6
THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, January 19, 2012
ROMNEY AND MCCAIN: THE GOP FRENEMIES’ CLUB
Mi chael
by Michelle Malkin Syndicated Columnist
Corleone said to “keep your friends close, but your en- emies closer.” But what, pray tell, do we do with our fren- emies? This is the awful election-year quandary of
Missing the Mark -- Again WASHINGTON --
by Oliver North Syndicated Columnist
Our so-called ma i n s t r e am me d i a ha v e launched a new ant i -mi l i tary feeding frenzy. The furor is over a crude 39-sec- ond video show- ing four Marines apparently uri-
nating on the bodies of three dead Taliban combatants. In hysteric rhetoric akin to “news reports” on the 2004 Abu Ghraib photos, hordes of print and broadcast “cor- respondents” rushed to describe the viral video, which surfaced Jan. 11, as evidence of an “atroc- ity” and “desecration” that reflects the “depravity” of our military in general and the U.S. Marines in particular. As usual, the effort to denigrate our armed forces means that the potentates of the press ig- nored far more important stories. On Wednesday, before Marine Corps or U.S. officials in Afghani- stan could even verify the origin or authenticity of the video, it was up on more than a dozen websites and produced an instant firestorm.
Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos described what appears on the video as “not consistent with our Corps values” and ordered an immediate investigation of “every aspect of the filmed event to deter- mine the facts.” He pledged, “Once the investigation and preliminary inquiry are complete and the facts have been determined, then the Marine Corps will take the appro- priate next steps.” That’s what should happen. But
that wasn’t enough for the masters of the media. Within hours of the video’s appearing on the Internet, “reporters” launched a global race to interview any and all who were willing to express righteous out- rage over “the actions of our ser- vicemen” and thereby disparage the reputations of the millions of soldiers, sailors, airmen, guards- men and Marines who have served honorably and courageously in more than a decade of war. By Thursday, with no new facts
yet in hand, White House spokes- man Jay Carney felt compelled to tell the world that President Ba- rack Obama finds the event to be “deplorable” and “reprehensible.” See NORTH on 10
movement conservatives. And ev- erything you need to know about our heartache can be summed up in one image: 2008 presidential election loser John McCain and Mitt Romney together on the cam- paign trail. When they’re together, they look
like they’re holding each other (and the rest of us) hostage. Their toxic chemistry makes seething, ex-newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries look like Fred and Ginger. In New Hamp- shire last week, after Romney’s Iowa caucus squeaker, an overly giddy McCain mocked his en- dorsee for his “landslide victory.” Awkward. Then in South Carolina on Fri-
day, McCain mistakenly referred to Romney as “President Obama” -- as Romney and South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley rushed to correct the gaffe. Freudian slip? Senior moment? Sabotage? All of the above? Of course, if you choose to pal
around with a double-talking, big government barnacle, you get what you deserve. McCain is the entrenched in-
cumbent Arizona senator/war hero who lost to a neophyte, radi- cal leftist community organizer from Chicago. The “straight-talk” GOP candidate flip-flopped on ev- erything from illegal immigration to global warming to offshore drill-
ing to closing Gitmo. He pandered to minority grievance-mongers and the liberal media. He pro- posed massive government inter- ventions bigger than Obama’s. This Beltway fossil who now
poses as a tea party hero proudly teamed with Big Government lib- erals Teddy Kennedy and Russ Feingold. He’s the “maverick” who supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, the $25 billion auto bail- out, the first $85 billion AIG bail- out and a $300 billion mortgage bailout -- yet he now carps about “record deficits and debt.” A career politician for the past
30 years, McCain set the stage for the suicidal anti-capitalist rhetoric now polluting the GOP primary. Four years ago this month, during a GOP primary debate held at the Ronald Rea- gan Presidential Library, it was McCain up on stage denigrating Romney’s private-sector experi- ence. Asked whether he thought Romney’s record as CEO made him qualified to lead, McCain snarked: “I know how to lead. I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit.” Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and
Jon Huntsman have all followed suit, bashing Romney’s venture- capitalist past at Bain Capital with Occupy Wall Street-style zeal. It’s one thing to carefully dis-
sect Romney’s investments, as the Wall Street Journal did, and weigh his wins against his losses. (The paper found that “in total, Bain produced about $2.5 billion in gains for its investors in the 77 deals, on about $1.1 billion invested. Overall, Bain recorded roughly 50 percent to 80 percent annual gains in this period, which experts said was among the best See MALKIN on 10
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32