A portrait of the Grand Oil Party

[Harry Hope]

From The Los Angeles Times

By ERIC COHEN

A party at its crest, artificially held together by the issues of the
past and afraid even to attempt its own boldest ideas.

It is the picture of a party with two rival cultures:

the first a culture of religious believers, pro-life activists and
home schoolers, who believe America has lost its moral bearings;

the second a culture of oilmen and big businessmen, who believe
America's greatness rises and falls with the stock market and that all
virtue resides among the victors of the marketplace.

It is the picture of a party that has abandoned school choice,
hollowed out its faith-based initiative, appeased China and largely
avoided the most contentious social issues.

It is the picture of a party that acquired power by chance--losing the
popular vote in the presidential election;

staring straight in the face of a recession heading into 2002;

and wrong in the eyes of the public on wedge issues like the
environment and health care.

All it has is tax cuts, the one thing that holds all the party's
constituencies together, for now, but which most Americans believe
will favor the wealthy, not them.

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What a motley bunch!

Harry

``I'm here in my office early in the morning because I want to be, not
because I have to be. The president, it turns out, if he doesn't want
to be here, he doesn't have to be here. Everybody else kind of, you
know, shows up where he shows up.''

Georgie W. Dimwit - AP interview 4/25/01