I've had enough with Pat Murphy's liberal opinionated views and conspiracies. There's not always someone to counter his arguments, and this leaves the average not-so-concerned Wood River Valley citizen with a Pat Murphy understanding of domestic and international politics.
In his last piece, "Makings of a U.S. 'tyranny'" he defines the word tyranny and then sincerely asks, "It (tyranny) could never happen here, right?" "Is this not what's happening with the collapse of government in Washington?" If he is to be taken seriously, he can't compare our president and political system to Syria or Venezuela.
He claims that this administration's plan has been to "Silence critics in media and political opposition" and to "condemn criticism" of the president. If this is a reference to Bush's first press secretary's comment that Americans need to "Watch what they say, watch what they do," Murphy's claim is quite exaggerated.
The president has packed "the U.S. Supreme Court with doctrinaire conservative justices..." Murphy's point? Clinton appointed two liberal justices. I suppose he has a problem with the dismissal of the eight U.S. attorneys, too? In 1993, Clinton dismissed almost all of his U.S. attorneys.
Murphy then claims that this administration has scared the Democrats. He states himself that "House Speaker Pelosi is a "narcissistic clothes horse with a fixed grin and not much else" and that "Senate Majority leader Reid is always on the verge of dozing off and not knowing where he is ..."
Whose fault is that?
It's called politics, Mr. Murphy. It's "the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government, competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership."
I may not be a fan of the president but I'm not going to participate in your Bush, Rove, and Fox News blame game. Rather, I'll accept the failure of the Democratic leadership and of our failure, as citizens, to have cared sooner and to become more active in our free and democratic system.
Jeff Goldstein
Hailey
Editor's note: The views of conservative columnist David Reinhard are published weekly each Wednesday in the Mountain Express on Page A9, next to Pat Murphy's column on the op-ed pages.
