Count me among those neither outraged nor shocked by Richard Mourdock’s rape comment this week. Why? Because it is hard to be outraged when you are not shocked to begin with.
Mourdock is who he is and has been since he started his political career. Don’t you think he deserves some points for not being a phony? Maybe he doesn’t deserve your vote, which is up to you, but he is, if nothing else, a rock solid right-winger.
He also deserves some points for creativity when the next day he said his words were twisted and that is what is wrong with Washington. There is a lot wrong with Washington but somehow inventing the video tape of Mourdock’s EXACT quote seems to be beneath even Congress’s current job approval rating.
Which, of course, brings us to Mitt Romney who wants to go to Washington so bad he seems to change positions on the flip of a coin. Watching the final debate on foreign policy the candidate, who had been eating red meat, suddenly became a vegan. I lost count of how many times he said he agreed with President Obama. If it is a “debate” and you are going to mostly agree, please let me know because I could have watched the Bears-Lions game. At least they seldom agree on anything. Romney also suddenly became the candidate of peace. I think he used the word eleven times, and I came to wonder if I had actually tuned in to a memorial for George McGovern.
Voting for president is a big deal and it is important that the candidates give us as much detail as possible AND take a stand on their political principals. If you are among the majority of Americans who believe the economy and the deficit are, combined, the biggest issue, then you need to see details of the plans to make a good decision. That really is not asking too much for our vote.
Finally, a comment on a local issue that seems to getting worse and maybe a little scary and is bad for the overall wellbeing of South Bend. It is the ongoing and mounting punches and counter punches stemming from the recording of conversations at the police department. Unless people of goodwill come to some kind of collective agreement to put the best interests of the city above their own, there could be dire consequences.
The latest incident concerns City Councilman Henry Davis, Jr. While Davis seems to have a propensity for often talking before he thinks things through, what happened this week might not pass the smell test. On the very same day three veteran police officers threatened to sue Davis over a letter he sent the Justice Department concerning them, Davis is tailed by police and eventually stopped. His two citations? One for not yielding to an emergency vehicle (presumably the police) and for the light above his license plate being out. No joke here, but I checked the very same light on my car and it was out. I had it replaced right away. This whole situation is way out of hand and needs to be resolved.
As I said here before, the only way to reach closure is to make public those police recordings. Enough is enough and this stinks.
