by Dean Hartwell
If we judge people by
the company they keep, we should pour outrage upon the Bush
Administration. Many of its key members
have associated with some of the lowest members of society.
The problem starts right
at the top. President Bush took hundreds
of thousands of campaign contributions from Ken Lay and then went so far as to
publicly call him “Kenny Boy.” He and
the other directors of Enron split $744,000,000 just before his company
collapsed while many investors lost their life savings. Then Bush had the audacity to claim he barely
knew Lay by referring to him as “Mr. Lay.”
Are we to believe that
the president has kept his own hands clean in business dealings while some of
his friends certainly have not? Consider
that possibility for a moment. It is
like saying that some kid who belongs to a gang does not actually participate
in criminal activities.
Take Dick Cheney, the
Vice President. After the first war
against
Are we to believe that
these contracts are coincidental and have been obtained by Halliburton (and
Cheney) competing fairly? Like the
possibility of the president following the rules, this one, too, seems
far-fetched.
Then there is Donald Rumsfeld. He heeded
then-President Reagan’s call to go to
Even if we view his
actions in their most positive light, we would still see a picture of someone
willing to compromise principles to help himself. What principles has he compromised acting as
our Defense Secretary?
Quite obviously, our
national leadership has cozied up to some unsavory
characters on the road in getting to where they are. They have broken rules, helped dictatorships
and made money while discarding ethics.
We therefore should have no reason to be surprised that this
Administration would start a war without provocation, bomb civilians and risk
the lives of
We as the citizens of
the