The Louisville, KY
Courier-Journal has done it again! On Tuesday they ran another
stunning Op-Ed, this one penned by former US Senator Marlow Cook (R-KY), which contains an endorsement of Kerry and a blistering critique of the Bush Administration. Highlights below the fold.
Cook actually announced his
support for Kerry back in July. Even with his disdain for Bush and support of Kerry, he has remained a Republican. What's even better is that Cook now lives in Sarasota, Florida...so, score one vote for Kerry in the Sunshine State! ;-)
Anyway, check out some of what Cook had to say (any emphasis is mine):
I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican. But when we as a party send the wrong person to the White House, then it is our responsibility to send him home if our nation suffers as a result of his actions. I fall in the category of good conservative thinkers, like George F. Will, for instance, who wrote: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and having thought, to have second thoughts."
We know his father got him in the Texas Air National Guard so he would not have to go to Vietnam. The religious right can have him with those moral standards. We also have Vice President Dick Cheney, who deferred his way out of Vietnam because, as he says, he "had more important things to do."
Those wars [wars occurring during Cook's 78 year lifetime] were to defend freedom throughout the free world from communism, dictators and tyrants. Now Americans are the aggressors -- we start the wars, we blow up all the infrastructure in those countries, and then turn around and spend tax dollars denying our nation an excellent education system, medical and drug programs, and the list goes on. ...
Lyndon Johnson said America could have guns and butter at the same time. This administration says you can have guns, butter and no taxes at the same time. God help us if we are not smart enough to know that is wrong, and we live by it to our peril.
I am not enamored with John Kerry, but I am frightened to death of George Bush.
For me, as a Republican, I feel that when my party gives me a dangerous leader who flouts the truth, takes the country into an undeclared war and then adds a war on terrorism to it without debate by the Congress, we have a duty to rid ourselves of those who are taking our country on a perilous ride in the wrong direction.
Wow...my new favorite Republican!!! Thank-you Senator Cook. Just how is it that Louisville, in conservative Kentucky, gets so lucky as to have a paper as great at the Courier-Journal??