THE FOUNDATION: CHARACTER

“The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.” —Samuel Adams

UPRIGHT

“Had New York Governor Eliot Spitzer reached out for the Gideon Bible in his fancy Washington, D. C., hotel room instead of, allegedly, a high-priced prostitute, he might have been forewarned of the dangers in such liaisons.” —Cal Thomas ++ “Just once, I’d like to see a politician caught with his pants down (so to speak) not trot out his wronged wife to stand beside him as he issues his mea culpa… I guess the point of the exercise is to show voters that Spitzer is not such a creep that his wife won’t stand by him. Problem is, by dragging his wife before the public, Client-9 shows himself to be an even bigger creep.” —Debra Saunders ++ “Many in the media refer to Eliot Spitzer as some moral hero who fell from grace. Spitzer was never a moral hero. He was an unscrupulous prosecutor who threw his power around to ruin people, even when he didn’t have any case with which to convict them of anything.” —Thomas Sowell

“The biggest beneficiary of Hillary’s ‘3 a.m.’ ad is—John McCain. Of the three candidates, Americans believe he is best suited to be commander-in-chief by a lopsided margin. Hillary argued that when the tough times come, ‘You have to be ready to make a decision.’ You do, and Hillary isn’t… In truth, neither Obama nor Hillary can name an accomplishment that qualifies them for the office they seek.” —Ben Johnson

“McCain’s greatest advantage is himself. His life story is compelling and something neither Clinton nor Obama can match. He can own the issue of national security. He must now convince voters that on domestic issues he is better able to manage the economy while reducing the size and cost of government.” —Cal Thomas

“Who ever said that it is the responsibility of government to make life easy?” —Jim Geraghty

“[T]he Constitution is not a living organism. It’s a legal document.” —Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

INSIGHT

“The only difference I’ve found in Congress between the Republican and Democratic leadership is that one of them is skinning us from the toes up and the other from the ears down.” —Huey Long

“The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.” —Edmund Burke

“The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.” —James Fenimore Cooper

“A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is.” —Karl Krauss

“What gives the new despotism its peculiar effectiveness is indeed its liaison with humanitarianism, but beyond this fact its capacity for entering into the smallest details of human life.” —Robert Nisbet

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“No matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, that candidate will have a significantly different prescription for the nation’s health-care system than Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee. Which is a good thing, since that means the country is in for a debate involving real substance. …[T]he Democrats are more interested in universal coverage, while the Republicans focus on cost containment. Those may be the points of emphasis, but McCain wants expanded access, too, while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton claim they can rein in health-care costs. One thing we’ve learned from state-based experiments in universal coverage: It’s not cheap. In Massachusetts, taxpayer subsidies for its two-year-old program of mandated coverage will rise from $158 million in 2007 to $600 million this year and $870 million in 2009. Lawmakers are now scrambling to impose new cost controls. On the menu: lower payments to doctors, hospitals and drug companies. Meantime, a similar plan proposed in California died in January when the independent Legislative Analyst projected the program would cost at least $4 billion more in its first five years than proponents first suggested. By contrast, McCain’s agenda would primarily expand choices for consumers. Among other things, he would allow Americans to purchase health coverage from a licensed insurer in any state; individuals could shop nationwide for an appropriate policy and compare prices. He would also allow membership organizations (like AARP) or other non-employers to sell group policies. Most dramatically, he would end the tax deduction that employers receive for providing health insurance; instead, individuals would receive tax credits they could use to either purchase policies or invest in Health Savings Accounts. They would no longer depend on their employers for medical coverage. Taken in combination, these proposals would give individuals more control of their health-care options.” —Rocky Mountain News

THE DEMO-GOGUES

Another one bites the dust: “I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and… my, or any, sense of right and wrong. I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better. I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself.” —New York Demo Gov. Eliot Spitzer on allegedly being “Client No. 9” of the Emperors Club VIP prostitution ring

On a joint ticket: “[Obama] would win the urban areas and the upscale voters, and she wins the traditional rural areas that we lost when President Reagan was President. If you put those two things together, you’d have an almost unstoppable force.” —First Lady hopeful Bill Clinton ++ “I am not running for vice president, I am running for president… I don’t know how somebody in second place is offering vice president to the person in first place.” —Barack Obama ++ “It may be the first time in history that the person who is running number two would offer the person running number one the number two position.” —former Senate Demo leader Tom Daschle

Worry wart: “I’ve been around for a while, doing this work for 35 years, and I know it’s important to have a president in the White House who gets up every single day and worries about your fears, your needs.” —Hillary Clinton

The BIG Lie: “I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland.” —Hillary Clinton **“I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton]… She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience…[B]ut being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player.” —Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey and the Ulster Unionist Party

No experience: “I mean the fact of the matter is that Senator Clinton, you know when she runs this 3 a.m. phone-call ad doesn’t cite and can’t cite any particular experience that makes her more effective in dealing with these issues of national security and when she did have a red phone moment, when we have the most important foreign policy decision of a generation, she got it wrong.” —Barack Obama

DEZINFORMATSIA

From the “Sympathy for the Devil” Department: “Governor Eliot Spitzer came to office vowing to restore ethics and integrity. But, as he said today, he failed to live up the standards he set for himself. It was a supremely humiliating press conference for a man who made his name as a crusading public servant.” —ABC reporter Dan Harris

