662 Moon Over Washington

662 Moon Over Washington

A man of the cloth, he is, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Forget about his links to Farrakhan. Forget the love bombed teenyboppers peddling flowers on New York street corners. And the links to Nixon. And the links to Reagan. And the mass weddings. And the tax law violations. And the messiah act. A man of the cloth he is. And a great disseminator of news, something like the Associated Press and the New York Times. Well -- sort of.

He does start newspapers, however. Like the News World of New York City, the one that printed the front page announcement of a "Reagan Landslide" before the polls were closed, apparently on the orders of Rev. Cloth.

Media Mogul and Man of the cloth. News World didn't last as a New York publisher, but the company sure did and now it owns the ever beleaguered and once proud United Press International and the soon to be once proud Washington Times, which reports say has hemorrhaged money since its founding in 1982 -- billions, maybe. But they earned a reputation of being honest about their politics (far right, but not too feisty,) and carving out a niche -- to give the right wing its red meat with a little wine afterwards.

So it was a stunner to find a headline like this one: "Stimulus Foes See Value in Seeking Cash." You'd expect a story like that on the Huffington Post or the Daily Beast or the New York Observer, but the Washington TIMES?

The article (2/9/10) goes on to name a bunch of legislators who campaigned vigorously against and voted gleefully against President Obama's stimulus plans, but went after the money after it was approved and with equal vigor and glee. You expect that. After all, the smell of money to a Congress member or Senator is even more magnetic than the sight of a TV news camera.

Panhandling is not illegal in Congress. In fact, it's standard operating procedure. Hypocrisy, the same. So the actions of these guys is not terribly surprising. But the source of the story is.

And you have to laugh at the "explanations" from the legislators' publicists (everyone needs a spokesman.) "Sen. Glitch's response was entirely consistent." "Well, if it's going to be there, our state should get its share of the money, too."

Thanks to the Rev. Moon and his newspaper for pointing all that out to us.

Shrapnel:

--Pierre Sutton, son of the late Percy Sutton is running the family's Inner City Broadcasting and by all accounts doing a pretty good job of it. David Paterson, son of Basil Paterson (still with us, thank goodness,) is running New York State as governor. So, sometimes the apple falls close to the tree and sometimes it doesn't.

--Speaking of governors and native New Yorkers, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania has delivered his annual budget message. Ironic. They haven't really finished the last one yet.

--Car recalls, car recalls, car recalls. We're forever hearing about car recalls, but they should also recall some drivers. Especially those who forget what a turn signal is and therefore don't use it.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2010