Outstanding column by Bob Hammel in Bloomington Herald-Times

[Chiyo-chichi]

I HIGHLY recommend that everyone read this.

link to full article from Bedford Times-Mail site, as Herald-Times requires a subscription:
http://www.tmnews.com/articles/2006/02/19/sections/columnist/columnist13.txt

"Hillary Clinton offended some people last week by calling the present Bush administration "one of the worst" ever.

I'm among the irked. Why, Hillary, why "one of"?

We have upon us the governing version of the perfect storm. Runaway debt, disastrous foreign policy, disastrous domestic policies on oil and education and treatment of the rich and the not-so, repudiation-by-ignoring all precedents about checks and balances, and constitutional limits, and accountability to the public via press conferences, and such bungling and lying to the point where one is hard to separate from the other.

Bloomington has an inordinate share of exceptionally qualified U.S. historians. I asked one of the best not long ago if Our Guy is not just the worst of our lifetime but the worst ever. He ran other possibilities through his mind, mumbled names like Buchanan and Harding, and others like John Adams for a single misstep or two, before giving up the hunt.

Bush. This Bush. Hands down, the worst. Ever.

And we Hoosiers have our very own Bushie off-shoot as our governor."

-snip-

Yes, I'm liberal - enough so to be sick of seeing "budgets" soar unchecked and hearing every spending cut that is labeled "welfare reduction" cheered. You bet I'm liberal, and I wish there were more in Congress and statehouses with enough backbone to be as liberal in action and conviction as were the men and women who defined liberalism.

[salin]

1. It was a great read..

He has been great since he left his long-time position on the sports page and began writing more generally (and often on politics) on the op-ed pages. This is a very powerful column.