Gasp!: “[N]ot to be outdone, one of [Obama’s] advisers… says that [Clinton’s] a monster… It doesn’t seem good. And the big question becomes, who is this helping? Who is this hurting? And even more troubling for the Democrats, are they paving the way for a Republican victory?” —ABC’s Chris Cuomo

Still bitter: “The [Democrat] convention could turn to a compromise candidate. Al Gore is the most obvious and perhaps the only contender who could head off a complete meltdown in the party. After all, he already won the popular vote for the presidency. It was only because of a fluke at the Supreme Court that he was denied his turn at the wheel. No one could deny that he’s ready on day one to assume the presidency.” —Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift

Hitting the Clintons: “Hillary successfully recast herself in Ohio as a beer-drinking former waitress. Only after last week’s reversals did the Obama camp raise a louder ruckus about her tax returns. Obviously, Ms. Night Shift does not want to reveal the details of the fortune that Bill Clinton has made, sometimes through dubious associations.” —New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

Conspiracy theories: “Oil was $28 a barrel when George Bush was sworn in. It’s $104 right now and could go to $120 soon. Now, why do you suppose that is? It wouldn’t have to do with the policies of the Bush administration or the relationship they have with the oil companies, would it? Come on.” —CNN’s Jack Cafferty

VILLAGE IDIOTS

Life’s rough: “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day. Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!” —Michelle Obama on America, which she adds is “just downright mean”

From the Sycophant Files: “I’ve never seen a more heroic person in politics than she’s been in these primaries in… Ohio and Texas. …I love Senator Clinton to death. She’s probably my favorite person in the world.” —Clintonista James Carville ++ “I looked at my friend Bill [Clinton] 30 years ago and I thought, ‘If there is anything inherently healthy in the universe, you should be president one day.’ And I looked at Hillary and thought, ‘Wow, do I dare to dream?”’ —actress Mary Steenburgen

“Supporting” the troops: “You think everyone over [in Iraq] is a college graduate? They’re 19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn’t get a job.” —actor Richard Belzer, who was invited to leave Dean Junior College in Massachusetts after a year and a half for being a bit too active on the student demonstration front

This week’s “Non Compos Mentis” Awards: “Now, when it all went down at 9/11 and [President Bush] said ‘we’re going get him,’ I was like ‘come on Georgie, let’s go.’ But he didn’t go where he said we were going. See, that’s where I got, because I woke up the next morning, we were in Iraq. I was like, what? I don’t think we’re in Afghanistan.” —Whoopi Goldberg on “The View,” who apparently slept through the 17 months between Afghanistan and Iraq ++ “How am I gonna stand up and say, I’m a ‘vagina-friendly’ mayor to these cameras after ‘Chocolate City’ and some of the other stuff that I’ve done. But you know what? I’m in.” —New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin welcoming the author of the Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler to the city to promote the “V-Day” celebration

SHORT CUTS

“The percentage of registered voters who would rather disembowel themselves with a wooden spoon than vote for Hillary has just slipped below the magical 50 percent mark. We’re surging, Hillary! If you want to be even more likable, you should go on ‘The View.’ Next to those four harpies, you seem almost agreeable.” —Ann Coulter

“Well, we will have Hillary Clinton to kick around some more, at least for another few weeks. The Mummy (as my radio pal Hugh Hewitt calls her) kicked open the sarcophagus door and, despite the rotting bandages dating back to Iowa, began staggering around terrorizing folks all over again.” —Mark Steyn

“The big pooh-bahs of the Democratic Party were so sure that Hillary had succumbed in the dust of Barack Obama’s that after Texas and Ohio the only task left would be the delegation of one of their rank to go to Hillary (and Bill) and tell them it was time for the undertaker to close the coffin lid and the preacher to read Tennyson’s ‘Crossing the Bar.’ Someone suggested that Al Gore was the man for the job, but he didn’t want it. If he went on such a fool’s errand, to tell Hillary to give up the ghost, he knew he would soon be delivering lectures on global warming in high soprano.” —Wesley Pruden

“Barack Obama’s adviser Samantha Power resigned after she called Hillary a monster. It broke a truce. The Clintons don’t bring up Barack’s drug use and the Obamas don’t mention Hillary’s genealogical connection to the von Frankenstein family.” —Argus Hamilton

Jay Leno: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has admitted that he has been involved in a prostitution ring. This is the same man who when he was attorney general went after the prostitution rings. So apparently for not giving him good service. … [This] means Hillary Clinton [is] now only the second angriest wife in the state of New York. … Neither Barack nor Hillary can win the nomination outright. You know, because it’s so close. So Hillary’s kind of caught between Barack and a hard place. … Technically, neither of them can win. It shows you how bad it’s gotten for the Democrats. Forget winning the general election, they can’t even win their own election. … You know, there’s talk in some Democratic circles of letting the states of Michigan and Florida re-vote. Today, Al Gore said, “Oh, now you think of this! Great!” … They’re talking about a re-vote primary where people would mail in their ballots. That’s a great idea, combine the reliability of the people in Florida who count the ballots with the efficiency of the Post Office. What could go wrong there?

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.)