Ford and Kolbe Resonate Same Chord

Tucson, Arizona—With the resignation of Congressmen Kolbe and the death of President Ford, what these two Republicans really think has risen to a new level of candor, and they are singing tunes that march to the same drummer. The GOP’s rightward shift to religious fanatics obsessed with gay rights, homosexuality, and abortion is a mistake. In an interview with Bob Woodward, Ford adds that Iraq was a mistake, "I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation (my emphasis) around the globe freeing people unless it is directly related to our own national security."

Assuming we’re still around, 200 years from now acceptance of gays will come as easily as different eye color. Gender and race biases will evaporate into the intelligent recognition of value for value. Skills, talent, and genuine merit will overwhelm infantile knuckle dragging nonsense, and gay, black women with purple eyes will get the promotion if they are the most qualified.

I think Giffords would have beaten Huffman, but the race would have been tighter and tougher. By going to the right with Graf, the GOP handed Gabrielle her seat. In LD 26, the GOP committed the same error, ousting a solid, respected Toni Hellon as Senator and a strong Carol Somers for Representative, setting up democratic victories in November.

The GOP went Jesus freak and gave seats to the democrats.

I think the GOP is at a certain crossroads, where they have to choose between forces associated with traditional Goldwater concepts of fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, strong defense, and government where government makes sense (which does not include the bedroom), and this religious kook-case nonsense.

Kolbe and Ford are making these kinds of statements, and for good reason.

I’m an independent, and a GOP that talks about personal responsibility and a government accountable for its use of taxpayer dollars makes sense to me. A government that tells me how to have sex and who with seems to defy everything the GOP stands for.

The GOP has serious issues. They have sold out to religious extremists, and they have succumbed to obscene levels of corruption that make laughable any notion of fiscal responsibility. The 109th Congress was a Congress of unprecedented pork, an orgy of earmarked billions, remarkably led by the party of "limited government and fiscal responsibility."

The GOP tags the democrats with "tax and spend." This is worse than "borrow and spend"? Worse, spend on what?

Follow the money. I sometimes have to wonder if the Bush Administration is at its root a project to maximize the profits of a small number of corporations. Seriously, might the war in Iraq be a business venture? Let’s just watch who gets to extract oil from where and reap the rewards. The very oil "machinery" attached to Bush and Cheney appears well positioned to score the prize in Iraq. I find it difficult to avoid the conclusion that someone became President of the United States for the financial gain of himself and his associates.