DEMS UNSUCCESSFUL IN SHAPING BUDGET - For JUST A MINUTE RADIO - Friday 110311

Once more – IT’S ­FRIDAAAAAAYYYY!!!! ….

 

It always reminds me of my old ‘radio’ friend Paul Harvey… who ended his Friday show with that opening. And remembering that Paul is no longer with us here… brings up the passing of another media friend – David S. Broder, reporter/columnist for the Washington Post.

 

He and I met during the 1964 Goldwater Campaign.  He was working for the old Washington “Evening Star” newspaper… at that time there were two dailies (possibly three counting some in the suburbs… it was 1964… we were both a LOT younger. He carried his workaday typewriter tools with him on the campaign bus and planes as the press corps followed Barry M. Goldwater out to the Cow Palace for the ’64 convention and then for points west, east and all around after the Senator had won the nomination  -- much to the chagrin of Nelson Rockefeller and the eastern liberal  wing of the party.

 

David and I were not close friends.  I think he made it a practice not to be ‘cozy’ with campaign staff. One of the obits I read said another older colleague had advised him to ‘lean’ opposite from any candidate… And I think he pretty much did. Possibly the most notable exception would have been Richard Nixon because of Watergate.

 

Anyway… David loved politics… he came from Illinois but after a few years in the heartland when “The Star” folded (as many afternoon papers did.) He went to the New York Times but didn’t like the internal politics between the NYT and the Washington Post’s newsroom.  My guess is Broder (who was later regarded as the ‘dean’ of the Washington Press Corps) was really one of the major reasons the WAPO became the stand out paper it is today (much as I disagree with their general bent.) He and I had an occasional lunch when I was working in the White House and also for various Senators on Capitol Hill.

 

He passed away with complications from diabetes at 81 – and had largely limited himself to Op-Ed pieces – although I think in the Obama election he did go back to his ‘shoe leather’ mode and felt he got closer to the real ‘feel’ of the campaigns that way.  I think he was a credit to the craft – although, like I said before, I’m sure we didn’t agree on a lot of things… but he was a good man and friendly.  I wish his family well and pray for them during their time of grieving.

 

 

Today’s Just A Minute is just dealing with the interim we are experiencing now… not really a pause – but a time of transition in the Middle East – where I believe in a year the whole region will be in extensive turmoil – and new and different issues will be developing. China is becoming a *bigger* element in international news – and if the Lord tarries – will be an even bigger kid on the block than it is now.

 

The run up to the 2012 election is already in the early stages. Mr. Obama badly wants to be President for a second term… Many of us just as ‘badly’ want him to be a one-termer.  For the good of the nation and for America I think that’s definitely the way we *need* to go.  But I’m not worrying about any of it because in the years I’ve been following the news -- and to a degree participating in it – I’ve really come to see the Lord IS in control right now and He puts up some and puts down others… and I’m quite comfortable with that – knowing my Heavenly Father watches over me.

 

For some reading this – you may think that’s arrogant or something along that line… No… it just means I do believe the Bible to be God’s word which He intends for us to heed – and from 79 years of experience now… I’ve become more and more convinced that whatever the Bible says is true!  And having read and studied it I’m willing to trust the record there as well as the reality predicted and demonstrated there. I’ve never found anything to give me a reason not to.

 

If I keep on in this vein you’ll think I’m trying to preach… and I don’t believe that’s what the Lord has called me to do – I’m just trying to use the skills HE has provided to glorify HIM – and not me.  God bless you this weekend.

 

Cordially, IN HIM

 

Jack

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

DEMS UNSUCCESSFUL IN SHAPING BUDGET

            Just a Minute: -- President Obama hoped to outflank freshmen legislators in the House and Senate while emphasizing his pseudo concern to rein in spending while whipsawing inexperienced GOP House leaders.  But it hasn’t worked.   

          The White House fears being drug back into the kinds of losses it got during the lame-duck session.  But now they see the train leaving the station as the GOP strategy digs in while they flounder.

          Meantime the question of “Where’s the president?” emerges on all sides. The Wisconsin runaway-senate is now a national embarrassment while America is notably absent in calming waters around the Mediterranean. Saudi Arabia and a baker’s dozen of other hot spots are throwing off sparks while at home “entitlement reform,” continued high unemployment, and fading effects of the stimulus dismally result in skyrocketing debt and virtually non-existent results from the massive spending.

          Democrat Senate proposals on Wednesday cut only $6.5 billion in Federal spending, and got fewer votes than the Republican version, which slashed $61 billion, but neither one passed the Senate. It’s a certified state of Democrat legislative lockjaw.

          <> I’m Jack Buttram           (END)

Jebco Editorial Service

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