Edward Hum – 11/30/10

This page was last updated on December 2, 2010.

We need more John Wayne Republicans; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; November 30, 2010.

Mr. Hum has written more than 56 letters since mid-2004, including a 10-month hiatus from September 2007 to July 2008. Most of Mr. Hum’s letters are no more than exercises in bashing President Bush and/or other Republicans. Mr. Hum’s letters are also flame-throwing exercises. I don’t know if Mr. Hum actually believes what he writes, or if he simply likes to stir things up to call attention to himself.

Mr. Hum frequently includes “fellow Republicans” or something similar in his letters and is one of a group of local Republican impersonators (The group also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, and George Reese.) who write claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. You have to give Mr. Hum “credit,” however, for going the extra mile to further his impersonation. As of September 2006, Mr. Hum was actually registered as a Republican despite the fact he’s no more a Republican than is Dennis Kucinich.

Given his body of work, for a while I wondered what Mr. Hum would use for subject matter now that Barack Obama is President. Mr. Hum wrote three letters in support of a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly (here, here, and here), then he reverted to his Bush-bashing habit, as in “Bush earns status as ‘most liberal.’” I guess some addictions are too tough to overcome. Mr. Hum’s last letter was entitled “Past is prelude to the future.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In response to the Nov. 18 letter to the editor ‘Too little, too late on bi-partisanship:’

“The Republican Party of today is not the Republican Party of John Wayne.”

[RWC] True. Today’s Republican Party has moved to the left, as the Democrat party though not as far.

“When John Kennedy was elected president in 1960, Wayne said, ‘I didn’t vote for him, but he is my president and I hope he succeeds.’”

[RWC] I could not find this alleged quote from any credible sources. The only sites where I found this allegation were lefty sites.

Even if Mr. Wayne did make the comment, though, Mr. Obama isn’t JFK. Though I’ve never been a JFK fan, he and Mr. Obama are very different. For example, JFK was a strong anti-communist whereas Mr. Obama supports policies in line with those supported by the Communist Party USA. JFK pushed for and got tax rate cuts whereas Mr. Obama has increased tax rates and wants to increase them more by letting rate cuts in effect for seven to nine years expire effective January 1, 2011.

“Today, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh say they hope President Barack Obama fails.”

[RWC] Given our differing political orientations, I’ll go out on a limb and guess I watch a lot more of FNC than Mr. Hum. To date I haven’t heard “Fox News … say they hope President Barack Obama fails.” Had FNC done what Mr. Hum claims, does anyone doubt it would have dominated the “news” for weeks?

As for Rush Limbaugh saying he hoped Mr. Obama fails, how is that news? Mr. Limbaugh is a conservative and knows as do I the success of the U.S. depends on governing according to conservative principles. In Mr. Obama’s view, success is defined by implementing leftist policies like Obamacare, taking over the student loan business, taking over two car companies, implementing cap-and-tax, increasing tax rates, et cetera. Of course Mr. Limbaugh – and any conservative – hopes Mr. Obama fails to implement those policies/programs. That’s because America’s success depends on Mr. Obama failing to implement leftist policies and programs proven to fail.

Finally, I get a kick out of the feigned outrage at the Limbaugh comment. Perhaps Mr. Hum should reread his collection of Bush-bashing letters. I missed the parts of those letters where Mr. Hum hoped Mr. Bush would succeed.

“Barry Goldwater and Wayne wouldn’t stay in the same room with Sarah Palin, who said the GOP is not a party of ‘no,’ it is the party of hell no to health insurance, hell no to the nuke treaty, hell no to unemployment benefits, hell no to Republican don’t ask, don’t tell, etc., etc., etc.”

[RWC] Let me get this straight; Mr. Hum believes Messrs. Goldwater and Wayne would support Obamacare and extending unemployment benefits without offsetting spending cuts? As for the new START, I’m no expert but wasn’t it folks like Mr. Hum who claimed Mr. Goldwater wanted to nuke Vietnam? If that were true, wouldn’t Mr. Goldwater oppose the new START as Mr. Hum claims Mrs. Palin does? There’s one more point about extending the unemployment benefits. Though I opposed it, congressional Republicans have consistently supported extending unemployment benefits. All the Republicans want is offsetting spending cuts so our debt/deficit doesn’t get worse. Keep in mind it was Democrats themselves who passed a law (“Pay-Go”) earlier this year requiring any new spending to be offset with other spending cuts or tax increases. Since its passage, Democrats have consistently violated their own law, proving passing the law was only for show.

Regarding Mr. Goldwater, I thought lefties like Mr. Hum hated him.

Regarding Mrs. Palin, it’s clear she scares the hell out of lefties. I don’t even think about Mrs. Palin (or any other politician) unless someone mentions her, but lefties like Mr. Hum seem obsessed with her.

You have to get a kick out of the “hell no to Republican don’t ask, don’t tell” comment. The first rules for discharging homosexuals were enacted during the Truman administration with a Democrat-majority Congress. DADT was enacted during the Clinton administration, again with a Democrat-majority Congress.