Here's My Point: Could You Repeat That Please?

By Ron Fitzwater

Lately, as you may have noticed, I have been dealing with issues that are more local than I normally do. So much so I guess that it has caused some folks to ask me if I have been 'cut off from anything outside Ashe County?' and 'did you decide to like Obama? Man, I like it when you go after him.' And so on.

Well I have not been cut off, there were just some things that needed my attention closer to home and as far as our President goes I just didn't want to get caught up in that whole 100 days fallacy. There are many things I could take off on about the President, not the least of which was the bow to the Saudi King. And don't even write or call me about it, either. I have good glasses and I can see just fine and when I see someone bend at the waist and lower their head as they extend their hand, I know that it is a BOW!

See why I don't start?

What I really want to talk about this week is the seemingly more frequent incidents of actual honesty popping up in the halls of federal government. No, really, I mean it. Now they are unintentional and quite subliminal in nature and some might even say there is a hint of a Freudian slip but honesty is appearing all over the place, well. . .here and there.

Take, for instance, our very own Virginia Foxx, who called the use of Mathew Shepherd's murder, to bolster support for the recently passed Hate Crimes Bill, a "hoax." Foxx later called the remark "a poor choice of words."

Yep, that they were.

Now no matter how she tries to explain what she meant to say, the explanation will be blown off by many more than will listen. But there was truth in that one of the scumbags convicted of killing the young man said it was over drugs and not the fact the kid was gay. Foxx believed it, slipped up and said so instead of spinning her side of the debate.

Then there was the man of the week last week, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who could have simply said that he was done with the Republican Party because they "have moved too far to the right." We would have accepted that, at least most of us would. The poor schmucks who voted for him expecting him to be a good Republican probably wouldn't have, but other than the people he lied to when he was campaigning with a big old R beside his name, most would have accepted his reasons. He could have let it go because he is correct: the party is too far right.

Look, I loved Reagan. I was a Cold War Kid and joined the Marine Corps with hopes of winning it. When he brought down the Red Menace, with help from one tough British Dame named Thatcher, I was a Reagan boy and happy to serve under his command. But the Cold War is over now and Reagan style Republicanism is not what we need now. Like all things, politics must evolve. John Adams was a Federalist, and you just don't see too many of those anymore, do you?

But Specter just couldn't help himself and, before he could bite his tongue, the truth leapt from his mouth and he confessed that he wasn't going to risk all his years in Washington on the Republican Primary. Really? Don't you do that every election anyway? He said that he knew it would be difficult, if not impossible, to win in the primary because his votes were more moderate than right-wing. Guess he figured that he couldn't pull a Lieberman and win as an Independent-Republican. At least he spoke the truth.

At last, we have our Vice-President. Now I'm not saying that I am the perfect public speaker. I am not. But shouldn't they equip this guy with a shock collar or something? Didn't they listen to him during the campaign? Isn't there something he could do so that he doesn't have to talk?

Don't get me wrong, okay? As far as I'm concerned he can talk all day. He is better than some stand-up acts I've seen. Sometimes, I imagine President Obama running out with a Billy club and just pummeling him, yelling "shut-up Joe, just shut-up."

Especially last week when he said, in all honesty, that he wouldn't let his family travel in anything closed up like trains, planes and busses. Thank goodness nobody really listens to him or the mini-glitch in the travel industry he caused could have been a real problem. I for one agree: I wouldn't travel unnecessarily either. Thanks for the tip, Mr. Vice-President. Now go take a nap.

Everybody misspeaks from time to time, even me. It's just so much more fun when it's them and not us, don't you think?