I never thought that Bill Clinton was still here for us to kick around.  Yet, this is what I hear daily on our local news station.  We have the pseudo-news broadcasts of the folksy Paul Harvey, Dr. Laura’s conservative take on politics and family life along with her often excellent advice on how to manage life situations and the supposed Excellence in Broadcasting Network – the imaginary huge studio of – Rush Limbaugh. Aside from the often deadly serious conservative message that we need to take our nation on a trip to an earlier time, these are not so bad although hugely popular with what we call middle America.  There are also, on our local 610 AM station a number of certifiable crazies.  I also should mention that when one of the principals take a day off for drying out or because they are in process of turning their business over to someone younger, they have replacements who are from some other planet.

This morning I heard snatches (while I showered) of a replacement for Paul Harvey.  He was positively rabid.  Now, the “news” commentators of this stripe spend their time imagining how “liberals” like Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, Michael Moore, comedians and Hollywood types are taking the news that Saddam Hussein was captured.  For some reason these individuals have become the enemy of the American People and it is the job of these conservative “commentators” to expose them and show them for what they are – disloyal and traitorous haters of that good man who brought about the capture (WE GOT HIM), George W. Bush.

I do not know why we cannot go back to unadorned news reporting instead of explaining the news that we just heard.  I do not think that the explanations need to be from both or many sides.  This is despite the interesting weekly publication we have been receiving that tells us what the rest of the world is thinking as well as how the news is reported from different places in America. THE WEEK is valuable for it does not explain the news from one point of view.  I do believe that we have a Latin phrase somewhere on our paper currencies that proclaims we are “one out of many” (E Pluribus Unum).  This does not mean that we forget that we come from many different traditions and modes of thought.

What the crazies are doing is trying to ram down our throats and into our brains the notion that George Bush (numero dos) deserves our unquestioning loyalty for he is, after all, OUR President. The trend to a constant diet of one kind of comment on the affairs of state and the world is frightening. It has been pointed out that the Liberal Left is writing books.  We also note, however, that the people who listen to the “news” on the radio do not read these books.