Posts filed under 'Quotable'
Florida Trend Publisher Andy Corty writes about “the hug” with President Obama that has symbolized the nosedive Governor Crist has taken in the polls:
Think back to late January. President Barack Obama was scheduled to appear in Tampa to announce federal funding for a high-speed rail line connecting Tampa and Orlando and eventually Miami. That was the real news, but the question getting wide publicity was this: Would Gov. Charlie Crist greet the president as he did in Fort Myers last February or would he avoid Obama as he did last October in Jacksonville?
Partisan politics unfortunately played a major role in these decisions. After the “man hug” of February ’09, Crist was pummeled from the right wing of the Republican Party for consorting with the Democratic president. The pressure grew so intense that Crist, running for the U.S. Senate, pointedly stayed away in October, saying he wasn’t even aware the president was traveling to Florida.
Such a political game runs counter to the Crist I know. He is a man who is uncommonly polite. He has friends of many stripes. He has always accepted criticism without knocking the critic. And he has typically governed toward the center. While we may personally differ on some significant policy issues, I’ve never felt anything other than warm collegiality from him. Perhaps I’m a starry-eyed political neophyte, but there’s something really “American” about fair-minded discourse between people who don’t see eye-to-eye on policy topics.
By chance I was at the Governor’s Mansion for a reception the night before Obama was to appear in Tampa, so I asked Crist about his intentions. “Of course I’m going to be with the president,” Crist replied. “It’s about jobs for Floridians. With unemployment over 11% here, there’s nothing more important than jobs.”
That was the right decision, and I applaud the governor for greeting Obama. But I wish he had also said that as governor — and as the official representative of 18 million Floridians — he would always greet the president of the United States when he visited the great state of Florida. It’s a question of civility.
February 28th, 2010
Michael Smerconish, Philadelphia Talk Radio show host, who just made what seems to have been a tormented decision to change his political affiliation from Republican to Independent, talked to Chris Matthews last night on Hardball:
“We live in a world of media fiction. Where talk radio and your business everything gets presented in black/white red state/blue state left/right terms. And I don’t think that’s the way the real world is. It’s not the way I carry about my life as exemplified by people I meet on a day to day basis. It only exists in the world in which you and I work. And I, frankly, have had enough of it. I frankly think that stirring the pot at the ends of the political spectrum as been terrible for the country and I want no more of it.”
“People in the middle need a voice. We’re underrepresented in the world of talk radio and on cable stations because the bookers they only look for those who they can introduce as a liberal or a conservative, a Republican or a Democrat. That’s not the bulk of America right now. What about the folks in the middle?”
Smerconish wrote about his decision to register as an Independent: “Collegiality is nonexistent today, and any outreach across an aisle is castigated as weakness by the talking heads who constantly stir a pot of discontent.”
February 24th, 2010
“I would caution my Republican friends that he’s got three years left to go and in that three years Americans are going to want to see some progress and not just claims that this guy’s out of office and we’re going to do everything we can to destroy him or that somehow he is a socialist taking over the country. Have we so lost our faith in this country that we think one person, one man can suddenly change our entire system? That’s kind of absurd. In fact, you’re seeing through the tea party movement and some things that other groups are doing that no one person can change the country that way.” – Colin Powell, on today’s Face the Nation.
February 21st, 2010
“For the first time in my life, I see the prospect of a third party somewhere in the future. I just don’t see how we get out of the hole we’re in if Republicans aren’t willing to raise taxes and Democrats not willing to cut spending.” –David Brooks of The New York Times on yesterday’s Meet the Press
February 15th, 2010
This conversation exemplifies what’s wrong with Washington. It’s like two guys fighting in the ocean to see drowns first. Both parties are responsible for the deficits. And both parties are responsible for the fiscal suicide…it’s because the two sides are trying to fight each other rather than actually doing something bipartisan or actually do anything. So bipartisanship has become a wedge issue, a way to make the other party look bad. So bipartisanship has been twisted into just another ring.” –The New York Times’ David Brooks on today’s Meet the Press
February 14th, 2010
Empires die, America. And this is what happens to you. It’s not pretty. I’m not going to sugar coat it for you people: One second you’ll be running the entire known planet. You look away for what feels like nothing more than a decade, glance backwards and the only thing your country is left with is voicing a gecko. Laugh now, while you still can. Because I guarantee you in 20 years time, you’ll be on Chinese television selling them insurance dressed like a squirrel. — John Oliver
February 13th, 2010
George Washington was a real leader:
“One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”–George Washington’s farewell address
These days we elect a lot of opportunists.
