I'll Take "Pulling Your Head Out" For $2000, Alex

It's a Daily Double!

Today's Spokesman Review brings us Charles Krauthammer who explains how the election results in Virginia and New Jersey prove that Obama's election was a fluke.

November ’08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November ’09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm – and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

No mention of the Republican back-stabbed candidate in New York's 23rd district replaced by a Conservative Party nominee who didn't live in the district and was clueless about district issues. Or that the Democratic Party candidate won in that district for the first time since the 1850's. Everything associated with that election is far more telling about the conservative movement and the "return to the norm" than the governor elections in Virgina and New Jersey.

Some rump. Just last month Gallup found that conservatives outnumber liberals by 2 to 1 (40 percent to 20 percent) and even outnumber moderates (at 36 percent). So on Tuesday, the “rump” rebelled. It’s the natural reaction of a center-right country to a governing party seeking to rush through a left-wing agenda using temporary majorities created by the one-shot election of 2008. The misreading of that election – and of the mandate it allegedly bestowed – is the fundamental cause of the Democratic debacle of 2009.

The Democratic debacle?

***

Along with that we have an offensive letter to the editor concerning the death of Otto Zehm at the hands of the Spokane Police Department in which the writer says,

Perhaps the Zehm family and caretakers should share in the blame for what happened March 18, 2006. Their improper monitoring of Mr. Zehm’s special needs helped put him into a situation that was beyond his control. This was neither the responsibility of the general public, nor of the Spokane Police Department — Officer Thompson in particular. Many of the events that happened were beyond their control as well.

Poor Officer Thompson. At the time of the incident he only had 28 years of experience as a police officer and he was placed in a position that he was not responsible for since Otto Zehm was in a situation that was beyond his control. Imagine, Officer Thompson was forced to beat down a suspect who is armed with a 2-liter bottle of pop--that was full! And if you read his statement, I think you'll agree he had no choice. Let me use Officer Karl Thompson's words (bolded below) to explain.

Otto Zehm was holding a large filler 2 liter bottle with a dark liquid and his elbows were in a loaded position. He was wearing a leather jacket which is a soft body armor and that could be somewhat defeating of the electric current of a tasing situation. He was wearing a jacket which means he could have had a concealed weapon since a coat also conceals what is underneath. Officer Thompson knew he was in a store that had shelves with items that he knew were canned, there were glass items as well as all the other soft packaging--potential weapons within arms reach.

See? How can you say that Otto Zehm's family and caretakers don't share the blame in this? The writer continues:

This “incorrect reporting” (by your own admission, Oct. 31) has not only caused unnecessary personal and professional hardship for Officer Thompson, it has helped create an unfair bias against the Spokane Police Department.

And here's the best part:

In the interest of fair reporting, you should research your articles more thoroughly, or tell both sides of this sad story.

Oh, snap!