Truth in politics

There seems to be an odd little meme circulating amongst our politicians: they have somehow gotten the idea that telling the truth is a good thing.

Myself, I’m not convinced.

When a desperate, soon to be an also ran, candidate’s wife speaks openly about sex and race, something isn’t right. This cycles favorite loose cannon, Elizabeth Edwards, has this explanation for her husband’s bad polling:

“We can’t make John black, we can’t make him a woman. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars.”

You know what, that is entirely true.

You know what else is true, she is Elizabeth Edwards and is working her way towards iconhood — the best thing that could happen to her husband’s campaign is an untimely cancer related death — following the Betty Ford model. She is golden. You can’t beat up on a sweet female cancer patient without looking like a bully.

The NAACP will scream about racism and the Republicans will gleefully point to it as another example of the Dems eating their own. Nonetheless, it’s entirely true and if you don’t think Clinton being a woman and Obama being black locks up a nice chunk of the Democratic primary vote your naive or not very bright.

Then we have Florida Representative Bob Allen a staunch conservative who was recently charged with soliciting sex from a male undercover police officer in a public restroom. Mr. Allen’s defense:

“In his statement Allen explained that Danny Kavanaugh, the Titusville police officer from whom he allegedly solicited sex, was a ‘pretty stocky black guy.’ And because ‘there was nothing but other black guys around in the park,’ he became intimidated and did whatever he could to survive.”

Now, I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s not impossible. I don’t know how much time any of you have spent in the ‘hood, but it can be scary. If your a horny middle-aged fat gay white guy without a badge in a public restroom, it’s probably really scary. My point is, it’s an entirely plausible excuse and that, name calling aside, is the state of race relations in our cities.

To me, it has the ring of truth. It’s just too wacky not to be and even if it isn’t, what do I care. No minors, no drugs (I bet that’s what he was really there for) and from everything I can tell, no victim.

I have always considered diplomacy to be little more than knowing how to effectively tell “white lies” and, tact, along with the ability to compromise, is something I value in a politician. The more refined might describe this as being “pragmatic” but what it boils down to is I care far less about sound bites than I do about the nuts & bolts of legislating.

Ya’ll bang it out in the lobby, that’s what we pay you for.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about Mr. Allen’s legislative record but doubt that I would like it much. I do know something about John Edwards’ record and, despite his wife, Mr. Edwards has had my vote since he announced.

Did Dennis Kucinich just advocate the digging of a tunnel to China?

Probably not. If Kucinich said that then I just heard John Edwards say that he has stood in a “picket line on Saturn”.

Add a comment?

Name:

Email:

URL:

Message:

Remember