The President WILL NOT Be the Lone Ranger

The President WILL NOT Be the Lone Ranger
by Gavin DeFreese - Senior Writer
Birmingham, AL - 1/29/07


Today was not my typical Monday morning with me hitting the streets early, attempting to beat the rush hour traffic on my usual commute. Instead, I donned the less than familiar mantle of the citizen journalist and headed for my public library where my senator, Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, was holding a town hall-like meeting. I planned to ask him to comment on a single issue, but was pleased to hear the senator also speak candidly about others including education, health care, and immigration. One thing I can say for certain about Senator Shelby is that he makes himself very accessible to his constituents, this was his 1361st such public meeting since being elected back in 1986.

What would cause this mild mannered blogger from Alabama to alter his daily routine and morph into a motivated citizen journalist? A Democrat senator from Delaware, that's what… it is at this point that if you were listening to the audio you would hear the phonograph stylus being dragged across the platter.

That's right, Joseph Biden, the Democrat senator from Delaware is sponsoring a particularly odious non-binding resolution that is critical of the President's proposed troop surge in Iraq. Senator Biden has been quoted as saying that the sole purpose of this resolution is to "demonstrate to the President he's own his on" and implied that the President is only trying to postpone the loss of Iraq. When I asked Senator Shelby about this resolution and Senator Biden's comments, he said that Mr. Biden was wrong and that he plans to make it clear with his time on the Senate floor that "the President will not be the Lone Ranger" and that he would pledge his opposition to this resolution. Senator Shelby spoke adamantly that he was against any resolution that could be even remotely construed as being harmful to our troops.

Folks, it doesn't take Mr. Biden predicting a Saigon-like evacuation of Baghdad to understand that this resolution could be considered as harmful to our troops and used as comforting propaganda by our enemies abroad, but unfortunately he has said it anyway. The senator from Delaware has spoke out loud and often against the administration's prosecution of the war, yet not having the courage of his convictions he continues to vote for funding and even the recent confirmation of General Petraeus, who supports the surge and more. It seems that Mr. Biden, along with many of his compatriots, are not so much interested in truly changing the course of the war as they are in using it as a tool to criticize the Commander in Chief for their own personal gain. This non binding resolution is purely symbolic in nature and has no teeth or possible enforcement, much like a campaign promise from a cheap politician. Taking this into account, I do not think it is merely coincidental that Senator Shelby mentioned that Mr. Biden has decided he would join the growing gaggle of Presidential wannabe's this month.

Senator Shelby also spoke about several other issues including No Child Left Behind and health care. Possibly alluding to a little buyer's remorse, Senator Shelby mentioned that he had voted for NCLB but that he felt in practice it has not proven flexible enough and that decisions of this nature should be made more at the state and local level. While not openly opposing the President's health care proposal from the recent State of the Union speech, Senator Shelby did voice his concern. He became much more animated when he warned of the pitfalls of a "nationalized" health care system. Citing the potential of long lines and restricted choices for health services, Senator Shelby gave his own opinion with "I like to choose my own (healthcare)".

Where the senator clearly broke rank with President Bush, in a productive and civil manner I wish Mr. Biden could emulate, was on the topic of immigration. His aide brought out a visual aid explaining that there are 12 million illegal immigrants in the US making it clear that Mr. Shelby planned to speak on this manner regardless if the audience brought the matter up or not. He is clearly against any proposal that includes amnesty bringing up the failures of the past and the following problems with any practical enforcement. I was glad to see this, and also heartened by the manner in which the senator politely and constructively made his case against the President's immigration proposal.

Here's hoping that Senator Shelby will not be the only one who in this critical juncture backs the President because it is right, and not by reacting with whatever is politically expedient. Right now it seems we have a group of politicians out there that have seen the situation turn dire, and instead of being supportive they have become opportunists. There's an old joke my father used to tell me that dated back to the radio days of the Lone Ranger. It had the Lone Ranger telling Tonto "we've had it" after being backed into a box canyon by hostile Indians.

The punch line was similar to the gist of Biden's resolution.

"We, what's all this we stuff paleface!"