DECEMBER 19, 2007
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Let the Pandering
Begin (Or Accelerate): [Jon Cohen and Chris Cillizza, The
Washington Post]: “Immigration now stands as the top issue for the
state's GOP voters. ... The emergence of immigration as a major issue in Iowa, where three in 10
GOP voters call it a top concern, creates an early test of its political
potency.”
The Company You Keep
I: [Liz Sidoti, AP]: “Romney
staunchly defended Bush in Iowa
a few days after rival Mike Huckabee criticized the Bush
administration's efforts in a Foreign
Affairs journal article, denouncing a go-it-alone ‘arrogant bunker
mentality’ and questioning decisions on Iraq.”
About That War…: [Patrick
Healy, The
New York Times]: “‘I think we can bring home one to two combat brigades
a month,’ [Clinton] told an audience member who posed the question. ‘I think we
can bring nearly everybody home, you know, certainly within a year if we keep
at it and do it very steadily.’”
The Company You Keep
II: [CNN]:
“Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has received a $500
campaign donation from a white supremacist, and the Texas congressman doesn't
plan to return it, an aide said Wednesday.”
Polls: [Rasmussen,
N.H.]: Clinton 31, Obama 28, Edwards 18; [Rasmussen,
N.H.]: Romney 31, McCain 27, Giuliani 13, Huckabee 11; [Rasmussen,
I.A.]: Huckabee 28; Romney 27; McCain 14
--Ben Crair
1 comments
Let it be said I'm against white supremacists. But why on earth should Ron Paul, or any candidate, "return" or donate to charity or whatever a campaign donation from any unsavory character, save perhaps for cases in which the donated money was itself stolen or the profits of criminal activity? And who's to say that a white supremacist makes every decision on the basis of his white supremacism? Maybe he's a small business owner who favors lower taxes and less regulation but doesn't like the war. Then Ron Paul is his candidate, right? What if he also gives money to the Sierra Club and his local food bank -- should they also reject gifts from white supremacists who also happen to have an interest in protecting the environment and feeding the poor? When neighborhood children sell candy bars to raise money for school trips, should they not be allowed to sell candy bars to the neighborhood white supremacist?
And if accepting money from someone with unpopular opinions is seen as an endorsement of that person's opinions, then doesn't the federal government also give his opinions official state endorsement when accepting tax payments from that person?
Do we really want to be a country that examines each person's least righteous opinions and prevents anyone whose worst thoughts don't meet some angelic standard from participating as citizens in freedom and self-government? Which of us really believes that he would stand up to such scrutiny? So, please, enough with this silly "gotcha!" game of counting coup on the correctness of a candidate's donors and sanctimoniously demanding the "return" of donations from fellow citizens that we deem unworthy to participate. I guarantee that if we really start down the road of requiring politicians to denounce donors with any unpopular blots on their characters, liberals are not going to win that contest, and we'll have a politics in which normal citizens who donate a few hundred bucks to a candidate are denounced for being gay or atheist or Muslim or Zionist or having had an abortion or for watching the BBC instead of Fox.
- rhubarbs
December 20, 2007 at 10:36am