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"Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters." --Samuel Adams

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"The list of crooked politicians is long, and the list of stupid politicians even longer. But if the criminal allegations made yesterday against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich are proven in court, rarely will a politician have combined the two qualities with such efflorescence. The second-term Democrat knew that a grand jury probe was under way into corruption in Illinois politics, and that one of his fund raisers, Tony Rezko, had been convicted and is cooperating with prosecutors. Yet according to those prosecutors, Mr. Blagojevich talked openly in recent weeks about selling a U.S. Senate seat, trading government favors for campaign cash, and punishing the owner of the Chicago Tribune if it didn't fire members of the newspaper's editorial board. The Governor's comments were taped in court-approved wiretaps and include such self-incriminating classics as: 'I've got this thing [the power to appoint Barack Obama's Senate replacement] and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there.' We recommend the entire 76-page FBI affidavit for every high school civics course as proof of the need for political checks and balances. If convicted, Mr. Blagojevich would be the second consecutive Illinois Governor to be found guilty of a felony, and the fourth in 35 years. We'd ask if it's something in the water, but that would be unfair to the Chicago River. It is certainly something in the Chicago political culture, where money and government power seem especially fungible. Among the remarkable facts of the recent Presidential election is that Barack Obama emerged from this political culture virtually untainted -- and with Chicago's political mores all but unexamined by the press. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said yesterday there is no evidence that Mr. Obama knew about the Governor's allegedly crooked ambitions. However, as a Chicago-area pol himself, Mr. Obama did help Mr. Blagojevich plot his first statehouse victory in 2002. Now would be a good time for the President-elect to say that Mr. Blagojevich and his cronies should have nothing to do with naming Mr. Obama's successor. And that, given the taint of corruption that now hangs over any choice, the state should hold a special Senate election." --The Wall Street Journal

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Upstanding governor: "I'm going to keep [Barack Obama's] Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying? And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself. ...[The seat] is a f***ing valuable thing -- you just don't give it away for nothing." --Illinois Democrat Gov. Rod Blagojevich in secretly taped phone conversations about filling Obama's Senate seat

Bad idea: "I should say if anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously, and those who feel like they want to sneakily and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate." --Rod Blagojevich before his arrest

Deny everything: "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening." --Barack Obama, friend and ally of Gov. Blagojevich

Somebody's lying: "I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them." --Obama adviser David Axelrod on 23 November (Axelrod now says he was "mistaken" when he said that)

Spending money hand over fist: "And so we understand that we've got to provide a, a, a blood infusion into the patient right now to make sure that the patient is stabilized, and, and that means that we, we can't worry short term about the deficit. We've got to make sure that the economic stimulus plan is large enough to get the economy moving." --Barack Obama

Yeah, right: "You know, the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over." --Barack Obama, announcing his plan for $700 billion in "public works"

Somehow, we don't believe him: "I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the Second Amendment. Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word." --Barack Obama, who still promises to make the so-called "assault weapons" ban permanent (on his site under Crime and Law Enforcement), which would ban most of the guns Americans have been buying since the election

Foot in mouth: "My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true." --Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in remarks at the opening of the new $621 million Capitol Visitors Center

UPRIGHT

"Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi can stop clucking now. For the last three years, Democratic leaders cheered GOP ethics woes. Dean accused Republicans of making 'their culture of corruption the norm.' Pelosi touted cleanliness as a liberal virtue. But with the eye-popping pay-for-play and bribery case against Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich topping a year of nationwide Democratic scandals, the corruption chickens are coming home to roost." --columnist Michelle Malkin

"There are enough connections between the worlds of [Rod] Blagojevich and [Barack] Obama that the whole thing has the potential to grow beyond a colorful Chicago tale of corruption to entangle members of the Presidential transition team [and] to test Obama's carefully cultivated reformist image." --Massimo Calabresi

"So, do the rest of you now have some idea of the depth of corruption in Chicago and Illinois, and why some of us were so concerned about electing a president who emerges from this cesspool?" --columnist Dennis Byrne

"Where is ... optimism today in the midst of the sharp economic downturn? One doesn't hear much of it from politicians and especially not from the media, which trades exclusively in gloom and doom. ... OK, so the economy is weak. Who thinks this is a permanent condition? Americans have always been optimists. Where is that optimism when we need it most?" --Cal Thomas

"Whatever else historians will say about Washington's response to today's crisis, they are not apt to say the government did too little." --columnist George Will

INSIGHT

"Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all." --writer Peter Drucker (1909-2005)

"Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving." --Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford (1863-1947)

"What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven." --German poet Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843)

DEZINFORMATSIA

Can't wait another minute: "Is there any way to look at this and think to yourself that maybe what people are beginning to say is that this president-elect should be president now? I mean, there seems to be this pressure, people are saying why isn't Barack Obama leading the fight about the automakers? Why isn't he -- I saw a poll where his approval rating was higher for his handling of the Mumbai attacks than President Bush's, even though he didn't do anything." --PBS's Gwen Ifill

From the Obamaphiles: "You know, it's interesting, because he has said so often, President-elect Obama, that there's only one president at a time. But every time I turn on the news, the only person I'm really seeing, the only person who looks like they have their hands on the wheel, it looks like the president-elect." --CBS's Harry Smith **Gee, could the media coverage have anything to do with that?

