FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019  
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       BOB FRANKEN
       FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012
       OBAMA AND ROMNEY’S BULLY PULPITS
       BY BOB FRANKEN
       So, the vice president “apologized” to President Barack Obama for forcing the issue of same-sex marriage, and the boss accepted. That’s the official story being peddled to reporters by various administration “sources.” Usually, there is good reason to be skeptical when these unnamed officials spread the party line in such a coordinated way.
       Is there any reason to believe that Joe Biden’s comment on “Meet the Press” was not some slick move -- a clever way of allowing the president to have his coming out on this hot issue so he could get rid of the controversy long before the election and turn it to his advantage just in time for some huge Hollywood fundraisers? The best reason is that the Democratic strategists usually just aren’t that slick.
       However this really played out, the fascinating point is that Obama’s new embrace of gay marriage seems to be a big positive for him. The polls have shown a quickly growing acceptance of it in society. It also might help explain the push to end the president’s “evolution” in his thinking, particularly when we note how his side is so quickly touting it and reaping fundraising rewards.
       At the same time though, the hard-rock conservatives are going bonkers. The mainstream Republicans are trying to get the emphasis back where they want it. “The president can talk about it all he wants,” sniffed an irritated House Speaker John Boehner, “I’m going to stay focused on what the American people want us to stay focused on, and that’s jobs.”
 

      Among those shying away is the GOP’s lead actor, Mitt Romney, who -- beyond mumbling that he feels marriage should be between a man and a woman -- isn’t saying much about the subject.
       Could that be because of the Washington Post story that exposes the teenage Mitt as a homophobic bully, buying into the privileged cruelty of his exclusive school and assaulting a hapless fellow student who just happened to be “different”? The most egregious violence against the student was when the group pinned him down and cut off his hair because they were offended that he had peroxided it. Although Romney claimed not to remember the incident, he finally decided he should apologize for the “prank,” particularly since one of the other participants was quoted as saying the harassers had operated like a “gang of wolves.” Romney went to the safe haven of Fox News to tell Neil Cavuto: “There is no question that I did some stupid things in high school, and obviously, if I hurt anyone by virtue of that, I would be very sorry for that and apologize for it.” He also insisted that his motives were not homophobic, although classmates cited incidents of hearing slurs from him.
       How vicious bullying is. And damaging. The victim in this case led a life of drifting before dying of liver cancer. The argument can be made that although one can change over 50 years, Romney is still known to enjoy pulling off practical jokes. And let’s face it, practical jokes are, by definition, fundamentally demeaning.
       But it’s the here and now. And Boehner is correct: It’s time to focus on the economy. A huge issue is the responsibility that the wealthy have in rescuing us from the dire straits many of them caused.
       Should they pay their fair share in taxes? Should they be controlled by effective regulations to prevent manipulation and consumer abuse?
       It’s interesting to watch the president finesse the issue of gay rights and to see the effects it will have on the election. That, after all, is what this is all about. We can only hope that the forces of greed in this country are not as successful in confusing the financial issues, in effect, using their massive resources to bully their opponents.
      
