Here's what really bugs me about millionaire, drunk-driver-defending attorney Ed O'Reilly. It's not that he's got a ton of money. Some of my favorite people have money. I have a bit myself, although I'm nowhere near O'Reilly's tax bracket. It's not even how he made his money, although defending drunk drivers for profit is a pretty slimy way to make a living. It's not his shrill speaking style or his annoying habit of running away when things get a little dicey on the blogs or even that he claims to be a progressive when he isn't. It's not that he cozies up to Republicans when it suits his purpose or that he takes their campaign contributions or that he's aligned himself with the Swift Boat Liars.
OK, that bugs me a little.
But what really bothers me about Ed O'Reilly is that he's got nothing -- NO-THING -- and he's trying to run for Senate on it. Against John Kerry. Seriously, despite his self-proclaimed progressive cred, he has done not one single, solitary thing to justify his opposition to Sen. Kerry.
Against the war? ME TOO! For gay marriage? Sure, why not? Heck, I have the same record on Iraq and gay marriage as O'Reilly does. Maybe better. Faith for Senate. It has a ring to it.
Of course, I couldn't run in Massachusetts, where they have a couple Senators who have actually done stuff. Senators who have fought against the Bush administration on a host of issues, and one in particular who has lead the Senate in opposition to the Iraq War for years, and whose Kerry-Feingold Amendment, which got 13 votes in June of 2006, is now the Democratic position on withdrawal.
Joe Biden recognized Senator Kerry's efforts on the floor of the Senate last September.
So, here's the bottom line. Ed O'Reilly has done nothing, and has proven nothing to back up his stated positions on anything. Nothing on Iraq, nothing on gay marriage, nothing on the economy, nothing on the environment. He didn't lead a protest, fund a study, hold a rally or run for elected office higher than school committee that I'm aware of, and I'm sure I would have heard. And until he comes up with something more than angry guy with an annoying voice, his campaign for Senate is nothing more than a bunch of bloviating by a do-nothing, know-nothing windbag pettifogger.
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