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Transparency:
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
EDITORIAL
Frank Salvato
July 13, 2004 |
If transparency were a campaign issue John Kerry would have his butt handed
to him on a platter. We can make it the requisite silver platter for the
"everyman” Kerry. While his campaign likes to screech to high heaven that
the Bush Administration is secretive (I admit that they have a tight lid on
things but can you blame them?) it is the many instances of non-transparency
that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt John Kerry’s distaste for providing
the public with the details.
Recently, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, John Kerry and the
DNC hosted a gala Bush-Bashing event that targeted the wallets of the
Liberal-Left’s elite. The event was well attended and boasted entertainment
by some of the more politically active Hollywood has-beens: Chevy Chase,
Jessica Lange, John Mellon Cougarcamp and Whoopi Goldberg. It pulled in
approximately $7.5 million, which is a pretty good haul for a political
fundraising event. But it was the "entertainment,” and in particular Whoopi
Goldberg’s bit – was she ever funny? – that raised some eyebrows and sent
Kerry campaign officials into "denial mode” yet again.
Goldberg offered a monologue that would have made Lenny Bruce uncomfortable.
She reportedly fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name
in a riff about female genitalia and was reported as saying the country
should "keep Bush where it belongs and not in the White House." She pointed
to her crotch while making that remark.
The key word in the above paragraph is "reportedly” because the Kerry camp
has refused to release any tape of the event. Evidently they don’t feel the
rest of the country needs to know about the hate and profanity highlighted
in their heavy-hitter, big donor event. Evidently it is more important for
the common folk of the country to simply accept John Kerry and John Edwards
as having "values” more than it is for us to know they reaped tremendous
monetary benefit from an arguably x-rated and valueless stand-up routine
that centered its sentiment on hate, divisiveness and extremism. To be
certain, the withholding of these taped comments is the antithesis of
transparency. To be certain yet again, this isn’t the first time that the
Kerry campaign has shied away from full disclosure.
It wasn’t too long ago that Vietnam veterans all over the country were
demanding John Kerry (you did know he served in Vietnam, right?) release –
in total – his military records, records that include his complete medical
files. These honorable men and women want to prove a point to the American
electorate, that John Forbes Kerry is less than the celebrated war hero he
is trying to paint himself. They want the American public to be aware of the
fact that all of Kerry’s Purple Hearts were awarded for superficial,
non-life threatening wounds that warranted his injuries the category of
"walking wounded.” They want the American voters to know the "heroic”
beaching of his swift boat in the pursuit of a wounded North Vietnamese
soldier – a man he proudly proclaims he finished off despite rules
prohibiting the execution of wounded enemy soldiers – should have garnered
him a court martial instead of a Silver Star because he put his crew’s life
in danger. The Vietnam veterans want the American public to know the truth.
To date, John Kerry has refused to release a set of military records
complete with a full accounting of his medical files. Instead he has
released fragments that his campaign has posted on their website…unfair,
unbalanced and not transparent.
In comparison, the Kerry campaign, its surrogates…ahem, Kennedy, cough…and
the mainstream media created a firestorm until every last detail and
accounting of President Bush’s Texas Air National Guard records was fully
disclosed.
Then we have reluctant wannabe First Lady Teresa’s financial disclosure, or
non-disclosure, as it were.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, billionaire, has refused to disclose her full financial
statement because she says her children are involved. Well, isn’t that
special. Evidently it is more important to shield grown children from the
media spotlight when it comes to finances than it is to disclose the
financial dealings of someone who would be integral in shaping the opinion
and policies of a future president. Apparently it shouldn’t matter to the
American people that Teresa holds heavy sway with foundations that support
groups the likes of the Tides Foundation, an organization has and does
champion ultra-liberal causes. What should matter most is the protection of
her grown children from the mean and evil spotlight of the American media.
In contrast it begs to be asked, why didn’t the Bush Family think of simply
denying access to the media when it was busy feeding off the exploits of
their two then college-aged daughters Jenna and Barbara? Or the medical woes
of Jeb Bush’s daughter down in Florida? What were they thinking? By the way,
both the Bush Family and the Cheney Family have never flinched at making
their financial dealing open to full disclosure.
The Kerry/Edwards campaign – is it okay to say that even though they haven’t
had their convention yet? – is particularly good at instructing the people
of the United States to "do as they say, not as they do,” and the
transparency/full-disclosure issue is no exception.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to champion the Liberal-Left by
giving Kerry and Edwards a pass by not pursuing full disclosure on a
plethora of issues important to the American people. They offer this
friendship to the Kerry/Edwards campaign while attacking the Bush
Administration on everything that they can come up with. And they say there
isn’t a liberal agenda in the mainstream media.
As the foul-mouthed, hate-filled Goldberg might say, this is really bush
league.
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