From the dark center of the Eagle newsroom, greetings. I'm Gary Catt, executive editor of Eagle Newspapers. I've come to this calling after a career that's swerved through a half-dozen daily newspapers and an ad agency that was once the world's largest. Along the way I've written or edited most everything and an I've guided successful strategies around times of difficulty for Fortune 50 companies. My job here is to make sure that when you pick up your Eagle community newspaper it's a like a walk down main street, spotting faces you know; discovering news you need to know.
Having survived eight years of wars on poor premise, Haliburton, insane Congressional spending, give-away mortgages and near economic collapse, we’re now being treated to the alternative: U.S. Senate seats for sale in Illinois; U.S. Senate seats by right or birth in New York; jury-rigged elections in Minnesota; pay for play mall development and free money for most every mismanaged corporation and state government. And… not unexpectedly more petty taxes to support more folly and more mismanagement.
We’ve gone from oil for food to pig wrestling. Make way for the Democrats. The angry left has taken the ball away from the insipid right.
Taking the center ring in this circus of the absurd is New York State… Hil and Bill are tangled with the hopes and dreams of Robert Congel’s Destiny in a case of financial sleight of hand that looks an awful lot like the accursed “pay for play” we’ve all grown tired of hearing already. And there’s the princess of Camelot, Caroline Kennedy who is getting favorable looks from the governor to be U.S. Senator because she can raise money for his election campaign. And, lest we forget, New York City’s U.S. Sen. Charles Rangel is caught up in his own “pay for play’ episode involving the high-rolling vacationers from AIG, the company that starred in the collapse of the economy and the spending of tax dollars in its bail-out package.
Then, over the weekend attention lifted from New York as New Mexico’s Bill Richardson decided he couldn’t be Barack Obama’s U.S. Commerce secretary because of.. tah …tah… You guessed it: “pay for play.”
What’s to explain this? Well, eight years ago we saw a contrasting strategy for power. Welcome to shock and awe Democratic style.
