Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Greetings from the Left Coast, where we here at Left Coast Blues do the heavy thinking for those who just can't be bothered.

On Wednesday, I was pleased to see an editorial in my morning Everett Herald that brought some much needed honesty and perspective to the coverage of Sen. Jim Bunning. Sen. Bunning, you may recall, was the Senator who was allegedly blocking the $10 Billion package that would extend unemployment benefits, health insurance subsidies for the jobless, highway programs, and Medicare payments to doctors.

Most of the news coverage portrayed Sen. Bunning as the callous, heartless guy who, indifferent to the suffering he was inflicting on countless fellow Americans, was unreasonably standing in the way of a compassionate piece of legislation just because he could. In fact, what he was saying was that, instead of just continuing to give lip service to how concerned we all are about our unsustainable deficit spending, maybe we should tap into the more than $500 Billion in unspent stimulus money to pay for the legislation instead of going another $10 Billion into debt.

That, as the Herald editorial pointed out, hardly seemed unreasonable. But it was rejected by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Moreover, Sen. Reid could have moved the legislation forward at any time by simply holding a "roll call" vote. But, no, Senate Democrats wanted a "voice vote," where the "ayes" and "nays" are said as a group, and the presiding leader gets to decide which was the largest group. One can only conclude that this was because a roll call vote would have involved having each individual Senator go on the record with his or her vote, which might have led to some actual accountability to the public for how they voted. Why risk that - especially when they saw an opportunity to further demonize the evil, obstructionist Republicans with the all-too-willing help of their friends in the media?

So, kudos to the Herald editorial staff for having the courage to break with the accepted media template. And to all the others who collaborated in this charade, including Washington's own Sen. Patty Murray: Shame on you!

Thanks for listening.