Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The appropriate rejoinder against Limbaugh's remark came in a comment accompanying a cartoon that appeared on the editorial pages of the October 27 Tacoma (Washington) Tribune.  Limbaugh is pictured at the microphone grinning broadly as he holds a large pill container filled with oxycontin capsules.  In the corner of the small broadcasting room boxes of oxycontin are piled on top of each other.

Meanwhile Limbaugh is gleefully popping a stream of oxycontin pills into his mouth.  A widely grinning Limbaugh makes the following comment in the cartoon:

"Shame on Michael J. Fox for not taking his medication.  I've always enjoyed taking mine."

It was not all that long ago that a somber Limbaugh told his listeners to pray for him over his pill-taking ordeal.  He was obligated to hire high-priced Miami criminal attorney Roy Black to save him from jail.

The whole process of Limbaugh crying woefully and asking forgiveness, bailing himself out of a huge jam with some of the huge chunks of money he has earned spouting hate over the nation's air waves, is particularly galling in view of his own unforgiving views on the subject of drug addiction.

At the same time that Limbaugh was engaged in expensive pill popping he issued stern declarations to fuel the emotions of his hate loving listeners on various broadcasts that anyone who uses drugs in any amount, for any reason, without exception, should either be sent to jail for good or be sent out of the country with no opportunity to return.

In other words, someone consuming a small portion of marijuana, even presuming for medical reasons since the unrelenting Limbaugh made no exceptions, should be either locked up for good or sent away from American permanently.  

How refreshing it would have been had Limbaugh possessed the integrity to follow through on his own angry declaration by at least voluntarily leaving America once his considerable drug addiction was discovered.  Instead Limbaugh asked tearful forgiveness and used his big bucks to hire Roy Black to rescue him from a potential jail cell.

Michael J. Fox appeared on the CBS Evening News on Friday, October 27 in an interview with anchorperson Katie Couric.  What a contrast between the brave, noticeably shaking Fox and the hatemongering bluster of Limbaugh.  The magnanimous Fox used his interview opportunity to address the importance of citizen participation in the political process.

Fox stated his views on the importance of stem cell research but noted that he respected the views of those who, through matters of conscience, held differing positions from his own.  He further stated that it did not bother him to take a few shots along the way concerning his own viewpoint since criticism is part of the process.

The interview represented television at its best, providing a breath of fresh air in a season replete with befouling negative political attack ads.  An empathic Couric told her audience that her father suffered from Parkinson's Disease and had expressed his permission to her to mention that fact on the air.  

Couric was misty-eyed at the close of the interview with the courageous and compassionate Fox, as were many watching in television land.

That same week the Republican hate machine unveiled its eleventh hour campaign strategy.  With George W. Bush polling in the thirties and the Mark Foley Scandal badly wounding Republicans heading into the November 7 voting, the Karl Rove-orchestrated team repackaged a familiar old tactic.

Seeking to benefit from a just announced New Jersey court ruling, Bush sounded the drums on behalf of the "sanctity of marriage" when he visited the Garden State.  Bush sounded a dire warning on the subject of gay marriage.  The tactic was seen as an effort to energize Christian coalition voters who have been distressed by the Foley Scandal.

Once more Bush's recurring pattern of hypocrisy was at work.  In the neighboring state of Pennsylvania Bush had made an earlier stop touting an endangered Republican congressman as the best man for the job.  

Congressman Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania's 10th District was singled out for Bush's praise.  Bush was urging 10th District voters to endorse a candidate embroiled in scandal by a five-year extra-marital affair.  

The matter does not end there.  Circumstances became further aggravated when it was revealed that Sherwood's mistress, Cynthia Ore, had made a 911 call and filed a subsequent police report against Sherwood.

When the smoke cleared it was revealed that Ore reported that Sherwood had attempted to choke her.  Congressman Sherwood responded that he was only giving Ore a backrub.  Ore sued Sherwood, alleging that he had consistently physically abused her during their five-year affair.  The suit was ultimately settled, the terms of which were not released.

So there we have it.  George Bush is once more invoking the potential danger of gay marriage as dangerous to the institution of marriage after he has solidly endorsed a philanderer who might also be a physical abuser.  

Then again, we have the example of moral guardian Senator Orrin Hatch sponsoring a constitutional amendment to enable Karl Rove-Pete Wilson protégé, California's groper Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to escape the constitutional prohibition of foreign-born citizens to run for president.

With Sherwood continuing to receive solid support from the Bush Administration for reelection to Congress from Pennsylvania's 10th District, has Ann Coulter, with her recurring nightmares stemming from Monica Lewinsky's dress stain, had anything to say about this?  For one of the rare times in her life the loquacious Coulter has been silent.

How about the paragons of moral virtue Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Bill "Bet a Million" Bennett?  Isn't it strange?  These moral guardians of American virtue have also been silent on the subject of Don Sherwood.

Nothing speaks louder than the silence typified by right wing Republican hypocrites.