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Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 By Mike Maurer
Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Republican in a safe district, runs a middle of the road campaign against challenger Dave Robinson. So, room to promote a governing philosophy from either of them?
Not much of an apparent one. Here’s Tiberi’s brave stance: “I do what I think is right. It’s not about labels.”
Well, that distinguishes him from the does-what-he-thinks-is-wrong crowd. I’m not sure that even included Marc Dann, did it?
And what labels is Pat not about? Hmm. What would it be, what would it be? “Conservative” maybe? “Free market,” maybe? If you’re not about labels, how do you communicate? Telepathy? Primary colors? What drives your agenda? Can’t be principles, as they would need labels. Do you move according to the front page of the New York Times? The Clintons rode that method quite well, extraordinarily well, but did it ever really work for them? Is merely holding office really that valuable? And if it is, does anyone think such absurd temporizing is the most effective method of doing so?
When Gov. Ted Strickland describes himself as conservative half a dozen times in less than 10 minutes, you’d think that someone would wonder, “Gee, is there some value in that term?” Indeed, you might think that some office-holder, somewhere, might take a moment to sit back, decide what their principles are, and fight for them. But if you did think that, you certainly wouldn’t find them in a political party.
As to Robinson, we’re pretty sure he doesn’t like Bush. Does that distinguish him from Tiberi?
Tags: governing philosophy, principles
