January 26, 2009

The O-Ration Revisited: Walking the Talk?

Like I wrote last week, Mr. President, good speech. But it’s one thing to talk the talk. Walking it is another matter.

On that score, we are not off to a good start.

“On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.” Oh. So that’s why the new president waited three whole days – and just hours after the 36^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade – to stick a finger in the eyes of conservatives on abortion. Nothing petty there.

Commented the chief executive – in issuing an order to reverse President Bush’s order reversing President Clinton’s order reversing President Reagan’s order prohibiting funding of international organizations that promote or provide abortion: “For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back-and-forth debate that has served only to divide us.” Yes, sir. Gotta end those “recriminations.”

And re-restoring the use of taxpayers’ money to pay for abortions isn’t falling back on one of those divisive, “worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics?” Apparently not. At least not when Planned Parenthood is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party – or vice versa.

“For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us.” Right. It took Sleek Barry all of one day to allow PR to triumph over national security with his order to close Guantanamo Bay. That’s outlasting ‘em.

And that business about “the time of . . . putting off unpleasant decisions” having “surely passed.” That surely explains why the president kicked the determination of what to do with all those “dangerous” (his word) detainees down the road to a commission.

Perhaps the O-Ring is coming face-to-face with the reality that moving terrorists to prisons in the United States not only involves insuperable security issues, but also won’t solve the perception problem to which the Yes-We-Candidate contributed. Because another favorite target of the human rights lobby, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and of course, the United Nations, is – you guessed it! – the U.S. prison system.

Oops.

The good news: Jumpin’ Jack Murtha wants to relocate the assorted plotters, bombers and murderers at Gitmo to a minimum security facility in his congressional district. No doubt so that some of the “rednecks” he identified among his constituents can guard them. That oughta please the human rights crowd.

“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world . . . This is the price and the promise of citizenship.” Hmm. I always thought one of those duties was paying your taxes. At least that’s what the feds remind me four times a year. With large dollar signs denoting my “price of citizenship.”

Somehow, someone forgot to tell incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. At least about the responsibility part. The paying taxes part he heard, not only from his former employers at the International Monetary Fund, but also from those pesky IRS auditors.

Mr. Geithner says he takes “full responsibility” for his “unintentional mistakes.” Uh, no. An “era of responsibility” involves withdrawing tax evaders from consideration for jobs overseeing prosecution of tax evaders. 

Mr. President, actions do speak louder than “good speeches.” If you can’t walk the talk, maybe soon you can at least walk the dog. Or even wag it.