Walker’s No Longer a
Runner
By
Leonard Zwelling
Scott Walker, the union-busting Governor of Wisconsin, has
“suspended” his pursuit of the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination. This
means, he is out of money. The large donors are disappearing and the ones who
aren’t gone cannot get their friends to pony up any more for the candidate or
for his PACs. So then there were 15.
This comes in the days following the revelation that Dr.
(yes, it’s an embarrassment to the rest of us) Ben Carson does not believe in
the Constitution. Article VI, paragraph 3 states “no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or
public trust under the United States.” It is thus clear that the great and good
pediatric neurosurgeon from Baltimore and Detroit would hold that a principle
engrained in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers is unconstitutional. I
think this precludes him from running any longer and I propose that Scott
Walker join him in the OR the next time a set of conjoint twins appear in Iowa.
That would keep them both busy doing things other than run for President and
make the world safer for democracy.
This may shift the
spotlight a bit, but just a bit.
Donald Trump is
still sucking all of the available media oxygen out of the room and Carly
Fiorina is about to find out the cost of doing well as her past deficiencies,
so ably aired by Barbara Boxer when they ran against one another in the recent
California Senate race, are dredged up yet again as the mud they are and flung at
the past Lucent and HP executive like a giant spitball in the cafeteria war
that the GOP nominating process has become.
And on the subject
of high school, have you noticed the recent “human interest” stories about MD
Anderson proliferating in the Houston Chronicle on a weekly basis? It looks
like the high school yearbook. What’s that about?
All of a sudden a publication
that virtually called for the end of the DePinho Presidency as recently as
April 1 (http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Code-blue-6173491.php)
now seems to be extolling the virtues of all items bearing a red line through
the word cancer. How could this be?
Hmm..do you think
it is related to the fact that your favorite blogger having published 30 op-eds
in the Chronicle since 2009 can now no longer get arrested at the Chronicle let
alone get anything published? Where once I dined with members of the editorial
staff, I am now persona non grata at the Chronicle. I think what that proves is
that full-page ads talk and ex-faculty walk even if unable to run. If the DePinho administration
takes the same posture, shared governance may wind up being the illusion we all
fear it already is. (Do you really think the faculty would OK deals made with
companies run by major sperm donors who receive FDA warning letters with 400 of
his offspring unknowingly running around Michigan? See past blog of 9/17/15).
Fortunately, I am
still walking and talking if not running any more than Scott Walker is.
It is quite clear
that money moves mountains, campaigns and newspapers. On the day that the Pope
comes to the US and reminds us all of the essential teachings of Jesus about
the love of money and who shall inherit the Earth, it is a good time to reflect
on what has happened to this nation since 2008 when Senator McCain lit into a
woman who accused then-Senator Obama of being a Muslim and MD Anderson since
2011 and the arrival of the Massachusetts Mafia. It’s not pretty.
