Why should we have to do the right thing?

You usually can't pin someone down saying that they support something as long as somebody else takes on all the associated suffering.

Some people support the Iraq war, but see no reason that they or any member of their family should serve.

Some people love the idea of nuclear power. But nobody ever pushes for a local waste repository.

And many people blast Congress for pork barrel spending, but nobody returns the federal dollars.

It is rare, however, for someone to come out and say so explicitly. Today, the Dispatch did:

Tiberi is opposed by businessman Bob Shamansky, a Democrat who served one term in the U.S. House in the early 1980s. Shamansky is capitalizing on discontent with the Iraq war and hits Republicans for passing tax cuts while driving up the national debt with deficit spending. These are legitimate issues, but ones that can be addressed without depriving central Ohio’s House delegation of one of its three veteran members.

The Dispatch, if I may paraphrase, is saying that although the current Congress has done nothing to solve these problems, and in fact is actually the source of them, we should rely on voters outside of Ohio to change the make-up of Congress. Let other districts sacrifice their pork for the greater good of solving the Iraq quagmire and balancing the budget.

I can't tell, but it also appears that part of their endorsement is based on the fact that:

Tiberi says he will continue to press for reforms in financially troubled entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security


So, let someone else solve Iraq and our deficit spending, while Pat attempts to balance the budget by gutting Social Security and creating more massive financial giveawys to the drug companies a la Medicare D. Why, because maybe, just maybe, Rickenbacker Airport might become a job-creation engine. This time.

I'm sorry. I refuse to believe that Bob Shamansky won't fight for Central Ohio. The Dispatch as much as admits that Congress needs a change. The endorsements today are a cop-out. I'd like to think that we can't be bought so easily.