Sunday Morning Crappie (belated)

My apologies to DB and other faithful readers for the even-more-infrequent-than-I-expected awarding of this dubious (and rather malodorous) honor. Between my work schedule and other demands (the presidential delegate selection caucus - more on that on Tuesday), it's been tough to stay on schedule with these posts.

The first nominee for this week's award has already been mentioned in an earlier post. George W. Bush didn't even wait to be hooked and reeled in - he flip-flopped his way into the boat with his cautions against helping out struggling homeowners at the same time the government was bailing out an investment bank. The only question is was the bailout to help Bear Stearns or was it intended to subsidize JP Morgan's bargain-basement purchase of the now-stabilized Bear Stearns.

The second nominee is...the ever-conscientious George W. Bush, who, after saying that he doesn't think that measures to help those affected by the looming recession and the mortgage crisis should be too strong, turned around and urged Congress to do something about the economy.

Of course, what he wants Congress to do is make his tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, enacting 'free-trade' deals to ease the offshoring of American jobs, cutting pork spending (leaving more money in the budget for Halliburton and other beneficiaries of no-bid contracts.

I suppose it could be argued that there's no flip-flop here - he doesn't want anything done to help the average American, whether by him or by Congress.

However, as strong a case as Bush has presented this week (OK, presents *every* week :) ), the third nominee and winner is Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party.

On the flip side in his blog, he criticized AZ Governor Janet Napolitano by associating her with the travails of soon-to-be-former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer. He excoriated Spitzer for cheating on his wife with a prostitute.

However, on the flop side, he has yet to call for the resignation of indicted Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi, saying only that he thinks that Renzi "will do what is best for his family, constituents and party."

A couple of minor points here - Spitzer's behavior, while utterly deplorable, involved consenting adults; the only betrayal was his betrayal of his wife and marriage; Renzi's behavior, however, has involved betraying his entire Congressional district and his oath of office (as well as assorted fraud, extortion, and money laundering statutes.)

He hurt many thousands of people with his misdeeds; arguably, Spitzer hurt only his family and himself.

For spewing a shameless double standard like Bush, but doing so in a down-home, Arizona-centered way, Randy Pullen is this week's "winner" of the Sunday Morning Crappie.


Thanks to Emily Bittner of the Arizona Democratic Party for noticing Pullen's flip, wiggle and flop. She deserves a raise - anyone who has to read Pullen's tripe as part of their job isn't getting paid enough. :))