Drool on the chin: "We are all members of that new world now, and that for us makes [Barack Obama] the Most Fascinating Person of 2008. Good luck, Mr. President." --ABC's Barbara Walters

What is a "flaming moderate"?: "A lot of people said this is going to be a very extremist president and all that, that he's a very liberal Democrat, but as we have seen in appointment after appointment, he's hewing to the center. He's picking a bunch of flaming moderates here, when you come right down to it." --CBS's Bob Schieffer

From the Quid Pro Homo files: "The gay marriage debate moves to the Midwest this week as the Iowa Supreme Court hears arguments in a challenge to the state's ban on same-sex marriage. If the high court rules in favor of the half-dozen gay couples who sued, it would make Iowa the fourth state after Massachusetts, California and Connecticut to uphold the right of same-sex couples to legally marry." --the Associated Press using the word "uphold" as if the "right" preexisted judicial diktat ++ "Scripture gives us no good reason why gays and lesbians should not be (civilly and religiously) married -- and a number of excellent reasons why they should." --Newsweek's wannabe theologian Lisa Miller

Newspulper Headlines:

Let's Hope It Defies the Warning: "Obama Warns Economy to Worsen Before It Improves" --Associated Press

Things Aren't Working Out on Earth: "GM Will 'Explore Alternatives' for Saturn" --Wichita (Kansas) Business Journal

We Hope It's Not Our House: "Major Reorganization at Random House" --New York Times Web site

Help Wanted: "Police Seek Roadside Rock-Throwers" --Grand Rapids Press

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Santa and Three Elves Attacked at Fake Lapland" --Daily Telegraph (London)

News You Can Use: "New U-M Web Site Compiles Information We All Can Use" --Ann Arbor (Michigan) News

Bottom Story of the Day: "John Kerry Cranky Over Barack Obama's Hillary Clinton Pick" --Boston Herald

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

VILLAGE IDIOTS

The wrong prescription: "If there is hope long term -- for the unionized Big Three companies and for the UAW -- it rests in dealing with the unfinished business of the 1980s: unionizing the unorganized transplants." --Wesleyan University associate professor of sociology Jonathan Cutler in his book, "Labor's Time: Shorter Hours, the UAW, and the Struggle for American Unionism"

From the gun grabbers: "We don't dispute [the gun sales hike] because the numbers from the federal system certainly confirm that there is increased activity out there. We just think it's a bit stupid. Anyone who thinks they need to rush out and buy a firearm clearly has not been paying attention to how quickly we make progress on this issue. We don't think these are first-time buyers. We think they are people who already have more than enough guns at their homes to protect themselves and are buying more." --Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign against Gun Violence, on "how quickly they make progress"

Drinking the Kool-Aid: "Our research suggests that people may not need to worry too much about power corrupting Obama. His newfound power might enable the change he desires rather than that power changing him instead. This is contrary to what most people think: that the longer he works in Washington the more he will be influenced by the same old ways of doing things." --researcher Joe Magee of New York University

"In the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. ... I was cast in the 'unrepentant terrorist' role." --unrepentant Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers in The New York Times

SHORT CUTS

"Laura Bush presided over the White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony last week on the South Lawn. The ceremony was especially moving this year. The Nativity Scene depicts Three Wise Men from Detroit asking the Baby Jesus for his first miracle." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"What 'entitlements' for some people mean is forcing other people to work for their benefit. As a bumper sticker put it: 'Work harder. Millions of people on welfare are depending on you.'" --Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell

"If it were up to me, I'd reverse things entirely. I'd give Social Security to the young, as they're the only ones who can possibly support themselves on it, and I wouldn't set them on their career paths until they were at least 30 and ready to settle down. Under my system, there'd be no retirement age. Old folks, as we all know, are the only people really eager to serve in the work place, and the only ones who, in response to a customer's complaint, would never think of saying, 'Why are you telling me? I only work here!'" --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"The lesson seems to be: If you get away with murder, make a point of being on your best behavior. People may not be so forgiving the next time around." --columnist James Taranto on O.J. Simpson's Las Vegas sentencing

Jay Leno:

President-elect Barack Obama was on "Meet the Press" [Sunday] and he told the American people the economy was going to get worse before it gets better. That's what he said. It's going to get worse. See, that's when you know the campaign is really over. Remember before the election, "The audacity of hope!", "Yes, we can!", "Change we can believe in!" Now it's, "We're all screwed, good night, thank you! It's going to get worse!"

What a difference a couple of weeks makes. Remember last month, the three auto company heads flew to Washington in private jets looking for their bailout? Remember they own the private jets? Well, this time, the three CEOs drove in their own hybrid cars; 520 miles they drove in their own hybrid cars. See, you know what I think the government should have done here? Make it like "The Amazing Race." You drop these guys off, no money, no transportation, give them some tools, they have to build a car. First one to Washington, they get the bailout.

This year, the Treasury Department is holding its annual holiday party inside something called the cash room. You know what that is in Washington, the cash room? That's a big room where the Treasury Department holds all its cash it has on hand. Of course, these days it's empty, so plenty more room to party.

*****

Veritas vos Liberabit -- Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot's editors and staff.

(Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)