Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. Proverbs 16:18-19 (NKJV)

Hubris (n): exaggerated pride or self confidence  Langenscheidt’s Pocket Dictionary (Merriam-Webster)

In the last few weeks, we have been treated to some serious hubris on parade coming out of the nation’s capital. Everywhere we look, there is someone out there trying to sell us on the merits of the amnesty bill for illegal aliens that the Democrats and too many members of the GOP have conspired to cook up. While it is par for the course for the Democrats to want to make the immoral moral, or the illegal legal, what has been truly disappointing has been the actions of the Republicans in Washington, D.C. and their complicity in this “scamnesty”, as it has been so accurately called.

But what has truly been breathtaking has been the way the White House and it’s (few) supporters have taken in after the very people that put them in power in the first place…the conservative base of the Republican Party. They have stooped to the same tricks that the Democrats are known for when someone crosses them; name-calling, mud-slinging, and back-biting. They have leveled false accusations at people, and have taken to blaming talk radio for all their problems selling the scamnesty bill to the people.

Take President Bush, aka The Decider for example. He has been out there beating the…um...well, bushes for months trying to convince people that there is no other way on the immigration issue except to issue an amnesty bill and put all 12 million illegals on the fast track to legal status. He has tried to convince us that building the border fence isn’t quite “do-able” and wouldn’t be a good idea anyway. We are to believe that it is impossible for a country that can put a space shuttle up into orbit to fix a space station run by our friendly Russian cosmonaut friends….all things that were seemingly impossible when I was a kid…to build a fence along our southern border, or to find the 12 million illegal immigrants that are in country now. I have to wonder if The Decider actually thinks we’re that stupid, or if he’s just trying to convince himself that we’re that stupid!

Then there’s Tony Snow who has the task of taking the President’s position to the media and trying to sell it to the people out in TV land. Now, I can’t say if the White House position on amnesty is the same as Mr. Snow’s views but from the way he has been acting I have to assume that it is. Take Mr. Snow’s very recent turn on The Sean Hannity Show this week. When Mr. Snow was challenged by Hannity on the merits of the bill and on the particulars as well, Snow went into Mouthpiece mode. He told Hannity that he, and others on talk radio, were giving the public false information and trying to mislead them on the merits of the amnesty bill. I don’t know about you, but on this issue I trust Rush, Sean, Laura, Lars, or Levin to tell me the truth way more than the White House; mainly because the talk show hosts don’t have a dog in the fight and because they actually listen to the people on this issue. And when Sean challenged The Mouthpiece to present one…ONE!..fact that he had wrong, The Mouthpiece couldn’t give him one and said he would send him a list of his mistakes. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that list to be forthcoming though, because Sean had his ducks in a row and has made no untrue or misleading statements about the bill        ; he has simply put out in public what the politicians want to hide!

Finally we come to Trent Lott, the Jester. Senator Lott has been very vocal lately about the ills of talk radio, and how they “run the country” presumably by shaping public attitudes. What I don’t remember, however, is Trent Lott bashing talk radio when he let his loose lips get him into trouble a few years back; which, by the way is probably what caused him to dress up in that ridiculous outfit in the photo. Back when Trent was being excoriated by the press for allegedly being a supporter of segregation…when he was about 9 years old…it was talk radio that rode to his rescue. It was talk hosts like Laura Ingraham that pointed out how two-faced the media was being in their treatment of Lott when they had a former Klansman in the Senate being lauded as the “conscience of the Senate”. It was Sean Hannity that pointed out that Lott was not in any position to support or oppose Senator Thurmond’s positions on segregation at such a young age. And it was Rush Limbaugh that pointed out that while Lott was being ripped to shreds for saying something nice to an old man at his birthday party, the Democrats had supported for President a man whose biggest political idol was an avowed segregationist J. William Fulbright.

And what is even more curious, is that The Jester is throwing in with a President and administration that was less than supportive of him in his time of need. There were no strong words of support for Sen. Lott when he was being forced to issue apology after apology, and being stripped of his place as Senate Majority Leader. For him to go to the mattresses for this administration on this issue is beyond the realm of my comprehension for two reasons: 1. The White House abandoned him in his time of need, and 2. this is an issue that is a total political loser because the vast majority of Americans oppose it. But Sen. Lott has chosen this issue to how his loyalty to the President on…simply unbelievable!

Maybe all the clowns in Washington trying to shove this down our throats need to stop, step back, and reassess the situation. This is something that liberals, conservatives, libertarians, and moderates have all made known they oppose. Yet the politicians in Washington keep talking about how good this is for the nation…what chutzpah!

This is truly hubris on parade!