Bob Edgar of NCC responds to the State of the Union

Bob Edgar is one of our favorite people here at CrossLeft -- a lifelong advocate of civil liberties and international responsibility, a genius at getting real issues in the media.

Way to go NCC News for carrying the report in a timely and pointed fashion, and way to go, Bob Edgar, for drawing attention to the way Bush *avoided* talking about two of the greatest misfeatures of the union's current state: the poor response to Katrina, and the rise of poverty in America.

CrossLeft awards Bob and the NCC News the Blue Ribbon for Deft Political Commentary!

From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org

Edgar: State of Union and response were lacking

From "NCC News"
Date Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:58:29 -0500

State of the Union Message and response
lost sight of people's real needs, Edgar says

New York, February 1, 2006 -- President Bush's State of the Union message
Tuesday, followed by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine's Democratic response, were
remarkable in several ways, according to the General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches USA.

Both the President and the Governor are deeply religious men, observed the
Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist clergyman. Bush's Methodist
evangelicalism is well known, and Kaine is a former missionary with a Jesuit
mission in Honduras. And both men -- despite their divergent viewpoints --
were clearly speaking out of their faith experience, Edgar said.

But neither speech entirely captured what millions of people of faith in the
U.S. were hoping to hear, said Edgar, a former seminary president and
six-term Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania.

"The main thing the State of the Union Message and the Democratic response
had in common was that they were superb public relations documents," Edgar
said Wednesday.

"With so many Americans still suffering the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita, with so many Americans struggling to keep their families healthy,
housed and fed, with so many heroic young men and women dying in Iraq," Edgar
said, "we were hoping both leaders would address America's real problems and
offer some real solutions."

President Bush avoided talking about America's domestic problems and sought
to convince viewers that his foreign policy had set Iraq and other Middle
Eastern nations on the path to a durable democracy. Kaine criticized the
president for poor management and bad choices, and declared, "America can do
better."

"I wish there had been a little more sober reflection on the real impact on
the Iraqi war on soldiers, their families, and the innocent people of Iraq,"
Edgar said. "I wish more time had been spent explaining how the government
plans to end the chaos in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast and do something
to actually help the victims of this summer's hurricanes. I wish there had
been a little more realistic reflection on hunger, poverty, a sustainable
minimum wage, and a federal budget that will remove billions of dollars from
government programs that help poor people. I wish the President and Governor
had made concrete proposals for an enforceable code of ethics for public
servants. I wish there had been a little more acknowledgment that 'the buck'
stops on the President's desk when it comes to war, hunger and poverty."

There is nothing wrong with a good partisan debate, Edgar said, but the State
of the Union message and Democratic response overlooked a major
responsibility of political leaders: reaching out to people who need a
helping hand.

"There was no more partisan politician than Harry Truman," Edgar said, "but
he knew what the rough and tumble of politics was supposed to produce: a
better life for the people."

In 1952, President Truman said special interests didn't need special help
because "they have their lobbies. They have the oil lobby and the real estate
lobby . . . and the National Association of Manufacturers, and the only
(person) in Washington who represents all the people and is elected by all
the people and who is the people's lobbyist is the President of the United
States."

Edgar said the moral and religious heritage of the United States "envisions a
President not beholding to powerful lobbies but to the poor, the powerless,
the ordinary people. And I wish the State of the Union Message and the
response offered greater assurance that today's politicians understand that."

Contact NCC News: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2252, pjenks@ncccusa.org; or
Leslie Tune, 202-544-2350, ltune@ncccusa.org

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