Nasty Little Man

Coffee with Tim

A few thoughts from today's Meet the Press.

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, announces his bid for the presidency.

Huckabee touched on his belief that we need to promote a "culture of life" and pointed out a deserving criticism of others who oppose abortion. Huckabee said, "If we're really pro-life, we have to be concerned about more than just gestation," and went on to talk about education, healthcare, and the environment.

Moderator Tim Russert missed an opportunity by failing to ask Huckabee about the death penalty. It is farcical for the so-called "culture of life" crowd to continue to support a policy in which the government straps a person down until he or she cannot move and injects him/her with poison for the purpose of killing him. And Russert missed it.

Schumer on "special interest groups."

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) went after our voices in D.C. near the end of the program.

I bring up, in my book, talk when I got to Congress in 1980, for instance, and that was-that was about crime was ripping apart my district. I come to Washington, and I find out that the ACLU is writing crime legislation, has a veto over any piece of crime legislation. Now, they should be at the table. Their views should be considered. But our job, whether we're Democrat or Republican, is not to just take what the interest groups want and just make it into legislation, it's to balance their needs against others'. I believe in the environment, but there's the issue of jobs. I believe in civil liberties, but there's the issue of security. And what both parties have done, Tim, is forgotten the average middle class voter—yes, I call them the Baileys, but they could be anybody—and instead paid too much attention to interest groups.

I am a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Natural Resources Defense Council, among others, and there is a good reason. I care about the environment. I care about civil liberties, the Constitution, and equal rights for all. And there is no way that I can have access to my senators. Period. Can you imagine the response I would get if I tried to get a personal meeting with Senator Specter or Senator Casey? I'd be lucky to get anyone above an intern.

But the ACLU and the NRDC do have that kind of access. People like me who care about these issues rely on them to make sure our voices are heard.

There's a big difference between non-profits like the ACLU and NRDC and the lobbyists for for-profit companies like Halliburton, Verizon, and Comcast. Yes, the Democrats (and all politicians) should not be giving those lobbyists more of an ear than the people. But Chuckie was simply looking to score some cheap political points by lumping all of the above together.

After the Demo-rats rolled over on the renewal of the PATRIOT Act, I switched my voter registration from D to "no affiliation." Schumer is doing nothing to win me back.

Labels: ACLU, Chuck Schumer, Mike Huckabee, NRDC, PATRIOT Act

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 10:03 PM