our present political conflagration is going to turn our country into Gaza, or the Balkans, if we aren’t careful.

All this hatred really began just 35 years ago, in 1973. It’s been tit-for-tat ever since; revenge by one party’s partisans against the other.

Think of the theme of the “accidental presidency”: TR, Truman, Ford.

I’m trying to not romanticize the past, but those three presidents were good for America.

Looking at this statistically, and respecting the cycles of postwar American political history, in each year where in one party there has been a “bitter” presidential primary, the other party has won. 1956, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 2000. Add 2008 to that equation, I am certain.

George Santayana, where are you today?

Oh what a tangled web we weave when the liberal media does conspire to deceive.

If you want to play by Republican rules, one of the cardinal sins of politics is the dreaded “flip-flop.” For your edification and amusement, here’s a handy list, courtesy of the Carpetbagger Report blog, of the many flip-flops of John McBush, I mean, McCain…

”

• McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain if he were a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”

• McCain’s campaign unveiled a Social Security policy that the senator would implement if elected, which did not include a Bush-like privatization scheme. In March 2008, McCain denounced his own campaign’s policy.

• In February 2008, McCain abandoned his opposition to waterboarding.

• In November 2007, McCain reversed his previous position on a long-term presence for U.S. troops in Iraq, arguing that the “nature of the society in Iraq” and the “religious aspects” of the country make it inevitable that the United States “eventually withdraws.” Two months later, McCain reversed back, saying he’s prepared to leave U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years.

• McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.

• McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.

• On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own legislation.

• In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.

• McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”

• McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”

• McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.

• McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.

• McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.

• McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

• On a related note, he said 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and insisted he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.

• In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

• McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June 2007, he abandoned his own legislation.

• McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.

• McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

• McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.

• McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

• McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.”

Please note that the greatest majority of these flip-flops have happened after McCain declared for the 2008 race. So, he’s not only a world class flip-flopper, he’s an opportunistic hypocrite.

This is from “Audacity of Hope”;
“There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”

From “Dreams”;
“The emotion between the races could never be pure,” “Even love was tarnished by the desire to find in the other some element that was missing in ourselves. Whether we sought out our demons or salvation, the other race would always remain just that: menacing, alien, and apart.”

“There was something about him that made me wary,” Obama wrote. “A little too sure of himself, maybe. And white”

I could go on and on. But it’s late.
I don’t know how many people got Obama wrong, when I called him from the get go. Just like I called Spitzer, and even Sall.

He’s so swarmy and charming.
Things to beware of.

And forgive me too as Eliot’s fall has made me smile ten times a day ever since the news broke. Random, wide faced grins. Occasional cackles.

Once upon a time, The Times Union was a great newspaper. It hasn’t been such in some years, ever since columnist/managing editor Dan Lynch left it, in 2000. That the TU is cozy with local elected officials (where it once exposed them, and helped them to earn deserved prison terms) is disheartening.

Why didn’t Spitz vet Paterson more carefully in 2006? Because he knew he would cruise to victory over John Faso, the decent and honorable guy who was his opponent, after 12 years of GOP rule of the statehouse.

The egomaniacs who seek high elective office in New York nowadays are complete slimebags, with the exception of John Faso, who lost to two corrupt humans in consecutive statewide races.

We do not get the Nelson Rockefellers, or Louis Lefkowitzes, or even (pardon me) the Mario Cuomos or Stan Lundines any more. Dishonest, corrupt people are the major candidates for statewide office.

I humbly suggest this: for the Democrats, Andrew Cuomo is reviving the concept of dignity in elected officials (disclosure: I voted for Jeanine). I’m liking Cuomo, for now. We Republicans need a candidate above reproach, who can demonstrate his or her virtue to voters, or our state is going to be in trouble for some time.

I mean, Dan Rostenkowski was an “honest official” compared to the Democrats who run New York today.

The News also has another article about particular “earmarks”—pork—that Paterson steered to people or organizations very close to him. It raises more questions. It is taxpayer money. Paterson’s troubles continue to mount, and so do Soares.’

But—forgive me—I am delighted at the knife that is being stuck into Eliot Spitzer’s Draculian heart. He tried to destroy a friend of mine last year in Rockland County, only because Spitzer wanted to eviscerate the Republican Party in New York. He succeeded in taking out the chief law enforcement officer, Michael Bongiorno, in the District Attorney’s race.

This man Spitzer—for whom I voted in 1998 in his second run for Attorney General, naively thinking he was ethical—is the most supreme disappointment in American electoral history. He may match James Buchanan, the worst president in our history. (Buchanan, another Democrat, caused the Civil War.)

Never trust a “liberal”—I learned that term 30 years ago. It is a contradiction in terms. DP Moynihan, Hubert Humphrey, Jerry Brown, Paul Simon—they were true liberals. Honest intellectuals, with America’s best interests at heart. The modern day “wanna-be” liberals: Hillary, Spitzer, Schumer—are egomaniacal, corrupted slimebags, dirty people—with no honesty and little integrity, and America’s interests (and citizens) are the least important part of their continuing charade in a meglomaniacal quest for power.

Makes me wish for Jerry Brown to be in the race for president. At least he was an honest human being, with good moral character

Tim Hays
Historian
Westchester Republican Party