       © 2012 Bob Franken
       Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
      

FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019  
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       BOB FRANKEN
       FOR RELEASE MONDAY, MAY 8, 2012
       RECKLESS FECKLESS ROMNEY HECKLES
       BY BOB FRANKEN
       It will be fun to watch as Mitt Romney once again demonstrates what he does best, which as everyone knows, is backtracking. His running shoes will be covered in whatever he steps into. This time, he’s being criticized for interfering in the tense negotiations with Beijing over dissident Chen Guangcheng.
       Chen is the blind, self-educated lawyer who has spent years in prison because of his anti-government agitations. After incarceration, he was confined in extra-legal house arrest in a far-out province, and had become another of the faces of the shameful brutality directed at anyone who doesn’t march in lock step with China’s rigid and often corrupt system.
       Somehow, he managed to escape the thuggish guards who seriously mistreated him and kept him inside his home and visitors out.  After a perilous journey to the capital city, he was secreted into the compound of the U.S. Embassy.  
       The Chinese government was furious over “an interference in China’s internal affairs,” and demanded a U.S. apology. Like that is going to happen, particularly with the Mitt Romneys of this world heckling from the sidelines.
       Making matters even messier, the surprise crisis erupted at the exact time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were arriving for talks about a wide range of difficult issues -- trade and economic matters among them. They were all vital, but suddenly completely overshadowed by the quandary over human rights. The very mention of the subject causes Beijing’s autocrats to bristle, not exactly the best atmosphere in which to discuss business dealings.
       Obviously, this was a delicate situation. It still is. Each time it appeared the sides had carefully worked out a face-saving understanding, it would fall apart, done in by the treachery of the communist rulers, confusion or Chen’s capriciousness. The latest flimsy arrangement, which would allow Chen and his family to travel to the United States, easily could unravel. The Chinese government said the travel documents will be issued “expeditiously.” That means what it usually means: not much.
       One might think that this is the very worst time for heavy-handed domestic politics. And one would be correct, unless he or she is Mitt Romney, who’s eager as always to make the case that Barack Obama is over his head or soft on human rights, or whatever. Ignoring the possibility that his heckling might undermine U.S. efforts, Romney absolutely, positively had to describe the reported roller-coaster developments as a “dark day for freedom, and it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration.”
       It was a dark day all right, a dark day of irresponsible opportunism and careless rhetoric for the man who so desperately wants to replace the Obama administration with his own. Never mind how this type of situation used to be treated, with a modicum of restraint. That was practiced in a time where statesmanship had a role, with the understanding that “politics stops at the water’s edge,” meaning, of course, our ocean boundaries. How quaint.
  

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BOB FRANKEN

FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2012

MITT HIT MAN SHOT DOWN

BY BOB FRANKEN

Let's face it: There is no shortage of people who think Richard Grenell is a jerk. Don't know who he is? He is now the former Romney for President national-security and foreign-policy spokesman after lasting less than a couple of weeks in the job. His infamous public comments about prominent women in politics and his ugly relations with the media have nothing to do with his hasty exit. It is simply because he's openly gay.

Never mind his trail of demeaning Twitter messages, and never mind the coercive tactics he used as an official press secretary against journalists who had the audacity to cover stories unfavorable to his various clients. He had a reputation for chewing out reporters who didn't get with the program. Sometimes he would go over their heads and occasionally threaten their bosses. But he was done in by even bigger bullies.

Mitt Romney is still on shaky ground with these extremists, so the parting statement from his team that “We wanted him (Grenell) to stay” might seem insincere to those of us more jaundiced observers. It also causes one to wonder why he was brought on board in the first place, given all his pros and cons.

Pro: He is a pro, albeit a sometimes confrontational one. Ric Grenell played his intimidator role with journalists as a U.S. United Nations flack throughout the Bush administration. Most notably he was communications director for the hardest of the hard-liners: Ambassador John Bolton, who's his strong supporter. With reservations, put his experience -- “superior qualifications,” as Romney's people put it -- on the plus side.

On the negative side, we have all those super-snarky tweets. He hastily tried to take them down, but of course, what goes on the Internet stays on the Internet. They are still easy to find in all their juvenile splendor. At least he was both left and right heavy-handed. His targets were male (he was cruel about Newt Gingrich's weight) and female (particularly venomous about the appearance of Hillary Clinton, and Callista Gingrich's hair, snarking that it “snaps on”).

Obviously, his contempt for women is not what did him in with the fanatics. It was his preference for men. The misogyny wasn't the issue. Not even at a time when Mitt Romney is so desperately trying to win over female voters.

For the ultraconservatives, though, sexism is OK as long as it isn't same-sexism. And Mitt is doing whatever he can to mollify them. It probably didn't help that cause when Grenell told The Washington Post that he was grateful for Romney's “clear message to me that being openly gay was a nonissue for him and his team.”

