You say Potato..

In case you are still on the fence about whether or not CNN has chosen sides in the political discourse, of which they are supposed to be objective observers, sample this headline from this morning's fare:

"Washington (CNN) -- President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders decided Tuesday to bypass a formal House and Senate conference to meld their health care bills, according to two congressional Democratic leadership sources.

The two told CNN that Obama and Democratic congressional leaders will instead hold informal negotiations to sidestep possible Republican delays of the process."

Now for an alternative view:

"FOXNews.com
President Obama and Democratic leaders agree to keep health reform negotiations a close-door affair, bypassing a conference committee that would have opened the process to scrutiny."

When I was young and coming of age as a political being it was less common for the offices of leadership to to be so brazen in the attempt of out-and-out intellectual dishonesty. Usually someone in the press would call them on it and make them atone. Now its so common for our leaders to be able to shovel such unbelievable mounds of baloney at us that we hardly blink in response. Almost as if we expect it. Sadly, we do.

What was even more uncommon was the degree a political partisan would bend over backwards to accommodate and defend the such actions without so much as a "what were you thinking?" in trying to get an explanation for one clearly crossing lines of accepted behavior. Nobody wanted to defend a scoundrel, without very good reason anyway. Luckily, there were few.

I am a father of a teen and an almost teen, both coming of an age when discussions of politics, leadership, and public service are had daily in their social studies classrooms. So, here is my question. What do I tell my kids about how to interpret this maneuver employed by the President and the Democrat Congressional Leadership? Is it a friendly get together to discuss the weighty matter of health care legislation so as to avoid burdening the public with such pesky details? Or is it an out-and-out end run past the legislative process designed to keep the light of day off of the details?

No matter! its going to happen the way it will and in the end I will thank the Democrats profusely. I try to teach my kids about concepts of right and wrong as if they exist. I bring to their attention as often as possible examples of what it means to have character, especially when I was the example of one who could have made better choices.

I applaud the democrats for being bold enough to not care, that in a world where they are the self appointed arbiters of the "meaning" of the law and ardent admirers of holding others to the letter of the law, that they are consistent enough to ignore the spirit of the law and disrespect the process of the making of the law, all for a greater good, I'm sure.

My kids need desperately to see fine examples of highly educated men and women take to the shadows when exercising their duties as keepers of the public trust.

My daughter needs to know that before her lay choices which will carry consequences. Thanks to the President, et al. she will see the highest levels of leadership demean themselves, the institution of government and the democratic process, all in a "noble" effort to give "the people" what they want.

Ya gotta love trite, overused and hackneyed phrases, simply because at one time the truth carried within was meaningful and widely accepted.

Mr. President, character is still who you are when nobody else is watching.

First things first, turn on the lights, open the doors, and show us some character, please.