John David Dyche: Questions [Jack "Pretty Boy Floyd"] Conway Should Face. I AGREE.
Questions Conway should face
By John David Dyche
Kentucky media have made Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul their political punching bag since last month's primary. Meanwhile, the press coddles Democrat Jack Conway like a vintage Ken doll that would be worth a lot less if they took him out of the box and played with him.
Since editors and reporters do not subject themselves to the same standards of full disclosure that they apply to others, voters can fairly wonder whether liberal bias explains Conway's free pass. Just imagine if journalists were as eager to expose Conway as an empty suit as they have been to portray Paul as a libertarian kook.
They would track Conway down where ordinary working-class Democrats like him hang out -- Belmont Park or Glenview -- and ask him questions like these.
Abortion. Where in the Constitution do you find the right to abortion?
Do you support the Senate Armed Services Committee's recently passed measure repealing the ban on abortions at U.S. military hospitals overseas?
Would you have voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act?
Defense. The Senate Armed Services Committee recently passed a measure to end the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military. It did so without waiting for a Pentagon study, due in December, on the impact of changing the policy. How would you have voted?
Energy. Will you oppose any effort to cap emissions of coal-burning power plants?
Health care. You support the health care reform act despite polling showing 60 percent of Kentucky voters favor its repeal. Are Kentuckians just too stupid to know their own best interests?
As Kentucky's attorney general (the office you held for about a half-term before deciding to seek the Senate) you refused to join legal challenges to the health care act's constitutionality. Will you provide all analysis and research upon which you based your decision or was it purely political?
Does the act's requirement that people purchase health insurance violate either the commerce clause or Roe v. Wade's "privacy right," which the Supreme Court has said protects "intimate and personal choices ... central to personal dignity."
Immigration. The Obama administration opposes Arizona's law allowing police to inquire about immigration status during lawful stops if there is reasonable suspicion the stopped person is here illegally and Arizona's law revoking business licenses of employers that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Do you support the administration or Arizona?
Iran. Iranian President Ahmadinejad calls the new U.N. sanctions "annoying flies, like a used tissue." Will these sanctions prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons? If not, would you support military action to do so?
Labor. Do you support pending legislation requiring states to let public safety employees bargain collectively?
Colombia is a strong and democratic American ally amid South America's multiplying authoritarian regimes, but congressional Democrats do labor's bidding by blocking the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement. Should the Senate pass the agreement?
Morality. Is having children out of wedlock immoral?
Public Assistance. Should people receiving public assistance, like Medicaid, be forbidden from buying alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets?
Spending. You boast of a plan to save $430billion over a decade without raising taxes, but last week 44 Senate Democrats (and their socialist fellow traveler from Vermont) voted to add $80billion to the deficit over a decade by extending jobless benefits, giving state and local governments subsidies, postponing cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, and renewing tax breaks. How would you have voted? If you ideas are so good, why don't congressional Democrats adopt them?
This year's deficit is $1.5trillion and the national debt exceeds $13trillion. Do you support the Saving America's Future Economy Act (HR 5323) that would limit annual federal spending increases to the sum of percentage increases in population growth and inflation?
Maybe media take it easy on Conway not because of bias, but because he is boring, evasive and superficial. Paul is at least interesting, engaging, and serious. Regardless of the reason, the press is indisputably reluctant to scrutinize the Democratic lawyer as intensely as it has the Republican doctor.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternating Tuesdays in Forum His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
By John David Dyche
Kentucky media have made Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul their political punching bag since last month's primary. Meanwhile, the press coddles Democrat Jack Conway like a vintage Ken doll that would be worth a lot less if they took him out of the box and played with him.
Since editors and reporters do not subject themselves to the same standards of full disclosure that they apply to others, voters can fairly wonder whether liberal bias explains Conway's free pass. Just imagine if journalists were as eager to expose Conway as an empty suit as they have been to portray Paul as a libertarian kook.
They would track Conway down where ordinary working-class Democrats like him hang out -- Belmont Park or Glenview -- and ask him questions like these.
Abortion. Where in the Constitution do you find the right to abortion?
Do you support the Senate Armed Services Committee's recently passed measure repealing the ban on abortions at U.S. military hospitals overseas?
Would you have voted for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act?
Defense. The Senate Armed Services Committee recently passed a measure to end the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military. It did so without waiting for a Pentagon study, due in December, on the impact of changing the policy. How would you have voted?
Energy. Will you oppose any effort to cap emissions of coal-burning power plants?
Health care. You support the health care reform act despite polling showing 60 percent of Kentucky voters favor its repeal. Are Kentuckians just too stupid to know their own best interests?
As Kentucky's attorney general (the office you held for about a half-term before deciding to seek the Senate) you refused to join legal challenges to the health care act's constitutionality. Will you provide all analysis and research upon which you based your decision or was it purely political?
Does the act's requirement that people purchase health insurance violate either the commerce clause or Roe v. Wade's "privacy right," which the Supreme Court has said protects "intimate and personal choices ... central to personal dignity."
Immigration. The Obama administration opposes Arizona's law allowing police to inquire about immigration status during lawful stops if there is reasonable suspicion the stopped person is here illegally and Arizona's law revoking business licenses of employers that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Do you support the administration or Arizona?
Iran. Iranian President Ahmadinejad calls the new U.N. sanctions "annoying flies, like a used tissue." Will these sanctions prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons? If not, would you support military action to do so?
Labor. Do you support pending legislation requiring states to let public safety employees bargain collectively?
Colombia is a strong and democratic American ally amid South America's multiplying authoritarian regimes, but congressional Democrats do labor's bidding by blocking the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement. Should the Senate pass the agreement?
Morality. Is having children out of wedlock immoral?
Public Assistance. Should people receiving public assistance, like Medicaid, be forbidden from buying alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets?
Spending. You boast of a plan to save $430billion over a decade without raising taxes, but last week 44 Senate Democrats (and their socialist fellow traveler from Vermont) voted to add $80billion to the deficit over a decade by extending jobless benefits, giving state and local governments subsidies, postponing cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, and renewing tax breaks. How would you have voted? If you ideas are so good, why don't congressional Democrats adopt them?
This year's deficit is $1.5trillion and the national debt exceeds $13trillion. Do you support the Saving America's Future Economy Act (HR 5323) that would limit annual federal spending increases to the sum of percentage increases in population growth and inflation?
Maybe media take it easy on Conway not because of bias, but because he is boring, evasive and superficial. Paul is at least interesting, engaging, and serious. Regardless of the reason, the press is indisputably reluctant to scrutinize the Democratic lawyer as intensely as it has the Republican doctor.
John David Dyche is a Louisville attorney who writes a political column on alternating Tuesdays in Forum His views are his own, not those of the law firm in which he practices. Read him on-line at www.courier-journal.com; e-mail: jddyche@yahoo.com.
Labels: Keeping them honest
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 11:11 AM
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