News and Views

The editorial entitled “More Bad Behavior” published in the September 18, 2009 Bedford Journal opines that Democrats are more civil than Republicans because none of them have said “You lie!” to a president (at least not to his face nor during an address to Congress.)

We can agree that Rep. Wilson’s statement was rude and impolitic, but the editorial deals instead with the issue of responses to lying. My dictionary defines lying as: “1: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive; 2: to create a false or misleading impression.” In trying to present its point, the editorial exhibits several comments that are illustrative of the second definition.

One example the editorial gives to portray the reticence and rectitude of Democrats is their response to President George H. W. Bush deciding to support raising taxes. This example is disingenuous since Bush was in fact abandoning a campaign promise. That’s certainly worthy of criticism, but not for lying, unless someone believed that Bush’s campaign promise was itself a lie. (Similar skepticism could be applied to any president, including the current one.) That Democrats weren’t critical of Bush at the time proves nothing since they supported the idea of raising taxes.

The Journal editorial gives the impression that being “civil to the President” is some ultimate imperative. Have they forgotten that Democrats booed Bush during his 2005 State of the Union address when he challenged Congress to reform Social Security funding?

What would the Journal make of “Bush lied” comments regarding Iraq? It’s illustrative that nobody said “Clinton lied”, even though “regime change” in Iraq was a policy instituted by President Clinton, who in December 1998 launched the first mission “to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.”

So the issue to which the Journal takes offense must be that Rep. Wilson’s comment was made in the President’s presence. Also, the Journal supports President’s assertion that “his health care proposal would not cover illegal aliens.” HR 3200 does include words making that statement. But it’s also true that the Bill provides no mechanism that would prevent enrollment by illegal aliens, and Democrats have voted down amendments to establish such a mechanism. Failure to recognize the implications of those facts displays either an amazing credulousness or an effort “to create a false or misleading impression.”

Most are aware that “poor and middle-class Americans” are currently entitled to health care regardless of ability to pay. Republicans prefer market based reforms instead of a new entitlement similar to Medicare (which its trustees report will be bankrupt in 2017). The editorial’s assertion that Republicans favor denying people health care creates “a false or misleading impression.”

I used to write for the Bedford Journal until July 2008, when it declined to publish a column entitled “Media Matters” in which I identified media bias as a source of concern for all citizens. That column (subsequently published elsewhere) concluded by stating: “Americans need to face serious issues. We need to make informed choices and work together on these issues. That would be easier to do if some of our typical sources of information presented a more balanced viewpoint and better respected the integrity of those having different opinions.”

I wouldn’t say it any differently today.

###

Ray Chadwick is the Chairman of the Bedford Republican Committee