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Courageous Republicans speak out against Trump; Oren M. Spiegler (OMS); Beaver County Times; October 30, 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, 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 18 with about two months to go.
Below is a review of the subject letter.
“The dam is breaking for Donald Trump as an increasing number of honorable, courageous, truth-telling Republicans come forward with passionate, articulate, and persuasive arguments against a presidency which threatens our freedoms, our way of life, our air and water, and our standing in the world, particularly with our allies.”
[RWC] This is the same theme as last week’s “Bush, McCain take stand against Trump.”
As a reminder, GOPers are “articulate,” “courageous,” “distinguished,” “honorable,” “passionate,” “persuasive,” “truth-telling,” and so on only as long as they agree with Democrats.
“Arizona U.S. Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, Tennessee’s Bob Corker, and former President George W. Bush have challenged this abnormal presidency for its intolerance, hatred, belligerence, incompetence and chaos. Naturally, the president’s reflexive reaction, and that of hired guns like Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is to strike back with pettiness, vindictiveness and ad hominem attack.
“Sen. Corker credibly stated that virtually every GOP senator has concerns about the stability and competence of our ‘leader,’ yet only those who are out of office or who are lame ducks have spoken out most forcefully.
“Apparently those who continue to pursue careers as Republican elected officials have adopted the mantra that they will gamble on a repulsive and divisive president so as to keep the party together and so long as they can depend on him to pursue yanking health care insurance away from tens of millions and providing tax breaks for the wealthy as he serves to metastasize the national debt, which he purportedly deplores.
“The silence of elected officials like Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is as deafening as it is shameful. History will hold us accountable.”
[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.
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