Can't we agree it's a bipartisan mess?

I have to admit I don’t usually read Bill Baum’s letters, but one of his (Republicans ‘put party over nation’) caught my eye. Mr. Baum has obviously lost any connection with reality — the reality that both parties and most politicians put party and re-election before the people they are supposed to represent and the nation.  

For anyone, even a diehard venom-spewing liberal like Mr. Baum, not to realize that fact indicates the deep trouble this country is in.  Those of us who are honest about the failings of ALL our politicians have sincere fear for the future of our country and the fate of our children and grandchildren. The possibility that our future might rest in the hands of Chinese debt holders and Islamo-fascist terrorists while our politicians fiddle is alarming to us.  

Mr. Baum pointed to Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney as examples of Republicans who have gotten rich on the backs of the 99 percent.  Perhaps it slipped his mind that Mrs. Pelosi, just to name one crooked Democrat, increased her net worth from 2009 to 2010 by 62 percent or nearly FOURTEEN MILLION DOLLARS in one year on stock market investments. Perhaps Mr. Baum had that type of return on his IRA... I sure didn’t.   

He might recall that according to “60 Minutes” (hardly a right-wing show) this amazing investment strategy might have, at least in part, been aided by insider trading information she obtained during congressional hearings, a practice that until recently was legal for members of Congress but not for us common folk. But, for Mr. Baum, it’s just those bloodsucking Republicans protecting their rich friends.  

He then attacks Mr. Gingrich for lobbying for Freddie Mac. Perhaps he isn’t aware of any Democrats who became lobbyists (not to mention the multitude of Goldman Sachs executives who serve as advisers to both Democrat and Republican administrations, sucking the lifeblood out of common citizen taxpayers to bail out their own risky behaviors gone-wrong while they were making hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses).   

I’ll pick just one Democrat (though there are many)... former Sen. Chris Dodd, who now lobbies for the Motion Picture Association of America. He recently threatened his former colleagues, “Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay attention to me when my job is at stake.” Yes, this is the same senator who took sweetheart deals on two mortgages from Countrywide in 2003 as the mortgage and banking industries were selling the world economy down the toilet and Congress turned a blind eye.  

He also attacks Mr. Gingrich for his marital infidelities. Really, Mr. Baum. Where should I begin? In recent times, two of three Kennedy brothers? President Clinton? Or how about Barney Frank whose boyfriend was running a male prostitution business out of the basement of his house. And ethics violations. Really! We could start with Charlie Rangel not paying taxes on Caribbean properties, but the list is very very long.  

So, Mr. Baum, do a little reality check. One of my favorite quotes is ascribed to Aesop, “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” As for the election this year, Jay Leno nailed it pretty well with a comment ascribed to him: “If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates!”

Myerowitz is a resident of Columbia Falls.