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Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial: 08/04/2000 A reporter saying he likes a politician is the equivalent of a church deacon saying he likes the town pornographer. It doesn't do a lot for your professional standing. But confession is good even for the humanist soul, so it's time to come clean--I really like Congressman John Shimkus. Shimkus is a bluff, straightforward West Point grad with a lot to recommend him. He's unflinchingly honest in his political assesments. He's knowledgeable about military affairs and genuinely appalled at what military cutbacks have done to the men and women in uniform. He seems genetically incapable of taking himself too seriously. He plays a mean infield and has excellent taste in baseball teams, being a St. Louis Cardinals fan. All in all, the kind of guy you'd trust babysitting your kids. But Shimkus has the same problem as George W's new look kumbayah Republican party. His geniality and spot-on assesments of military and foreign affairs come hand-in-hand with some miserable opinions about domestic policy. Two immediately pop to mind. Shimkus says he opposes all abortion except to save a mother's life. No exceptions for rape, incest, or anything else. And he says that he would still support the death penalty even if it could be shown that we've executed innocent people. In fact, he says breezily, we've probably already done it. Shimkus, like most Republicans, is a conservative, someone who suspects that the government can't even deliver the mail without screwing it up. So then he comes out and says the government should tell a woman what she can and can't do with what's growing inside her own body, and that this same inept government should have the right to execute an innocent person. Yikes. Welcome to George W's compassionate GOP. The Republican National Committee made sure the lowest-rated TV event since ESPN's lacrosse championships was podium-packed with a rainbow coalition that would've made Jesse Jackson jealous. An openly gay member of Congress, blacks, Hispanics, women, the handicapped--all of them made obligatory Philadelphia appearances in C-SPAN prime time. Instead of Pat Buchannan declaring jihad from the podium, we had avuncular Dick Cheney ripping Al Gore with all the passion of a vice-president of General Motors dissing Chrysler. Paul Weyrich is the right-wing theorist who nuked Colin Powell from GOP presidential consideration in 1996 by attacking Powell's un-conservative credentials on affirmative action and abortion. Fast forward four years and Weyrich happily waddled across the convention floor in Philadelphia, chirping about the Republican Party version 5.0 and it's new user-friendliness. George W. Bush seems like a truly likeable guy, while Al Gore seems like, well, Al Gore. Bush seems genuinely happy driving across his ranch in a pick-up with his spaniel in his lap. What's not to like? And he's made sure the GOP is on the same page. The problem is policy. The GOP is still in bed with anti-abortion radicals and the entire imbecilic creation science crowd. George W. has signed more death warrants than some Third World dictators, this in a state who's public defender system for defending capital cases is a joke. One suspects some of those innocent people Shimkus talked about may have gotten the needle in the Lone Star state. Some of the air and water in Texas is as foul as anything in New Jersey, thanks to lax enviornmental standards. While he was the congressman from Wyoming, Dick Cheney was one of only a half-dozen members of the House to vote against outlawing Kevlar-piercing cop killer bullets. He also figured releasing Nelson Mandela from prison was a bad idea, so he voted against a non-binding resolution in favor of it. He consistantly voted against the one federal program almost everyone agrees has worked spectacularly--Head Start. The list goes on, but you get the idea. None of this stuff is necessarily fatal. In fact, a lot of people will vote for the GOP precisely because of those policies. Those who do wink and nod at the convention hand-holding, knowing that underneath, it's still much the same old Republican Party. If the old GOP is Diet Coke, then the new Republicans are regular--more sugar but the same fizz in a different can.
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