Why the opinion pages?

Ellen Goodman and Dewayne Wickham. One writing for Gannett News Services and the other for the Boston Globe. Ms. Goodman tells us about the Deputy Sec. of State, a "faith-based" fellow, who got caught in the wrong crowd of the highly spendy escort type. The woman he could call in, and for $300.00, get a massage. The same guy who used "faith based" tactics when it came to dealing with the AIDS crisis in Africa. As Ms. Goodman writes, "A is for abstinence," B is for to believe," and "C is for condoms when you flunk A and B." Yet, Randall Tobias doesn't seem willing to practice his "faith based" views vis a vis his own marriage. And staying away from people who can't certify that they are disease free. IE the escort service "hookers." Faith based ideology would be A-OK if the people wearing it on their sleeves actually practiced what they preached to others. What Ellen Goodman could do, CNN chose not to do. What David Broder himself would not care to do.

DeWayne Wickham lobbed a few in GW's direction. GW was pushing why he would wield the veto on the Dems pushing emergency funding coupled with a troop withdrawal from Iraq. By arguing that the "generals are in charge" and "politicians in Washington shouldn't tell the generals what to do." I agree with Wickham, and from the perspective of once having served in the military. I served in Germany during the Cold War because presidential foreign policies required, in that time, to protect countries immediately threatened by the Soviet menace. We were in Germany, because the politicians in Washington, D.C. wanted us there. It wasn't the generals who made that decision on their own. We were in Vietnam and dealing with other "hot spots" whether it involved the Soviet Menace directly, were humanitarian in nature, etc.; because the politicians were directing the show, not the generals. So, suddenly, GW makes the assumption that the American people are utterly stupid. I'm sure that CNN, etc. can be regarded as utterly stupid for wanting to hang on GW's every word. But Bush's poll ratings have shown, that the American people are demonstratively willing to think.

Found on, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and copied in a political cartoon published in the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington. Jon Stewart: What is the president, 12 years old? The cartoon by Nick Anderson depicts GW in a superhero costume on TV. He says, forget "the decider" now I'm "the commander guy." The caption: Slowly, inexorably, the realization dawns on Gus and Myrtle Stipplemeyer that the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES.........is 12 years old...

When the news media gives a president a free pass for behaving like a child and publicly making a fool of himself. It is left to comedians and cartoonists to do the pillorying. Something is truly wrong here. Where is the "hey wait a minute" that should be part of a truly free press? Bill Clinton could only wish that he had the same free pass that his Republican successor received.