Last November we had an election. The Republicans won the White House again, and strengthened their control of both houses of Congress. In other words, they won.
You’d think that the losers would accept their defeat, as losers have done throughout the long history of this republic. The people have spoken, loud and clear. They want the GOP running things in Washington but the Democrats aren’t listening. Instead of being gracious in defeat, they are sulking like a bunch of spoiled brats whose parents won’t let them stay up late to watch TV. Their attitude is that if they can’t be in charge in Washington and shove their socialist programs down our throats they are going to do everything by hook or by crook to stop the Republicans from doing what the voters sent them to the nation’s capital to do – be in charge.
Just listen to their would-be-president-in-waiting, Mrs. Clinton, or poor Senator Kerry and some of the others among their sullen crowd who refuse to accept the verdict of the voters expressed at the polls last November. What they are saying is that they really didn’t lose last fall – like all sore losers, they whimper, “We wuz robbed.”
As a result, they simply cannot bring themselves to recognize that the president and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill have an agenda you may agree or disagree with, but in a civilized society your arguments should be expressed decently, and not shouted in the gutter language used by schoolyard bullies. You do not adopt a policy of maliciously slandering the winning side. You state your opinions respectfully and hope the American people will agree with you.
That’s not what we are witnessing now. House Democrats have mounted an attack on Majority Leader Tom DeLay, accusing him of having his wife and daughter on his campaign payroll. They don’t bother to tell you that Sen. Joe Lieberman’s son Matthew received about $34,000 and daughter Rebecca about $36,000 for working on his 2004 presidential campaign, or that California Democrat Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark’s wife Deborah earns $2,400 a month for serving as campaign consultant, or that Rep. Bart Stupak’s wife Laurie earned about $36,000 annually the past two years as the finance director for her husband’s campaign.
They attack DeLay for going on junkets, but remain mum when it comes to Democrats. Take liberal Democrat Maurice Hinchey, who according to the New York Daily News took 27 trips costing private groups $157,000 over the past five years. He traveled in style; luxuriating at resorts like the Four Seasons in Punta Mita and other sumptuous retreats in Morocco, Madrid, Budapest, Helsinki, Tunisia, Cancun, Italy, Vancouver, Shanghai and Grand Cayman Island.
Democratic Rep. Elliot Engel, according to the Daily News, “has whisked his wife to first-class resorts in San Juan and Las Vegas, Wyoming and Florida – and barely spent a nickel.” He took a $5,300 junket to New Orleans for his daughter and took his teenage son to Seattle and London and Jerusalem, gratis. Charlie Rangel junketed to the Dominican Republic three times in recent years, courtesy of the Punta Cana Beach Resort in 2001, American Airlines in 2002 and the Dominican/American Roundtable in 2003. Democrat Gregory Meeks took 37 trips in the last five years – 30 privately funded and seven government-paid. He went to Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, Venezuela and Honolulu at a total cost of $150,000. Jerrold Nadler took his wife Joyce on a pair of trips costing $5,500 and $6,600, respectively – courtesy of the Association of American Railroads, while serving on the House Railroad Subcommittee.
Democrat Anthony Weiner took the longest and most expensive taxpayer-paid trip in the New York delegation – a fact-finding expedition to Antarctica. The Daily News said taxpayers wound up shelling out more than $350,000 for the nine-day, 12,500-mile marathon two years ago – with Weiner traveling as part of the 13-member Science Committee. Joseph Crowley took the New York delegation’s longest trip on record, a 13-day, $8,900 getaway to India and Bangladesh sponsored by an Indian trade group. Crowley has also taken his wife, Kasey, on freebies to India, New Orleans and the Dominican Republic.
What’s that old saying? People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?
©2005 Mike Reagan. You must contact us if you would like to print this column in your publication or post on the internet. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Cari Dawson Bartley Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561
