tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481330.post109546977435291985..comments2023-10-24T11:05:25.288-04:00Comments on Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates ponder current events: GOP chair yacks back to PG editorialsMark Rauterkushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17157914569686528007noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481330.post-1095469927462043932004-09-17T21:12:00.000-04:002004-09-17T21:12:00.000-04:00To the Editor:
Tuesday morning's lead editorial l...To the Editor:<br /><br />Tuesday morning's lead editorial left me wondering whether the Post-Gazette had set aside its usual tone of smug self-congratulation to indulge in some self-parody instead, or if one of the more rabid Democratic front groups had used their latest million-dollar check from George Soros to hack into your computers the night before.<br /><br />Instead, sadly, what was apparent in the editorial purporting to offer advice to John Kerry about how to jump-start his campaign was a muddle of old calumnies and some truly startling, although novel, misstatements.<br /><br />In the course of a single editorial, you managed:<br />--to repeat the claims about President Bush's National Guard Service with<br />which Dan Rather made a fool of himself last week after breathlessly going on the air to report on what appear to be not only forgeries, but not<br />particularly good ones at that;<br /><br /> --to portray the war on terror which has-at a tragic but inescapable<br />cost-made America safer into some sort of personal vendetta of the<br />President, since American presidents ought to act to protect our nation only when French troops are willing to march into battle with American soldiers;<br /><br />--blame the President for contributing in some presumably magical way for crimes committed during the Clinton administration by Enron executives subsequently prosecuted by this administration's Justice Department; and <br /><br />--to repeat uncritically the assertion that this administration's tax cuts<br />went almost exclusively to the rich, while in reality the increase in the<br />child tax credit, the most significant portion of that tax cut, benefits a<br />group apparently of little interest to the Post-Gazette: middle-class<br />parents-the same group that has benefited from the highest level of home<br />ownership in American history despite your peculiar assertion that the<br />interest rates on home mortgages are rising.<br /><br /> While you must be given some credit for over-achievement when it<br />comes to misstating the facts and while the First Amendment properly<br />recognizes your right to turn "one of America's great newspapers" into a<br />rehash of the material on a Moveon.org website, your readers deserve to see these egregious distortions corrected-and I would very gently suggest that the hysterical tone of your editorial, which matches that of your favored<br />candidate for president's campaign, goes a long way in explaining why so<br />many Republicans and Democrats alike in western Pennsylvania have rallied to President Bush's cause in the last several week.<br /><br />Robert A. Glancy, Chairman<br />Republican Committee of Allegheny CountyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com