Whether that's true or whether he was trying to make a graceful exit so he can find another job, the Post also reported that some Republican operatives had contacted Grenell to suggest that he might want to become a “nonissue” by exiting stage right.

With all the focus on economic differences, which is entirely valid, and the international debate, which is Grenell's strong suit, we should not lose sight of the social issues. Mitt Romney is groveling for the support of those who hold harshly regressive views, and they will demand that he champion their intolerance if he's elected.

So it's equally valid to question whether we want to live in a nation in which our personal conduct is regulated by a government beholden to this country's version of the ayatollahs. Even being on their side and brutally ruthless about it isn't enough. Just ask Ric Grenell.

© 2012 Bob Franken

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

       FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019  
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       BOB FRANKEN
       FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012
       A BREAK FOR THE BROKEN
       BY BOB FRANKEN
       “Give me a break.” That was Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s scornful reaction to charges from Democrats that his party was again waging a “war against women.” At issue was the political imperative to prevent student-loan interest rates from doubling. Both sides claim that they agree the legislation is needed. Why wouldn’t they? After all, the youth vote is a big prize for both parties. So what’s the problem?
       The problem is in the House, where the restive tea partiers and other GOP members want to extract the usual pound of flesh, from the usual place: You guessed it, from the Obama health-care law. That, says the D’s, means the R’s want to cut back on programs that support mothers and their children. Hence the new “War on Women” accusation, and hence Boehner’s contemptuous “Give me a break.”
       A fuller look at the tape shows that he also snarled, “This is beneath the dignity of this House and the dignity of the public trust that we enjoy from our constituents.” Now, that begs at least a couple of questions: What dignity? And what “public trust.”
       After watching more than a year of House of Representatives brawling that has stopped just short of violence, and taken the nation time and again to the brink of financial disaster, it’s evident Speaker Boehner is on shaky ground. How many polls do we need to see that Congress suffers from 90 percent disapproval? Their rating is below used-car salespeople, lawyers and even journalists. Truly the bottom.
       What’s really unfortunate is that the speaker’s “Give me a break” demand can’t be granted. If there were only some way we could adjourn both the House and the Senate for the rest of the year. Then, instead of destroying the country, Congresspeople could go home and grovel full time for the money to finance their deceptions. It’s enticing, but impossible.
       The student-loan mishmash illustrates the dilemma. Thanks to the Constitution, the squabblers of Capitol Hill are necessary to keep the nation operating. There are certain problems that we need them to solve. The basic one is to agree on funding the federal government. As always, some of the more radical rightists are threatening a government shutdown.
       There will be some rough head-knocking before the two sides can agree on tough budget cuts and/or tax hikes that will prevent mandatory slashing of Pentagon spending, among other vital outlays. Somehow, it has to be accomplished in the poisonous swamp that is Washington, enveloped in an atmosphere that was already toxic before the campaign made it even more foul.

  FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019  
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       BOB FRANKEN
       FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012
       DOG TIRED
       BY BOB FRANKEN
       Romney haters, listen up: You’re overplaying the dog-on-the-roof thing. If you’re not careful, there’s going to be a barklash.
       That includes Gail Collins of The New York Times, who is one of my favorites in newsbiz. But she’s made such a big deal out of Mitt Romney’s Irish Setter Seamus being strapped on top of the family station wagon, and written about it so often, that it has now gotten tiresome. That’s not the norm for a columnist whose insights are usually refreshing and whose humor is incredibly biting (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
       First of all, let’s get something straight: I, too, am a dog nut. My golden retriever pup, Mingus, is a beloved member of the family. I adore him. To me, there’s no greater joy than being around him and his canine buddies. For those who reside in D.C., Harry Truman nailed it when he said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” I would add, “If your life includes dogs, who needs other friends?”
       That said, we really need to get past the animal test when deciding which human will be leading our country. Rick Perry apparently loves dogs, although you might want to stay away from him if you’re a coyote. Barack Obama seems to get along with the family’s Portuguese water dog, Bo, but those relationships don’t mean a lick compared with the other issues of the race.
       Take Seamus’ owner: There are so many other reasons to embrace him or reject him. Now that he seems to have escaped his party’s primary kennel, with all his opponents snapping at his heels, he is working on remarking his turf. His backtracking is the stuff of legend. Once again, he’s rewriting his narrative about what breed of politician he is.

       FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019  
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       BOB FRANKEN
       FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2012
       HIGH LIVING ON OUR MONEY
       BY BOB FRANKEN
       No argument here about the outrage over the outlandish General Services Administration bacchanal in Las Vegas. The organizer, Jeff Neely, said he wanted this $800,000-plus “team building” conference with its mind reader, exorbitant food and other costly merrymaking to be “over the top.” He sure succeeded.
       But now he’s squirming under the Capitol big top, refusing to testify before a congressional committee. He has decided to take the 5th, which probably makes sense since there’s a possibility of criminal charges.
       He and his fellow party animals have managed to spawn a Washington rarity: bipartisanship. The twaddle from members of both parties was flapping in outrage as Republicans and Democrats alike were filling the air and TV news channels with their righteous sound bites over such a cavalier waste of government money.
       And they are absolutely correct; we should stop all those in power who act like the federal Treasury is their personal slush fund and that they are entitled to waste the people’s money to satisfy their lavish tastes.
       Imagine how much money we’d save, for instance, if we not only scaled back the unnecessary retreats that have so long been a part of the management culture, but also the superfluous travel abroad by members of Congress on the public dime.
       Yes, maybe this time we finally can do something about those notorious “Codels,” the bureaucratic shorthand for congressional delegations, meaning all those international trips for senators and representatives. The planet becomes their playground during recess.
       Their longstanding argument has been that the trips are necessary to expose them to firsthand knowledge of the world’s problems and acquaint them with foreign leaders.
       To be fair, this is not about the excursions by the likes of Sens. John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, who so often pop up in garden spots like Afghanistan and other hellholes.
       But will someone please explain why so many of the others repeatedly traipse around exotic resorts or in glitzy cities, along with family members and staff entourages.

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BOB FRANKEN

FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

THE IDIOT PRIZE

BY BOB FRANKEN

So now Mitt Romney is charging that there is a “vast left-wing conspiracy” to discredit him. That’s how he put it on a conservative radio program the other day.

He obviously was mimicking the claim years ago by then-first lady Hillary Clinton that a “vast right-wing conspiracy” was out to sabotage her husband’s presidency.

Bill Clinton was doing a pretty good job at that himself, but the conspiracies she and Mr. Romney describe are real. They're also exaggerated. They are not vast, they’re half-vast.

Dopey though such pronouncements can be, they are relatively well thought out when compared to some of the other rhetoric we get these days.

On the liberal side, we witness the clumsiness of a Hilary Rosen and her now-infamous ASSERTION that housewife Ann Romney “had never worked a day in her life.” The Romneys milked that one so much that Mrs. Romney herself was overheard calling the controversy a “birthday gift.”

But Hilary Rosen doesn’t hold a birthday candle to the ultra-conservatives. As usual, they swept the latest competition for the Insanely Demagogic Invective of the Times award, the coveted IDIOT prize.

This time, it wasn’t Newt Gingrich who captured top dishonors. He’s pretty much out of the running, even though he doesn’t admit it. We have a tie though, between Allen West and Ted Nugent.

West IS Rep. West,. He's A Republican from Florida, but he speaks for the entirety of Cuckoo Land. He sure did when he declared that in Congress, “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.”

And here we thought Joe McCarthy was dead. In spite of the ruckus, West isn’t backing down, demonstrating that, like McCarthy, he doesn’t have shame either.

However, when it comes to standing his ground, he meets his match in 1970s pop-music rock star and present extremistrock star Ted Nugent harranguing at the National Rifle Association convention. Who knew that by "Heavy Metal" he meant guns? In any care, he was firing away: "If Barack Obama becomes president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”

Overlooking his redundancy, At least he didn’t wimp and and moan that he “misspoke.” “Misspoke” is one of the most pathetic words in our vocabulary.

