[Note: This column neglected to credit Blithe Spirit, the blog written by a good friend, Jim Bowman, for the details concerning Rep. Danny Davis who held a Town Hall at Malcolm X College the other day. The quotes Davis made are from Bowman’s story. I regret the omission.]
The Senate’s majority whip, the pantingly liberal Dick Durbin…aka The Dick (who in this column will carry the same appellation as Donald Trump’s The Donald)…has been out of the line of fire recently—which suits him just fine. The last time he expressed himself was to rule out his participation at Town Hall meetings because the Nazis (i.e. those who oppose Obama’s health initiative were in control. He escaped editorial criticism on that stand. The papers like The Dick because in fair liberal weather he is always available for a close-up. In fact, the papers have really surrendered their so-called objectivity on him. They cover for him regularly and don’t chase him for a quote when they know it would not serve his career well to expostulate.
Now The Dick is either on vacation or back in his Washington sancto sanctorum…but it would be good to hear what he has to say about the anomaly that is occurring on the CIA front. Leon Panetta has reportedly tossed a bitch-kitty of a tantrum and has threatened to resign: no word of that in the current papers and no comment from The Dick. Barack Obama has taken a most unusual step…probably the most elusive one in the history of the presidency. He has actually said that he prefers not to rustle up sleeping dogs on the CIA water-boarding issue because it might interfere with future anti-terrorism efforts…but--. But he has allowed his attorney general to do what he wishes, and if “Eric the Red” Holder wants to probe the CIA it’s entirely up to him!
Brother, those who said Calvin Coolidge was a weak president ought to reflect on this one. Obama is the man elected president but he will not raise a finger to direct his attorney general. It’s a classic Good Cop/Bad Cop strategy: and of course the local media are letting him get away with it. It would be fun to see how The Dick defends this, how The Dick sanctions steps that may well jeopardize the security of the United States. But of course as The Dick has ruled out Town Halls, no one from the media will bother him and get him on the record. That’s so lovely: how thoughtful of this lip-synch Chicago media!
The Dick is thus off the hook and is free from speculation on one of the most tempestuous issues facing the country—just because he has decided to shut down his public appearances. And the complaisant Chicago media allow him to do it. So thoughtful! But even though he has made himself unavailable for questioning, where are the media now? Carol Marin who could be counted upon to weep circa `60s tears for the poor, rights-deprived terrorists who were captured trying to blow our heads off, is on vacation until the heat blows over following her bombastic and egregious false charge that the NRA has throttled the Center for Disease Control from releasing the free flow of information on kid shootings.
Where is Mike Flannery, the fawning Channel 2 CBS-TV serf who wrote Obama in a commercial supplement distributed by The New York Times with its Chicago edition the manner of the Good Thief: “Lord, remember me when you get to Your kingdom”? Where is Clarence Page on this issue--the man hired by The Tribune to tell us how it feels to be a black man? Or Dawn Turner Trice hired by The Tribune to tell us how it feels to be a black woman? Oh, and the world’s greatest libertarian, Steve Chapman, should be able to write a column about how free we really are from governmental usurpation now that the vindictive old Bush curtailment of captured terrorists will be changed. But not a word from him either.
Nor a musing from Eric Zorn or his steady heartthrob, Mary Schm--. Mary Schm--. Aw forget it.
Over at the Sun-Times, we have heard zilch on this issue from the man hired by earlier editors to act like an obnoxious Brooklyn street peddler/ hustler who never fails to remind us he’s a liberal Jew in favor of civil liberties for those who want to kill us (and who hates Catholic thought) Neal Steinberg…or the aging kid who’s long in the tooth but who still writes as an immature one: Richard Roeper. Can’t Mary Mitchell dredge up a racial protest against whitey on this one? Over at the immaculate heart of liberaldom, WTTW-TV, can’t the Cardboard Cutout Phil Ponce run a panel, stacked leftward as it would be by Dan Schmidt? Can’t Nurse Ratched aka Elizabeth Brackett be brought in to grill a lone supporter of anti-terrorism?
All’s quiet out there because the liberals know this is an issue that will kill Obama-dom. Let there be another attack and he won’t have to worry about running for a second term: he’ll be liable for impeachment and justifiably so given his Pontius Pilate-like acquiescence of Holder’s prosecutions on those who defend us.
But most of all…more than any of the above…I want to hear from The Dick on this issue. Oh if only he would show up.
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