The Cowardly Elephant

I heard once that the GOP was a political party, but apparently that's in the past; today's GOP doesn't have the will to fight a fight just for the politics of it all.

Bush and Swiftboat Veterans for Truth contributor Sam Fox did not have the votes to be confirmed as ambassador to Belgium, so the Cowardly Elephant simply withdrew the nomination. There's words for that: Cut and run. Surrender.

But instead of defending Fox and his political contributions, the GOP soapbox had no one on it, leaving John Kerry to say unchallenged:

"Sam Fox had every opportunity to disavow the politics of personal destruction and to embrace the truth. He chose not to. The White House made the right decision to withdraw the nomination. I hope this signals a new day in political discourse."

I hope it signals a new day, too, a day when someone like Sam Fox would be turned loose on a committee, with the full support of GOP committee members, so that the confirmation hearing could be turned into a hearing on the truth of the Swiftboat allegations.

Even though the Swiftboat claims of Kerry's mousey war record are well documented, even though Kerry's version has little support among Swiftboat veterans, even though Kerry could prove his case (supposedly) by simply releasing his military records, which he has steadfastly refused to do, the GOP walked away from this fight.

Dems and Libs who howled that the Dixie Chicks were "'censored"' when people stopped buying their records are strangely silent when Sam Fox's free political speech is censored by Dem Senators who think it's perfectly OK to politically lynch an upstanding citizen over his legal campaign contributions.

Is there a Republican in the house? Someone with a spine? Please?