Speaking of mealy-mouthed language; when Democrats demanded Romney repudiate Nugent's invective, all he could muster up wasa campaign spokesperson to say “everybody needs to be civil.”

Let’s remember that Romney is Etch A Sketching a thin line. He is once again trying to contrive a persona that appeals to both independent moderates and his party-base immoderates.

Never mind that the fiery rhetoric from fromWest Nugent and others proves they are downright anti-USA. They clearly want to replace the United States of America with the Incited States.

We don’t need right-wing or left-wing conspiracies to bring this country down. Vast or half vast. All we really need are careless people like these two guys. Tearing this country apart becomes real easy if we continue to pay any attention whatsoever to IDIOTs like them.

© 2012 Bob Franken

FROM NORTH AMERICA SYNDICATE, 300 W 57th STREET, 15th FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10019  
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       BOB FRANKEN
       FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2012
       CHINESE VS U.S. GUTTERS
       BY BOB FRANKEN
       Those pesky Chinese seem to be besting us in far too many ways. Now they’ve obviously won the prize for killer politics.
       Let’s make that ALLEGED killer politics. The Chinese committee of authoritarian rulers involved in a nasty battle to determine who will be running the country in the years ahead has not only tossed out one of the contenders, Bo Xilai, but announced that his wife is under investigation for murder, suspected of being responsible for the death of a shady British expatriate.
       Face it, Americans: We just can’t compare with viciousness like that. We’re less ruthless than ludicrous, as the Republican primaries demonstrated. The only murder there was the sort where various candidates did themselves in.
       And now they have a winner -- a survivor, actually. Mitt Romney was able to shrug off all his self-inflicted wounds and use superior financial firepower to obliterate his opponents.
       So now he can target Barack Obama and hope that the party rank and file’s apathy for him will be overcome by their passionate hatred of Obama.
       Unlike China’s machinations, this fight will be relatively open. There will be unhealthy doses of religious zealotry, racism, gun nuttiness, homophobia, even Birther babbling -- anything to stir the pot.
       Add to that toxic mix all the churning over so-called women’s issues as Romney desperately tries to close a yawning gender gap. We’ve already witnessed a yawner in the contrived outrage over a Democrat’s clumsy comments about stay-at-home moms. Never mind that she was merely one of us pundit political groupies. Everyone was all a-Twitter. Literally. And of course we’ve heard Mitt’s shameless distortions about the impact of the financial meltdown on women’s jobs.
       It reinforces the point that even with all the diversions, at its core, this year’s election is about the nation’s lifeblood: money. It is a struggle over the nature of our economy: who controls it, who regulates it, who gets how much benefit,

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BOB FRANKEN

FOR RELEASE TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2012

DARWIN'S NATURAL ELECTION

BY BOB FRANKEN

We all know what President Barack Obama means to convey when he says Republicans stand for “social Darwinism.” It's his way of describing the enemy's consistent coddle-the-wealthy tenets that reflect a modern-day “survival of the fittest” philosophy. It is a rare case of political rhetoric matching reality. What's perplexing, though, is how the less prosperous, less fit in today's cruel world often are the most self-certain advocates of the very dogma that threatens their own survival.

The best explanation comes from Charlie Darwin himself, in a pithy line, already probably well-known to the well-read, as well as to those of us who found it on a smartphone quotation app: “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

Too many conservative leaders are fully aware of that, so they try to appeal to the hearts and mindlessness of the millions who are looking for easy answers when they don't even want to bother to understand the questions. They have rock-solid opinions based on squishy thinking, and they are easily bamboozled as the principal targets of unprincipled demagogues. They are riled up by hot-button sloganeering that's meant to distort: “reform” becomes “socialism,” “women's rights” a “war on religion.” Such deception helps assure the survival of the specious.

