Thursday, June 21, 2007

Presidential Ethics and The Emperor's Clothes

Isn’t it wonderful to have a president with such high moral standards?

Washington watchers yesterday got a full load of Mr. Bush’s idea of morality, but it was hard to watch it without putting on your hip boots. I mean he piled it so high you couldn’t help but step in it.Destroying human embryos for stem cell research, W said, crosses a “moral line”. A moral line? He also called it unethical. This from a guy who wouldn’t know an ethic if it kicked him where he sits. The full quote was, “Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical.”But destroying human life to the tune of a few thousand a month to save American access to oil is ethical?? Give me a break. This guy holding forth on ethics is like the devil delivering the commencement address at a nunnery.

The Democrats should be jumping on him with both feet. So what do they say?

Nancy Pelosi: “Stem cell research offers the potential of lifesaving treatment and enjoys the overwhelming support of the American people.”

Ted Kennedy: “Today’s veto, like last year’s, is a cruel betrayal of the hopes of millions of patients and their families across America whose hope for a brighter future and a healthier life depend on stem cell research. President Bush is as stubborn and wrong about stem cell research as he is about Iraq.”

Not a word of protest about Bush’s duplicity from the left’s farthest leaning leaders. This during the buildup to a presidential election. No wonder nobody follows their lead – they aren’t leading.

The press ought to be washing Bush’s mouth out with soap, so who among them compared willingness to wage pre-emptive war to unwillingness to support medical research? None I could find. Who among them spoke of the lack of ethic shown in Mr. Bush’s more than 700 signing statements asserting his right to ignore the law, or his support of torture and extraordinary rendition, or his destruction of internal communications or his . . . well, I could go on, but you get the point. The answer to all of these is: None I could find.

When the emperor not only has no clothes, but is jumping up and down and pointing at everything that flops, somebody ought to call him on it. It would be funny if the subject weren’t so serious.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored. But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

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