Free Republic

A cynic might well be forgiven the indelicate observation that the two most salient, pervasive and persistent characteristics of American politics are hypocrisy and irony. Both, as usual, are prominently on display in the presidential campaign of 2004. Perhaps the most savory of all examples is the “controversy” over “outsourcing” broached in a deliciously “outraged” denunciation by the single wealthiest member of the United States Senate, plutocrat John Kerry, aristocratic “defender of the common man,” of “Benedict Arnold CEOs” who callously export jobs abroad while earning “obscene” salaries substantially less than the Senator’s annual dividend checks—the facts be damned. [For...

John Kerry's financial fortunes may be linked to a ketchup empire, but in his political notebook, what's sauce for the goose isn't sauce for the gander. The Democratic Presidential nominee, who has been railing against outsourcing, is walking on a sticky wicket on the issue. There are outsourcing footprints all over Kerry's pristine all H J Heinz & Co, the family business of Kerry and his wife Teresa, has spread its ketchup operations across the world. Of the 79 factories that the food processor owns, 57 are overseas. Heinz makes ketchup, pizza crust, baby cereal and other edibles in such...