Bush & Company

The insidious reach of the radical Right libertarian Koch brothers of Koch Inductries, Wichita, Kansas---philanthropism to the arts and medical research cloaking their real goals---was revealed in February 2011, to be behind Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker's assault on collective bargaining in his state (for the sake of the budget, he said) which burgeoned nationally, and the attempt to make clownlike Herman Cain president, touches upon other sectors, as well, notably the proposed Keystone Pipeline project, questioned by President Obama on environmental grounds and the few temporary jobs it would create, and higher education, Koch's endless resources now funding 150 colleges and universities with contracts that determine hiring of professors, curriculum and ideologies to be forwarded.

Moreover, the brothers' relentless push for impractically low personal and corporate taxes, minimum industrial and environmental regulation and dismantling of needed social programs makes them perhaps the most dangerous force in the nation today.

Unless stopped, their nefarious influence will ultimately control every facet of American life, including academic freedom.

Our greatest blight, the brothers Koch,
Unlike most of our gentlefolk;
Once and for all, their covert skill
Has been uncloaked and yet they still

Can bend the spineless to their will
(Their noxious sway no one foresaw?)
And surely will persist until
The legislators on The Hill,

To bring that power down to nil,
Devise and vote yea to a bill
Signed by the president into law.

There's something very wrong with every one (except, perhaps, Buddy Roemer, whose fervent crusade against the Super PACs must make the others, all recipients of the anonymous funding sources, somewhat uneasy).

Mitt's said to have just piles and piles
Of moolah in the Cayman Isles
And baggage carried by the Newt
Keeps adding to his disrepute

And Rick's Far Right relentless stance---
Not much escapes his righteous rants,
While honest Ron has tried to hide
The secret of his darker side;

And then there's Bud, who stands alone---
Those Super PACs he won't condone---
No funds (if offered) will he take,
Although a presidency's at stake,

Which puts him well outside the zone. . .

Ironically, President Obama, because of the critical nature of this election, must accept PAC donations himself, even though he disapproves of them.

On January 15, handsome, smooth, smart, experienced and filthy rich Jon Huntsman was endorsed by Associate Editor Cindi Scoppe of South Carolina's largest newspaper, The State. Hours later, Mr. Huntsman bowed out of his ineffectual race, possibly just a dry run, endorsing "Mittens' Romney, whom he had hours earlier bombarded as an unreliable flipflopper, a job killer and one who enjoys firing people, not someone we would want as president. Endorsement of his former foe stressed that he was the only candidate who could beat Barack Obama.

We may see Mr. Huntsman in the next election cycle, this time conducting a well-prepared, determined campaign.

I'd like an explanation, Jon---
Just what the hell is going on?
The very day Ms. Cindi, who

Gave her endorsement just to you,
You gave a mean slap in the face,
Endorsing Mittens in your place.

The likelihood, in any case,
Is that we'll see you down the road,
This time, in focused campaign mode.

Reactionary Roman Catholic Rick Santorum wears his intolerance like a badge of honor, clinging to unrealistic tenets of his faith which many Catholics have rejected due to the pressures and complexities of modern life.

Young voters in the main don't buy his diatribes against gay marriage, birth control, and isses like "Obamacare"---
realizing the unreliability of church, family, friends and other helpful volunteers saving the day in times of critical need, like the townsfolk of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Likely disdaining entitlements as welfare, he nonetheless saw to it when in the Senate that Medicare benefits were sent to Puerto Rico from United Health Services, his cut amounting to $400,000.

Once bearing the sobriquet "Senator Slash," the former lawmaker, believer in limited government and the radical Ryan plan, who savaged Democratic foes with the best of them, is after all, just one more noncompassionate political hypocrite who may let up on his chief nomination rival, frontrunner Mitt Romney, with an eye to a cabinet appointment by the possible next president of the United States.

Unlike the Rickster's long parade
Of helpers rushing to your aid,
There are things government must do
Even when some others pitch in, too,

As Rick can't but be well aware---
And Puerto Rico will admit---
In profiting more than a bit
From sending them our Medicare.

Another D C hypocrite
May pander to a winning Mitt,
Who might, once his course has been set,
Think Rick's fit for his cabinet.

Buddy Roemer, a former Democratic congressman and Republican Louisiana governor, is running for president, but few people know it. One reason is that he's never been invited to participate in the debates, perhaps because he's such a sensible and honorable man. How he'd show up the other candidates! Funding his campaign solely with individual contributions of $100 maximum, he disdains the anonymous, pernicious Super PACSs.

"The biggest threat to our country is corruption," he told Rachel Maddow on January 6.

"I've got to get on the debates," he said. " I've been shut out of every darn one and I wonder why."

Mr. Roemer is waging war for campaign reform, against money in politics. He's voiced vehement disapproval of President Obama for his vast stash of PAC money, but I would argue that the president has no choice but to follow an established system he's trapped in to win an election that for the salvation of the country he must win.

Mr. Roemer could be a transformative president, but will probably never have the opportunity to prove it.

In the course of these events
Buddy is the only one
In this presidential run
Who makes almost perfect sense

That the people rarely hear.
Cruelly shunned by every peer,
Sadly, Buddy can't compete
On the stage where rivals meet---

There he's never seen or heard
Getting out his sober word.