Neil Misses Out On Historic Vote
Wednesday - March 31, 2010
| Share
Del.icio.usI’ll not forget March 21 the remainder of my days. Not just my 40th wedding anniversary. Congress - alas, minus our Neil Abercrombie on a critical vote - defeated the Wall Street Journal, the Drudge Report and Rush Limbaugh to expanded health insurance to all.
Next up: immigration reform.
Contrary to Family Forum’s straight arrow approach, I can’t see the sexual peccadilloes of public office holders as a reason for banishment from public life.
Sure, affairs outside the marriage bond are not good models for children. But if the office holder is doing OK on the job, what’s the harm to voters?
A member of Congress got drunk at a wedding and made maybe-sort-of sexual comments to a staffer. John Edwards got infatuated with a staff hottie who encouraged him. So what?
Well, they are all married men. Our culture says we’re not supposed to stray from that bond. Of course, if that were a felony there’d be more men and women in prison than prisons could hold.
JFK is remembered for handling the Cuba missile crisis, not for having hustled naked ladies out of the White House pool and out a side door when Jackie returned home unexpectedly. It was unwise for Bill Clinton to have dallied with Monica. But aside from that becoming public fodder and a distraction, was harm done to anyone but Hillary?
Morality, you might say, carries over in all we are. But politics is filled with immorality. It’s a brutal, down-and-dirty occupation with horrendous ethical lapses.
We seem to be on a streak to out public officials and I’m not sure why. Me, I’m OK with a hardworking office holder who has a bedroom incident that don’t distract from the job.
I’d have preferred that Rod Tam had sex with somebody instead of using my money for a Valentine’s Day lunch with his wife.
New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo is hot on the trail of state government workers getting salary boosts and overtime pay just before retirement, and I’m thinking, “What a great argument for having an elected attorney general!” You know our appointed AG isn’t going to investigate the legislative auditor’s finding that state finance people improperly invested $1 billion of our money in risky auction-rate securities peddled by a local Morgan Stanley salesman. In states with an an elected AG you get executive check-and-balance. The AG not only represents you as well as the governor, he’s usually looking to nail the governor in a misdeed. Then he can run for governor. Our AG is the governor’s kept man.
Silly idea from City Councilman Charles Djou to impound the cars of anyone soliciting a prostitute on the street. HPD doesn’t like it. And you know where this would lead: Women police in hot pants luring in “johns.” We’ve already had male police gussied up as transvestites in Chinatown to troll for solicitations.
Silly. Silly. Silly.
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS Comments (0) |
Most Recent Comment(s):