Before Democrats get all sanctimonious, we should remind them of how they take their own cheap shots. Barack Obama is hardly above the fray. Our reminder came when he tried to frame the health-care case with some clumsy remarks about the fundamental concept of judicial review. It was transparent game-playing, and all he got out of it was embarrassment. It shows he has some work to do before he can blow smoke like Republicans. For starters, they seem incapable of embarrassment, which is a huge advantage.

For that matter, the man who slogged through the gunk to become the party's almost-certain nominee is another case in point. Mitt Romney has managed to run backward from his own record, which is really quite an accomplishment when you consider how often his foot is in his mouth. He demonstrates time and again that he is part of the self-appointed ruling class of financial manipulators who have gotten rich while ruining the lives of the millions who aren't members of the club. Of course he embraces the party's cruel Hood Robin budget plan, gushing that it's “marvelous.”

In spite of the fact that he comes across to many as an awkward automaton, out of touch with normal humans, Marvelous Mitt consistently shows up in polls as the candidate who is “most electable” and/or “most likely to beat Obama.” That is demonstrably untrue; the man “most likely to beat Obama” is obviously Barack Obama.

How else can we explain the fact that the Republican mix of tea party hardliners, religious zealots and oligarchs has a plausible chance? It's because campaign professionals know the sad truth, that the best way to success in politics is to overcome facts and appeal to the voters' worst instincts. Going back to our app, we find that Mr. Darwin covered that by pointing out, “The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.”

© 2012 Bob Franken

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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BOB FRANKEN

FOR RELEASE FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2012

CONTEMPT OF COURT

BY BOB FRANKEN

How sad it is that so much about the Supreme Court is so petty. For starters, the justices are blatantly abandoning any pretense of fair reflection and replacing it with foul politics. The health-care hearing with its slanted questions was just the latest example of how the “umpires,” to use Chief Justice John Roberts' famous description, have been replaced by biased referees.

That criticism is nothing new. Long before the ridiculous Citizens United decision, which expanded human rights to inhuman corporations, and long before the uproar over the Obamacare sessions, millions have bitterly complained about federal judges with lifetime tenures, abusing their power.

There's an old joke about the young, famous psychiatrist who is struck dead and stands at the Pearly Gates plaintively asking, “Why take me away now?!” “Well, we need you,” St. Peter tells the therapist, “We have a problem with God. He thinks he's as powerful as a federal judge.”

It usually has been told by those of the conservative persuasion, who howl about “judicial activism.” That was a familiar rallying cry of the segregationists as the courts were helping overturn Jim Crow laws. Now, the same screams from the right are coming from the other side. That includes the president of the United States, apparently fearful he is going to get a butt-kicking over his signature health-care reform.

President Barack Obama was speaking shortly after the rough hearings when he mused out loud about the court taking “an unprecedented step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” It doesn't take a former constitutional-law professor, like he was, to know full well that the Supremes have had that exact power since the 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision.

He was flogged for his words almost immediately, and tried to back off faster than Mitt Romney ever did. What he meant was the court has “traditionally exercised restraint and deference.” Too late: Republicans were all over this. He was “bullying the Supreme Court,” charged South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley.

Ironically, this places Barack Obama uncomfortably close to Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is the one whose “big ideas” include a president ignoring disagreeable Supreme Court orders. He backs his argument by completely distorting the words of Alexander Hamilton, who, in fact, supported the opposite point of view. Of course, he, too, is a former professor. What's with these academics?

With so much anger over how some of our robed ones treat the law as their political playground, there are those who advocate a constitutional amendment specifying finite terms, perhaps 10 years, to increase accountability. Others argue that only an appointment for life can assure judicial independence as a protection against the “tyranny of the majority.”

Either way, the awesome power of federal courts, from District to Appeals to Supreme, is ultimately weakened by a loss of credibility when jurisprudence is replaced by imprudence. When politics obviously influences rulings, the judges are easy targets for cheap-shot politicians. Health care is an appropriate issue to frame this discussion, because for lots of people, the conduct of too many leaders has been sickening.

© 2012 Bob Franken

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.