May 18, 2012
King Features Column
(The usual blah blah: Thanks to the deal with the syndicators, the column appears here a week after its newspaper release)
FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019
CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 708-7311 EXT. 236
BOB FRANKEN
FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012
OBAMA AND ROMNEY’S BULLY PULPITS
BY BOB FRANKEN
So, the vice president “apologized” to President Barack Obama for forcing the issue of same-sex marriage, and the boss accepted. That’s the official story being peddled to reporters by various administration “sources.” Usually, there is good reason to be skeptical when these unnamed officials spread the party line in such a coordinated way.
Is there any reason to believe that Joe Biden’s comment on “Meet the Press” was not some slick move -- a clever way of allowing the president to have his coming out on this hot issue so he could get rid of the controversy long before the election and turn it to his advantage just in time for some huge Hollywood fundraisers? The best reason is that the Democratic strategists usually just aren’t that slick.
However this really played out, the fascinating point is that Obama’s new embrace of gay marriage seems to be a big positive for him. The polls have shown a quickly growing acceptance of it in society. It also might help explain the push to end the president’s “evolution” in his thinking, particularly when we note how his side is so quickly touting it and reaping fundraising rewards.
At the same time though, the hard-rock conservatives are going bonkers. The mainstream Republicans are trying to get the emphasis back where they want it. “The president can talk about it all he wants,” sniffed an irritated House Speaker John Boehner, “I’m going to stay focused on what the American people want us to stay focused on, and that’s jobs.”
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May 14, 2012
King Features Column
(As always, the deal with tyevsyndicator means this column appears here a week after its newspaper release)
FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019
CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 708-7311 EXT. 236
BOB FRANKEN
FOR RELEASE MONDAY, MAY 8, 2012
RECKLESS FECKLESS ROMNEY HECKLES
BY BOB FRANKEN
It will be fun to watch as Mitt Romney once again demonstrates what he does best, which as everyone knows, is backtracking. His running shoes will be covered in whatever he steps into. This time, he’s being criticized for interfering in the tense negotiations with Beijing over dissident Chen Guangcheng.
Chen is the blind, self-educated lawyer who has spent years in prison because of his anti-government agitations. After incarceration, he was confined in extra-legal house arrest in a far-out province, and had become another of the faces of the shameful brutality directed at anyone who doesn’t march in lock step with China’s rigid and often corrupt system.
Somehow, he managed to escape the thuggish guards who seriously mistreated him and kept him inside his home and visitors out. After a perilous journey to the capital city, he was secreted into the compound of the U.S. Embassy.
The Chinese government was furious over “an interference in China’s internal affairs,” and demanded a U.S. apology. Like that is going to happen, particularly with the Mitt Romneys of this world heckling from the sidelines.
Making matters even messier, the surprise crisis erupted at the exact time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were arriving for talks about a wide range of difficult issues -- trade and economic matters among them. They were all vital, but suddenly completely overshadowed by the quandary over human rights. The very mention of the subject causes Beijing’s autocrats to bristle, not exactly the best atmosphere in which to discuss business dealings.
Obviously, this was a delicate situation. It still is. Each time it appeared the sides had carefully worked out a face-saving understanding, it would fall apart, done in by the treachery of the communist rulers, confusion or Chen’s capriciousness. The latest flimsy arrangement, which would allow Chen and his family to travel to the United States, easily could unravel. The Chinese government said the travel documents will be issued “expeditiously.” That means what it usually means: not much.
One might think that this is the very worst time for heavy-handed domestic politics. And one would be correct, unless he or she is Mitt Romney, who’s eager as always to make the case that Barack Obama is over his head or soft on human rights, or whatever. Ignoring the possibility that his heckling might undermine U.S. efforts, Romney absolutely, positively had to describe the reported roller-coaster developments as a “dark day for freedom, and it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration.”
It was a dark day all right, a dark day of irresponsible opportunism and careless rhetoric for the man who so desperately wants to replace the Obama administration with his own. Never mind how this type of situation used to be treated, with a modicum of restraint. That was practiced in a time where statesmanship had a role, with the understanding that “politics stops at the water’s edge,” meaning, of course, our ocean boundaries. How quaint.
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May 11, 2012
Rev and Bob
Al Sharpton and I will make the world a better place, talking on MSNBC tonight ( Friday) during the 6:00 Eastern hour
May 10, 2012
King Features Column
(Usual schtick: The column is delayed for a week here here due to the deal with the newspaper syndicator)
FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019
CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 708-7311 EXT. 236
BOB FRANKEN
FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2012
MITT HIT MAN SHOT DOWN
BY BOB FRANKEN
Let's face it: There is no shortage of people who think Richard Grenell is a jerk. Don't know who he is? He is now the former Romney for President national-security and foreign-policy spokesman after lasting less than a couple of weeks in the job. His infamous public comments about prominent women in politics and his ugly relations with the media have nothing to do with his hasty exit. It is simply because he's openly gay.
Never mind his trail of demeaning Twitter messages, and never mind the coercive tactics he used as an official press secretary against journalists who had the audacity to cover stories unfavorable to his various clients. He had a reputation for chewing out reporters who didn't get with the program. Sometimes he would go over their heads and occasionally threaten their bosses. But he was done in by even bigger bullies.
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