Jay Bullock, responding to a brief post of mine on school choice, casually tosses out, “Aside from slandering Governor Doyle…”
Slander sir? Am I such a wordsmith, so capable of poison in my pen, that I could slander the governor? Is my vocabulary so worthy of Webster that I could find the terms with which to slander “Honest” Jim Doyle? Is it even possible to imagine me worthy of such praise of my writing skills that I could possibly grab a pithy phrase that would strike beneath the governor’s reputation?
Oh, would it were so.
My offending words were, “…the governor’s stance on school choice has been despicable and intellectually dishonest”.
Well, what of it? Can anyone deny that which is plainly before their eyes? The governor was willing to put thousands of disadvantaged children out of their schools in order to grab a few dollars for his friends MTEA and WEAC. And then he turned around and claimed the other side was lying when they offered to negotiate any time, any place, or when they recalled a previous negotiating stance by the governor.
To which the response must be, who are we to believe? Doyle, or Brother Bob Smith and Archbishop Dolan? And yet, Doyle sent a minion to the press to directly challenge the credibility of these two men. It’s really a performance worthy of Richard III.
Slander? Would that the governor had a reputation I could besmirch, I would gladly apologize for my rhetoric. But the governor’s reputation is made low by his actions, and no defense is possible.
Slander? My hope is that this time next year we’ll have a governor worthy of slander.