January 25th, 2010
I’m sure many on the left side of the aisle were watching the election results from the Massachusetts special election Tuesday to replace Senator Ted Kennedy in dismay. For 40 years, Kennedy stood and fought for the people of Massachusetts as their senator. Before that his brother John, the other Kennedy, held the seat.
Most TV pundits and political experts are calling the election a referendum on President Obama. Many more are wondering how a seemingly decent and likable woman made such a bad candidate, and late night talk show personalities find it hilarious that the Democrats just lost to a man who modeled nude for Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1980’s. No doubt Republicans are happy that Democrats no longer have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and can no longer get their healthcare overhaul through on numbers alone.
Majorities, like victories, come and go. The Democrats dominated early 20th century politics for nearly 50 years. The “Solid South” earned its name because of it propensity to consistently vote for Democratic candidates. Our state of Florida used to be under solid Democratic control. The fact that the Republicans finally won a Senate seat in Massachusetts isn’t appalling, just unexpected. It’s part of the natural ebb and flow of American politics.
The thing I found more upsetting about the results Tuesday is the current state of our political system. What’s so bad about having one Republican and one Democratic senator? I’m positive not everyone in the state of Massachusetts is a Democrat. It should really be the same way in Washington. Nowadays whenever one party gets a majority, they use it to shove their agenda down the throats of the opposing party. Equal representation has turned into a race to the majority. The losers are the American people.
It’s a shame that Democrats can’t pass comprehensive healthcare reform without 60 votes to stop a filibuster. As backroom deals are cut and egos are massaged, 46 million Americans still don’t have healthcare. It’s a bigger shame that something as helpful and needed as healthcare reform is slowed down with the threat of a filibuster anyway.
I’m not ranking sins. Both parties are guilty.
Americans are now more deeply divided than ever. Elections are held for the purpose of getting more people than the other guy, and then the winners use that majority to put forth whatever agenda they want. Supporters of one group or party paint their opponents as unqualified at the very best and often as unmentionable vulgarities.
For all Ted Kennedy did for the American people, he did just as much for Republican fundraising. Republican’s have bragged about their fundraising under current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After Joe Wilson shouted “You Lie” to President Obama he recorded massive fundraising gains, as did his opponent.
After the 1856 Presidential election, in which Democrat James Buchanan beat Whig John Charles Freemont, Abraham Lincoln said of his party’s defeat:
In the late contest we were divided between Freemont and Buchanan. Can we not come together in the future? Let bygones be bygones; let past differences be as nothing; and with steady eye on the real issue, let us re-inaugurate the good old ‘central ideas’ of the republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us; God is with us.”
People don’t talk – or act – like that anymore.
-Luke Inhen
(Photo credit.)
January 23rd, 2010
“The Era of Procrastination, of Half-Measures, of Soothing and Baffling Expedients, of Delays, is Coming to its Close. In its Place We are Entering a Period of Consequences” — Sir Winston Churchill – November 12, 1936
December 28th, 2009
“In France one speaks of ‘la ville d’Ys’, the city of Ys, which, because of the simpleness of the surrounding world, disappeared in the depth of a lake. Only people with a pure heart can see this city through the waters of the lake and hear the sound of its bells. This is what we must learn to do with regard to others. But to do so we must first have a purity of heart, a purity of intention, an openness which is not always there – certainly not in me – so that we can listen, can look, and can see the beauty which is hidden.
Every one of us is in the image of God, and every one of us is like a damaged icon. But if we were given an icon damaged by time, damaged by circumstances, or desecrated by human hatred, we would treat it with reverence, with tenderness, with broken-heartedness. We would not pay attention primarily to the fact that it is damaged, but to the tragedy of its being damaged. We would concentrate on what is left of its beauty, and not on what is lost of its beauty.
And this is what we must learn to do with regard to each person as an individual, but also – and this is not always as easy – with regard to groups of people, whether it be a parish or a denomination, or a nation.”
– Met. Anthony of Sourozh
(… by way of Lea…)
(Photo credit.)
December 27th, 2009
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