We cats have a friend who, sadly for him, is represented by Republican Senator Mark Kirk in Washington. When this friend called to complain that Kirk was one of the infamous 47 who had signed the Senate GOP love note to Iran, the Kirk staffer who answered the phone at first talked over him, and then hung up on him. When the constituent called back, the young man said, "I'm tired of being yelled at."
To which we cats say, suck it up, kid — or else go work for someone who is slightly less of an idiot than your boss. Someone who isn't being called a traitor in traditional and social media.
And Kirk is getting it from all sides. "Americans cannot afford to have leaders who seek to obstruct and undermine legitimate efforts in order to score political points," said Representative Robin Kelly. "It is completely inappropriate to undercut and call into question our President's credibility," said Representative Tammy Duckworth. "Those who signed this letter have set a dangerous precedent."
(Okay, both Kelly and Duckworth are thinking about running next year against Kirk, who is vulnerable. But they would have been negligent not to slam him, election or no election.)
Well, we hope that the other 46 Republican signers are also getting deluged with outraged calls and emails. And we're thankful that Virginia's two Senators are Democrats and, thus, not traitors. As for that extremely loaded T-word, we're not sure about it — although we admit that it's good shorthand for the 140-character world of Twitter. We actually prefer what Hillary Rodham Clinton did — opening her press conference today with these measured yet withering words:
"Either these Senators were trying to be helpful to the Iranians [or] harmful to the commander-in-chief in the midst of high-stakes international diplomacy. Either answer does discredit to the letter's signatories."
Whoa. Woodshed time. We cats PURR.
No comments:
Post a Comment