This morning, after dropping my wife off at work today, I was listening to the Tom Joiner Morning Show on the radio (I was driving her car not mine, hence did not have any control of the radio), and they had Michael Steele on the phone interviewing him.  They were talking about the health care legislation, and I heard that tired old line of, “The Republicans had eight years of control, and they did not do anything to address health care.”.  I am so sick of this meme, and I would love to hear a good answer back to this.  Just from my observations of what the political climate of the environment at the time, I would like them to answer, what would they have expected Bush to accomplish given the following variables.

1.  At no time during the Bush administration did he have a “filibuster proof majority” in the Senate to push any legislation that he would have wanted through.

2.  It was such a partisan time with the question of his “legitimacy” being raised that there would have been no cooperation from either the Democrats, or the media on anything that he or some congressional Republican would have wanted to try to propose.

3.  September 11, 2001, happened, where our president by neccessity needed to shift focus from domestic issues to trying to stop the next airplane, missile, bomb, or random terrorist attack from hitting our shores killing more citizens. (Sorry, health care doesn’t matter when everyone is dead).  This focus required at least the Afganistan war, and to fight startegically the war on terror, plus Saddam’s support of the same type of terrorists that attacked, required the war in Iraq after we initially succeeded in toppling the Taliban. 

Personally, I do believe that Bush and the Republicans were focusing on the right thing, when he attempted to address Social Security Reform.  If folks are financially secure the acquisition of health care does take care of itself, however Dems and the media made sure to make the Social Security reform look as if the Republicans wanted Grandma and Grandpa to eat cat food because they were going to “Privatize” Social Security, but under the there criteria that listed above, even if Bush proposed single payer, it still would not have passed because some Dem would have found something wrong with enough to block it. 

Also listening to the same radio show, after the interview was over, it was stated that the republicans don’t even listen to Michael Steele, and of course racism was the cause of that.  It couldn’t be that at most times Steele does not do a good job of defending and advocating for the GOP, has focused on backing RINO candidates, and overall has been very ineffective as a GOP chariman by attempting to chart a proper path for the GOP, while constantly whenever he is in a “black” media forum, like this radio show is, he seems to be wanting to regain his black card instead of defending the GOP from said charges. 

What I would love Steele to say to some of these people, is for them to take a look at many of the cities and states that are run by the democrats that supposedly represent their views and look at their conditions.  I live in a suburb outside of Cinicinnati, and Cincinnati has been in control by democrats since I have lived out here (at one point, Jerry Springer was mayor), but yet, there are many areas within the city that I would not go for fear for my life, where there are more abandoned buildings and houses than occupied.  Then ask them if they should probably look for a different direction.  I would also love for our media to have a little intellectual honesty and neutrality when they look at politics instead of being cheerleaders for the Democrat party.