Issue date: 10/11/02 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Mia Lamanuzzi

As I journey through the jungle of the half-truths and exaggerations in that is President Bush's laundry list of reasons for going to war with Iraq, I think back to what Rev. Jesse Jackson said during the last presidential election: "Stay out of the Bushes."

That of course was two years and one sex scandal (Jackson's) earlier. Now just days before the mid-term elections and only months away from the 2000 presidential election jacking, the Republican Party is up to its same tricks again. And this time it's not a bunch of elderly Floridians who will be the pawns.

The GOP is attempting to use American servicemen and women to fight a war in Iraq that they couldn't win on the debate table. We're looking at a party that is simply out of new ideas and has turned to an international conflict as a smokescreen for this year's midterm elections and a second term for President Bush.

Ever since George Bush the Wiser left office in 1993, the GOP has been essentially platform-less. After a Christian Coalition takeover in the early 90s, the party hiked its way to the moral high ground. The ticket was family values. That strategy proved ineffective as Republican politicians were found to have as many skeletons in the closet as the Democrats.

If we have learned nothing else from living in Arkansas, Gene Lyons and other Arkansas journalists, it's that the Republicans spent the rest of the 90s shamelessly digging up dirt on Bill Clinton.

The Republicans have always got an extra finger to point, but they are bankrupt of solutions.

This country has a sick economy (indicators have fallen in three straight months). We have a major problem with Social Security that we will face in the future. The elderly need prescription drugs, and we must realize that in relation to other industrialized countries, we've got at best a mediocre health care system. What's the GOP's solution? Permanent tax cuts that are mostly targeted at people who don't really need the help. As television host Jon Stewart points out, what else should we expect from a President whose solution to an international energy crisis is to dig another hole?

Yet this aimless, political organization wants to continue to lead and represent us? You might need a bigger distraction than war with Iraq, Mr. President

I think the rhetoric on why the United States should go to war with Iraq is about as mind numbing as The Strokes' last album review. But just for kicks (and because my invitation from Ari Fleisher to the next press conference got lost in the mail) I took the time to get the opinions of some of the leading Republicans on campus.

Continued...

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