Sore Losers

Blogging colleague Donald, an excellent writer, has returned from a self-imposed post-election hiatus, to lash out at Charlie Dent ("a harmless amiable nothing"), the "tea bagger crowd" ("much of the impetus for the tea party movement is race based"), WikiLeaks ("much ado about nothing"), and even "fame whore" Sarah Palin ("Charlie Dent has more substance").

Now I can understand the sour grapes on November 3, but two months later? It is precisely this kind of intolerance and partisan rhetoric that is tearing us apart. What's even more disturbing is that Donald is factually inaccurate.

He predicts, for example, that Charlie Dent will be "The John Boehner lap dog. The arch Conservative suck up." He completely ignores two recent votes rebutting that conclusion. Dent voted to extend unemployment benefits, both in November and again in December. In his November vote, Dent actually bucked his own party.

While heaping praise on President Obama for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Donald conveniently forgets to tell you that Dent is one of just fifteen House Republicans to side with Democrats on that issue.

So much for John Boehner lap dog.

In addition to his unfair attack on Dent, Donald goes on to accuse the tea party movement, whom he derisively refers to as the "tea bagger crowd," of being racially motivated. He has as much evidence for that claim as I do for insisting that gay people must be pedophiles. Both statements smack of ignorance and intolerance.

As far as the relative importance of WikiLeaks is concerned, we now know that both American and British diplomats are scared shitless that terrorists might get their hands on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. From there it's only a matter of time before someone on some fishing boat off the Atlantic coast sends a scud our way. This information had been kept from the public, and certainly amounts to a serious concern. Even Russians concede that Pakistan is "highly unstable."

Explains why we're in Afghanstan. It really is a matter of national security.

In fairness to Donald, I admit he pretty much nailed McCain and Palin. I also must acknowledge that I'm a Charlie Dent fan. There's even a rumor that I have three portraits at my Nazareth estate - Charlie Dent, John Stoffa and Ron Angle. This is completely untrue. I have autographed photographs of Don Cunningham and Dean Browning, too. I tend to support elected officials who believe in transparency and accountability, and who are accessible. It's really a pretty small club, when you come right down to it. Obama used to be a member, until it become apparent his promise of post partisan government was just a vote-grabbing gimmick.

Neither is Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan. Donald claims JC is headed for "great things and higher office," but I see an official who has mishandled Bethlehem finances, hidden facts from City Council and is inaccessible to critics.

I will say this much. It's great to see Donald back in action, blasting away.