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Bush, McCain take stand against Trump; Oren M. Spiegler (OMS); Beaver County Times; October 23, 2017.
Mr. Spiegler is such a prolific letter writer the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review gave him a little tribute back in 2003. Google “Oren M. Spiegler” and you’ll get more hits than you know what to do with. Unfortunately, prolific is not a synonym for competent. Mr. Spiegler claims to be a Republican. In my critique of “Breathing more freely,” I cited reasons why I was “beginning to believe Mr. Spiegler is simply another Republican impersonator,” but he sealed the deal with “Greatest foreign policy debacle.” Subsequent letters provided more confirmation. The group of local Republican impersonators also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, Edward J. Hum, Bill Ralston, and George Reese, all claiming to be disgruntled Republicans. While he has previously claimed to be a Republican, this appears to be the first time Mr. Spiegler claimed to be a registered Republican in a BCT letter. If true, Mr. Spiegler joins Mr. Hum in going the extra mile to further his impersonation of a Republican.
ALERT! Though I missed it by several months, Mr. Spiegler finally did the honorable thing and ended his charade and deregistered as a Republican.
You can find links to previous critiques of Spiegler letters I critiqued here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The BCT has or had a limit of 12 letters per writer per year. In 2014, the BCT either ditched that limit or made a huge exception for Mr. Spiegler. By my count, the BCT published at least 25 Spiegler letters in 2014. Mr. Spiegler and/or the BCT dialed things back a bit in 2015; the BCT published only 15 Spiegler letters in 2015 and 10 in 2016. This letter puts OMS’ 2017 letters at 17 with two-and-one-half four months to go.
Below is a review of the subject letter.
“Within the same week, two prominent Republicans, former President George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain have delivered eloquent, powerful speeches in which they have taken the unprecedented step of sounding an alarm about the administration of a sitting president of their party.”
[RWC] I wonder if OMS read the speeches. This letter is similar to another OMS letter, “Former presidential candidates step up” (3/8/2016).
“Without naming him, Bush and McCain prominently noted the danger to the United States in our current retreat from a position of moral leadership and authority in the world, ceding control to other countries, and of generating hatred and seeking scapegoats rather than working to solve address serious challenges.”
[RWC] I read Mr. Bush’s speech from beginning to end. Unless there’s “dog whistle” stuff in it, I didn’t see anything bash President Trump (DT).
I also read Sen. McCain’s speech from beginning to end. While tracking down the speech text I ran across the following comment: “You can read McCain’s speech as a slap at Trump. And maybe it is. You could also read it as the musings of an old man near the end of a long, storied, heroic life -- a man unburdened by the vagaries of electoral politics. And maybe it is that as well.” After reading the speech, I concur with one modification. In addition to DT, “you can read McCain’s speech as a slap at” any number of people.
I’m a fan of neither Mr. McCain (JM) nor DT. That said, I’ll give JM some slack because of the comments DT made about JM during DT’s presidential campaign.
“To his credit, Bush said ‘he deserves my silence’ when he turned the Oval Office over to Barack Obama, and he honored his pledge throughout the eight years in which Mr. Obama served. The fact that Mr. Bush has chosen to speak out against Donald Trump is highly significant and unprecedented and it places him in the class of many other honorable GOP members who cannot stand by idle as the country burns.”
[RWC] Not true. During a 5/19/2007 phone interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jimmy Carter said, “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this [George W. Bush] administration has been the worst in history. The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including [those of] George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.”
Jimmy Carter tried to walk back his comment a bit during the next few days.
As a reminder, GOPers are “honorable” only as long as they agree with Democrats.
“Naturally, Mr. Trump’s reaction to the McCain speech has been to spew disrespect and contempt, threatening to attack the senator if he does not begin to keep his mouth shut. Trump sees nothing unseemly in going after a distinguished and honorable elder statesman of his party as he fights a terminal illness.
“Thank you President Bush, Sen. McCain, and others who are courageous and honorable enough as to speak publicly about what is being inflicted on us, something which threatens to change the nature and character of a country.”
[RWC] As a reminder, GOPers are “courageous,” “distinguished,” “honorable,” and so on only as long as they agree with Democrats.
For example, during the 2008 campaign, Obama supporters made fun of the way JM holds his arms and that he didn’t use computers very much. Both of these problems are the result of injuries JM acquired after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War and no/poor medical treatment from the North Vietnamese.
Here’s another example. Approximately three months ago, disgraced former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta (D) wrote “McCain could have been the hero; he caved.” In that letter, Mr. LaGrotta (FL) claimed, “I want to remember you, John McCain, as the man I thought I might vote for if you defeated Bush for the 200 [sic] GOP nomination.” From there on, FL bashed JM for not voting how FL wanted him to vote on a procedural matter. The profanity-laced Facebook version of this
The day after the BCT published this letter, JM - along with two other “Republicans” – did exactly what FL wanted and voted to kill the repeal of Obamacare. Did this vote get JM back into FL’s good graces? You’ll find the answer in “McCain could have been the hero; he caved.”
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