The character of a man is shown by how he handles crises, especially those of his own making and which involve questions of ethics. Senator Paul Rand, Tea Party stalwart and aspiring presidential candidate, has been found guilty of cheating—plagiarizing other people’s work for his own speeches. This Tea Party bully who likes to pick on people weaker than he—the poor, the uninsured, the elderly, the sick, the unemployed, the under-paid—was caught red-handed with his hands in other people’s writings. And what does Mr. Virtue have to say for himself? “I was weak and cheated”?—not on your life. Mr. Clean sullied himself all the more by lying, adding injury to injury, and then showed more of his stellar character by insulting those who caught him, adding insult to double-injury. And he wants to be president?
He reminds me of “Tricky Dick” Richard M Nixon, who could lie through his teeth with wonderful artistry, hence his sobriquet “Tricky Dick.” Perhaps a new, more accurate christening is in order (and long over-due) for our junior senator: Paul (Forked-Tongue) Rand. It has two obvious benefits: truth-in- advertising, and a red light that warns us of his dislike of truth-telling. Now whenever he attacks the veracity of democrats and liberals in general and of President Obama in particular, we can refer it all to his penchant for not speaking truthfully—for speaking with “forked tongue.”
More largely considered, his habits of inveracity indict his comrades–in–arms as well. For they engage in “wild and dissolute” speech as a matter of course. How many times have they assaulted the President’s Christian faith (deeply-held at that) with scurrilous remarks about his being a secret Muslim, or calling him a socialist, or insinuating that he’s out to enslave Americans, taking away their liberties, et.al. lying remarks? The real question here is: Can Senator Paul Rand or any other Tea Party person speak the truth at all? Sadly—and dangerously—it would appear not. For them, ideology trumps honesty; ideology well-funded by the Koch brothers, whose love of truth is as strong as Paul Rand’s. The Koch brothers single aim is to get richer—how is of no concern. If (well-funded) lies do it through the agency of The Tea Party, then thanks be to Mephistopheles with his Mephitic gifts.
As Aristotle well said, “Birds of a feather flock together.” –Amen to that!
Len Sive Jr.