Yes, and people will choose the liberal because of it, even though the liberal will be like an armless man that sees one's grip weakening on the cliff edge. He may care outragously but he's not capable of doing anything effective. 
Posted on 10/28/2002 4:15:42 PM PST by KMC1
I noticed my own sleep patterns changed last week. I noticed that even if I got 9 hours per night (which I did only once) I was still profoundly draggy and tired and beat down like a wet noodle. I tried one last time just last night to give myself an uninterrupted length of hours to rest and sleep and try to recharge. The harsh conclusion that I have come to is that I am still somewhat unsettled by a series of events last week and have not yet fully processed them.
If you are new to this column let me let you in on the fact that I also do a radio show weekdays in Chicago. It's intense, it's political, and it's always interesting. We are nearing the end of this current campaign cycle and, as we do sometimes, strange things happen on the show.
Last week, we had one of those political figures that I would just as easy never talk to in my life, but since it's election time, "equal time" is the great trump card that gets played. The week before we had given the man I am voting for in the U.S. Senate race, State Rep. Jim Durkin, an chance to visit with us in studio for a few minutes.
Because he struck a chord with listeners, the phones began lighting up, and the candidate ended up staying through the rest of the show.
Sitting U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's people knew of this, and called the station for equal time. Now, in my mind, Dick Durbin is one of the lowest forms of human beings ever created. He is pragmatic and unprincipled, which means he carries out the marching orders of whatever Tom Daschle and others in leadership among the Democrats will tell him to do. (For example: He voted against the Gulf War in 1991, under Clinton he voted to give the U.S. the right to carry out pre-emptive strikes, under Bush in 2002 he voted against the same measure.) Dick Durbin is spineless with the inability to think or behave or act on his own convictions. (That is, of course, that there should be the remotest chance that he ever find some.)
The day he was scheduled to be on our show, he continually ran late and we bumped his airtime twice in order to accommodate his inability to keep his commitments. When he finally did make himself available it was scrunched right up into the end of our radio show.
As we carried him into the final segment of the show, I had no idea that the next thirty seconds would have an affect on how the rest of my week was viewed.
When we questioned Durbin, my co-host Deborah Rowe posed her first question, "Don't the judicial nominees deserve a vote on the Senate floor?" The sitting senator and current member of the largely inactive Senate Judiciary committee, avoided the question, and his half attempt at an answer was dishonest. In my follow-up, I challenged the senator on the truthfulness of what he said, and repeated the question, but I crafted my caveat around the issue of the American Bar Association -- how the Democrats had pledged not to support any candidate, except those that came with the ABA's highest rating and endorsement.
Durbin lied again and tried to diffuse. At this point, we were up against our final commercial break for the show. Amazingly, he agreed to stay for a few more minutes.
In the final portion of our show each day we give some of our time away to the fine man who follows our time slot on our station in Chicago. He is heard in over 40 markets nationwide. Chicago is one of his newest markets, and we do cross promotional plugs for his show so that listeners stay over and enjoy the hour that follows us.
This fine man's name is Hugh Hewitt. Hugh is an attorney, a great legal mind, and a gifted communicator. He even allows me the honor to sit in for him on occasion when he is out. When we returned after the break, Hugh asked if he could ask the Senator a question. Deborah and I let him, and the beads of sweat continued for Durbin. So much so that Durbin was just about to hang up. At this point, Deborah begged Hugh to promote his show and Hugh continued to dog the Senator and *poof* like that, the show was over.
Only it wasn't... Mr. Hewitt took the better part of the next hour railing on Deborah on his national show. . .
All this aside, it saddened me. We were all on the same team. Deborah and I want more and more folks to listen to us everyday. We have to build an audience. We are expected to build ratings, and in doing so, lay the foundation for show's like Hugh's and others to be successful.
Part of that on the local level is to maintain a sense of fair play. We want to be redemptive in our truth-telling.
Fast forward then to Senator Wellstone's death on Friday. In the midst of our broadcast people began e-mailing me during the show saying, "How can you play a cut of President Bush saying the Wellstone was a man of conviction?"
On a purely political level, it may be a good question. Senator Wellstone disagreed fundamentally with the "pro-family" agenda that the conservative movement embodies. But consider this: If conservatives are only concerned about being right, then they will never be effective in engaging those who disagree into seeing the merits of why they are.
In other words, when a man dies tragically, it is okay for a President to express his sympathy to the family, because it is the caring thing to do.
I wish there were more conservatives actively engaged in trying to win the philosophical battles by basing the arguments on the merits of how it helps people. The common perception by common men is that "liberals care", and "conservatives know".
Arrogance may be based in truth, but truth was never given for the arrogant.
In fact, I seem to remember the one who called Himself "The Truth" - being sent to seek and to save that which is lost.
CONTACT KEVIN: kmc@wyll.com
It wasn't clear to me why
Mr. Hewitt took the better part of the next hour railing on Deborah on his national show. . .
I can't figure out from the column why he was upset with Deborah. Can you clue me in?
Thanks, and sorry in advance if I'm too thick-headed to get it.
Yes, and people will choose the liberal because of it, even though the liberal will be like an armless man that sees one's grip weakening on the cliff edge. He may care outragously but he's not capable of doing anything effective.
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