And Now Kit Bond Does Something Smart! (Is the Earth Still spinning on Its Axis?)

by Pa Rock
Social Commentator

Kit Bond, Missouri's senior U.S. Senator, began the day with a surprise statement that he would vote in favor of the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to serve as the 111th Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Bond, a Republican, announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election to the Senate, and was therefore free to vote his conscience. Would that everyone in Congress had the freedom of will to vote their own conscience!

I knew Kit Bond a thousand years ago when I was in college in Springfield, Missouri. At that time he was an assistant in the office of our state attorney general, a young man named John Danforth. Bond and Danforth would both occasionally trek to Springfield to visit with political science students at Southwest Missouri State College. Both were idealistic and focused on making the world a better place. Danforth stayed in that mode (kinda - sorta), but Bond fell off the wagon early. Danforth, of the Ralston Purina fortune, had the social connections and personal wealth to maintain a certain degree of independence from the knuckleheads and racist claptrap that tend to control Republican politics in Missouri and nationally. Bond did not.

Bond is finishing his third term in the Senate (18 years). Since moving to our nation's capital his marriage went on the rocks, he got snugly in bed with Mitch McConnell and the tobacco lobby, and his drinking problem became more or less public knowledge. Now he has a new wife and seems to be getting his life back in order. I hope that he is able to get away from Washington, DC, and find some peace and happiness in his golden years.

Good luck, Senator Bond. I'm glad that you are at last free of the Republican chains of ignorance and bigotry that have kept your spirit bowed all of these years. Your vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor is something that will benefit America for decades. Now, if you really want to pump up your legacy on the way out the door, please consider supporting a good national health care policy with a strong public option.

John McCain Says Something Smart! (Stop the Presses!)

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

John McCain, the ex-POW and war hero who married his way into money and a political future, can be inspiring. He was a beacon to political outsiders in 2000 when he tried to block the Bush juggernaut with his "straight talk" express. But Karl Rove, who was driving the Bush juggernaut, rammed right into McCain's bus in a place called South Carolina by convincing the Republican primary voters of that state that the Arizona Senator might be just a tad too open minded on the subject of race to carry the GOP's Klan robes, much less its banner.

So McCain lost that nomination and went slinking back to the Senate with his tail tucked militarily between his hind legs - where he licked his wounds and waited for another try when Bush left office. This time Johnny Boy wasn't going to take any chances with the bigots and morons who run the Republican Party machinery. In a bold, though stupid, move, he made a pilgrimage to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he planted a big wet kiss on Jerry Falwell's flabby ass. From there he quickly spiraled downhill until he was left with almost no integrity - which made him a shoe-in for the Republican nomination. He frosted the cake by selecting completely incompetent and vacuous Sarah Palin as his running mate. It was a match made in Heaven - on a day when God was off fishing someplace else!

The principled John McCain of 2000 could have run a tough race against Obama, but that John McCain would have never gotten the nomination from his angry white party. The new McCain was offensive to enough people to secure the Republican nomination, but found it impossible to get enough ordinary Joe's to hold their noses and vote for him. He couldn't get the nomination being a human being, and he couldn't win the election being a moralistic cretin.

What's a John to do?

McCain is too old to run for President again, (Please, Lord, let it be so!), but he still has to pander to the know-nothings who run the Republican Party because he has a Senate primary opponent in 2010 who is well to the right of most of humanity. That is why he came out earlier this week and said that he would vote against confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. (McCain has spoken passionately in the past about the need to incorporate Hispanics into American culture and government.)

But even with McCain's continuous sucking up to people he knows in his heart are illogical and dangerous kooks, he did manage to say something bright today on Twitter. Here is his most recent tweet - I was quite impressed:

"Town hall meetings are an American tradition - we should allow everyone to express their views without disruption - even if we disagree!"

As reported for the past several nights on several television networks, these "spontaneous" crowds showing up to heckle Congressmen and public officials are not spontaneous at all. They are being recruited, provided with scripts of how to disrupt and rattle the speakers, and are even being bussed from event to event. Kudos to Senator McCain for having the cajones to speak out against these mindless agitators!

Senator, I don't know what you put on your Fruit Loops this morning, but whatever it was - keep pouring it on! America is a better place when the real John McCain actually does some straight talking. Please consider doing it more often.