-term incumbent says "the name of the game" is to convince those same voters that he can be independent of his own party. He has turned his standard line about Bush -- "When I think he's wrong, I let him know" -- into a virtual campaign slogan, repeated in interviews and TV ads. "It is a combination of things, from the war in Iraq to gas prices to what they are experiencing in their local areas," Gerlach said of the surly electorate whose decision he will know on Nov. 7. The Iraq war and Bush's low approval ratings have created trouble for Republicans in all regions. But nowhere is the GOP brand more scuffed than in the Northeast, where this year's circumstances are combining with long-term trends to endanger numerous incumbents. |
Robbing the Poor
The report by Larry Margasak of Associated Press is not a surprise to most of us -- that our elected representatives are by and large unethical is a generally accepted fact. Nevertheless, the details about their blatant waste of taxpayers' money are sickening. Scandal after scandal and yet they shamelessly carry on feeding their egos. The term "corrupt politician" has become an oxymoron.
WASHINGTON -- The federal program that provides legal help to poor Americans turns away half of its applicants for lack of resources. But that hasn't stopped its executives from lavishing expensive meals, chauffeur-driven cars and foreign trips on themselves. Agency documents obtained by The Associated Press detail the luxuries that executives of the Legal Services Corp. have given themselves with federal money -- from $14 "Death by Chocolate" desserts to $400 chauffeured rides to locations within taxi distance of their offices. The government-funded corporation also has a spacious headquarters in Washington's tony Georgetown district -- with views of the Potomac River and a rent significantly higher than other tenants in the same building. And board members wrote themselves a policy that doubled the amount they could claim for meals compared with their staff. |
