John Walsh

It isn't often that this old Democrat can feel anything but contempt for anyone so unenlightened that they would profess to being a member of the republican party. But lately, with the rise of the bigoted crazies who claim to speak for the republican party, I'm beginning to feel some sympathy for those folks, like Colin Powell, who still try to lay claim to Being moderate Republicans. Even I can vaguely remember san occasional vote for the likes of Leveret Saltonstall or ...It isn't often that this old Democrat can feel anything but contempt for anyone so unenlightened that they would profess to being a member of the republican party. But lately, with the rise of the bigoted crazies who claim to speak for the republican party, I'm beginning to feel some sympathy for those folks, like Colin Powell, who still try to lay claim to Being moderate Republicans. Even I can vaguely remember san occasional vote for the likes of Leveret Saltonstall or Frank Sergeant back in the day when moderate Republicans can and did get elected when I lived in Massachusetts. Those were the days when a moderate republican was maybe a better choice than a machine democrat steeped in the ways of cronyism and ward politics. As we are seeing right now on the national stage, the days of turning to a moderate republican to find a middle course on which to steer the ship of state are long gone.

In Tuesday's "New York Times" in a column by Bob Herbert entitled " The Howls of a Dying Species" some of the more rabid (and prominent) of the republican crazies are quoted in regard to the recent nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next justice on the U. S. Supreme Court to replace David Souter. Since Sotomayor is a woman and a Latina these guys have not felt constrained to show their kinder gentler side. Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was forced to resign that post during the ill fated impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, for openly conducting an affair with one of his staffers while still married to another woman. was quick to brand Sotommayor "a Latina woman racist" for a remark she had made many years ago suggesting that a Latina who grew up in poor circumstances "might" make better judicial decisions in some instances than could a a white male who did not have the same background. Well, avoiding redundancy (Latina and woman) was never Newt's strong suit. Speaking with unforked tongues hasn't been either.