Why Koch Is On Bush’s Bandwagon (Short Answer: Because Koch Actually GETS IT -- !)

Boston Globe ^ | 8/29/04 | Jeff Jacoby

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

ED KOCH identifies himself with pride as a lifelong Democrat. The former New York City councilman, congressman, and three-term mayor says his values have always been those of the broad Democratic center -- the values of FDR and Harry Truman, of Hubert Humphrey and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He disdains the Republican worldview as cold and unfeeling -- "I made it on my own, and you should, too." The Democratic philosophy, by contrast, he sums up as: "If you need a helping hand, we'll provide it." No surprise, then, that Koch disagrees with George W. Bush on just about every domestic issue, from taxes to marriage to prescription drugs.

But he's voting for him in November.

[goldstategop]

Sure, Ed Koch is a liberal but he also realizes health care coverage and gay rights won't mean a thing if we all wind up dead. He doesn't trust Kerry to make this country safe. That's why he's voting for Bush in November.

[Maria S]

"Koch doubts that the leadership of his own party could have mustered the grit to topple the Taliban or drive Saddam Hussein from power, let alone to press on in what is going to be a long and grinding conflict."


I reckon Ed and Uday agreed on something:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93291,00.html

Saddam Hussein's son Uday…killed last week by coalition forces…apparently knew months ago that his demise was imminent. The London Telegraph says that three days before the fall of Baghdad on April 9, Uday told the director of Iraqi television, "I think the end is near" because "this time I think the Americans are serious, Bush is not like Clinton."

[tkathy]

The single social issue extremists on the right need to consider this also. What is really important in every election from now on is keeping the country safe, not irrelevant social politics.

[dawn53]

Sure, Ed Koch is a liberal but he also realizes health care coverage and gay rights won't mean a thing if we all wind up dead. He doesn't trust Kerry to make this country safe. That's why he's voting for Bush in November.

Last spring my kid gave a persuasive speech in his college speech class supporting Bush and The Bush Doctrine. The logic you just laid out is what he used in his speech. Earned him an A from a liberal professor who "hates Bush". How can people argue with it? They must want to live in a 9/10 world.

[garylmoore]

The single social issue extremists on the right need to consider this also. What is really important in every election from now on is keeping the country safe, not irrelevant social politics.

Extremists? You call people that have high morals extremists? Well, then call me one, because I don't like the idea of killing babies or men marrying men, now do you really think that people that agree with these sick things have any morals? An Extremist.

[muir_redwoods]

Ed Koch is a lot of things but few would dissagree that he is a civilized man. Anybody with an interest in saving and furthering civilization has to see that W is fighting a war for the survival of civilization. Ed Koch supports W because Koch wants to live in a civilized world and W is the one fighting to save it.

[olde north church]

Well, the self-anointed morality police are really that much better for America. Let me be the first to spread the heresy, most people know the difference between right and wrong.
It didn't take anyone screaming in my face about Heaven or Hell for me to figure out killing babies inside the mother is wrong. It wasn't a pre-requisite for me to figure out men and men or woman and woman should get married.
Maybe you should unbunch your panties, take the beam from your eye and recognize your brand of intolerance is just as annoying as two homos tonguing each other on the streets. Reason wins more minds than rhetoric. Maybe you should take the time to show a film of an abortion in progress or partial birth abortion, then ask people to make a choice.

[garylmoore]

It didn't take anyone screaming in my face about Heaven or Hell for me to figure out killing babies inside the mother is wrong. It wasn't a pre-requisite for me to figure out men and men or woman and woman should get married.

Gee, sounds like we're in agreement.

[garylmoore]

Maybe you should unbunch your panties

I can't figure out why your panties are bunched up if we are in agreement. I think that you just like to argue, me, I am just voicing my opinion on abortion and other sick things that people are doing. Free speech, you know.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Ed Koch was gay before it was cool to be gay. He said a Jew would have to be crazy to vote for Jesse Jackson (who famously referred to Noo Yawk as "Hiemietown".)

I think is makes as much sense for Jews to join "Peace" marches as it would for Blacks to join the 1864 New York City antiwar riots. If the US had adopted the same Middle East policy as France and the EU there might never have been a 9/11, there might never have been a Gulf War I or an Iraq-American war. There would certainly no longer be an Israel.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Have they tried to smear him in New York like they are trying to smear Zell?

[olde north church]

yeah, you're the reasonable one.

[garylmoore]

Yes indeedy.

[pray4liberty]

Ed Koch is a lot of things but few would disagree that he is a civilized man..

He is also, a very honorable man. He is Old Democrat, as is Zell Miller. I wonder how he is going to take the news of Kerry's plan to give nuclear material to Iran!

[muir_redwoods]

I'm old enough (54) to remember when there were lots of democrats like this, my parents among them. Democrats who were wrong on spending issues but vigorous on defense issues. This was before the radical leftists took over the party and turned it into the Sandanistas of the north.