The Patriot Post® · Mickey Mouse & Mickey Rooney

To get an idea of how far removed from reality or at least from the truth liberals are, you merely had to listen to them insist that when Eric Holder appeared before Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, boohooing about the way he and Obama are treated, he wasn’t referring to the fact they’re both black.

The truth is that virtually everything Holder does or says is racial in nature. Some would even say “racist.” He was the fellow, you might recall, who called whites cowards for being unwilling to speak honestly about race, by which he meant fess up to being bigots. Also, according to certain lawyers at the Justice Department, upon taking office, Holder announced it would not be his policy to charge non-whites with hate crimes or civil rights infractions. What’s more, he proved he meant it when he refused to indict the Black Panthers for intimidating white voters in Philadelphia during the 2008 presidential election. Under his despicable watch, the blindfold was forcefully removed from Lady Justice’s eyes.

As for his boss, only Obama would have the gall to insist that the $700 million he spent promoting the Affordable Care Act didn’t constitute a “hard sell.” But, then, considering a $17 trillion national debt and the millions of tax dollars he and the missus have blown on exotic vacations, perhaps he’s really come to regard $700 million as chump change.

When you realize how welfare has expanded under the current administration, and how many people are now fraudulently getting free food, tax refunds in spite of paying no taxes and subsidized health care, you understand why it might be difficult for a presidential candidate who points out that when people refer to a safety net, they’re not talking about a hammock, to be elected.

It’s not just leftists who say foolish things, as so many Republican politicians are only too eager to remind us. For instance, Jeb Bush insists that those who sneak into America are committing “acts of love.”

Frankly, I’m not sure I’ve heard such a stupid comment from a Republican since his big brother told us on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis that Islam is a religion of peace, even after 9/11 and even while American soldiers were fighting and dying in two wars with Muslims. As bad as FDR was in many ways, he never, not once, insisted that there was a lot to be said for the Nazis.

I’m thinking that Barbara Bush was a bit too lenient with the boys, perhaps sparing the rod a little too often, especially when they were spouting flapdoodle.

For good measure, Jeb came out four-square in favor of Common Core. That leads me to believe he could offer Hillary Clinton some real competition in 2016. That is, if he decides to go after the Democratic nomination.

With the passing of Mickey Rooney, 93, I was reminded that for years, at the semi-annual lunches that brought six people who had an interest in American musicals together, I and my old friend Tom Pflimlin would get on the case of Ray Charles – not the blues singer, but the musical conductor and arranger who had put in several years with Perry Como. “The Other Ray Charles,” as he took to calling himself, served as music conductor for the annual Kennedy Center Awards, and although he had no say in the matter of the honorees, Pflimlin and I would invariably harass him for not doing more on behalf of Mickey Rooney.

For those of you unaware of the award, its recipients are honored for their lifetime contributions to the performing arts at an annual gala attended by Washington’s elite, such as they are.

Since 1975, there have been 178 recipients. Although the selection process is secret, certain criteria are apparent. They like to have a mix of artistic disciplines represented, along with a mix of men, women and minorities.

The 1978 group, Fred Astaire, Marian Anderson, George Balanchine, Arthur Rubenstein and Richard Rodgers, was, by their standards, ideal. Over the years, the likes of Aaron Copland, James Cagney, Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Billy Wilder, Gene Kelly, Tennessee Williams and Benny Goodman, were honorees.

But why, Tom and I would annoyingly demand of Ray Charles, was Mickey Rooney never selected? After all, Rooney had been a star from the time he was a boy. He had made his mark in movies – in certain years being an even bigger box office attraction than his MGM cohort, Clark Gable. He could sing, dance, perform equally well in drama and comedy, and, when called for, play various musical instruments. In addition, he won Oscars and Emmys. But the best Ray could come up with is that a lot of people disliked Rooney, regarding him as an egotist and a blowhard.

The mystery only increased as the years went by and even the lesser likes of Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Martin Scorsese, Shirley MacLaine, David Letterman and Joanne Woodward, were inducted into the Pantheon.

I can assure you that some of these people aren’t all that congenial and were definitely less deserving of a Kennedy Award than the Mick.

Finally, it was recently disclosed that Bill Clinton had his aides look into Roswell, N.M., where a certain segment of the population are still convinced a spaceship crashed in 1947. Their mission was to make certain there were no alien critters being held incognito by the feds, as the conspiracy-minded believed.

The story that the only one they discovered was Hillary is, at best, an unprovable rumor; at worst, a slander of alien critters.