During one of the times Friedrich Nietzsche was not discussing the state of God, he blurted something that accurately describes the current state of the Republican Party. "In times of peace, the war-like man turns upon himself."
According to the explicit, global hermetical blog run by Mike McCarville, a GOP committee-woman has begun an email campaign attacking Governor Mary Fallin. The charge: Fallin is too liberal.
The bee that got into Bunny's bonnet is that Governor Fallin applied for $60 million of federal grant money that would be earmarked for early childhood education. In Chambers' own words, the money "will result in more pre-school-age children—including infants and toddlers—being enrolled in early childhood education programs."
Perhaps I'm naive, but that sounds like a good thing. Bunny's intention was for it to sound scandalous. Chambers feels strongly that "Conservative Governor Frank Keating" would never have kowtowed to the liberal agenda of preparing small children for a life of literacy and education. She asks bluntly:
Should Oklahoma go along with President Obama in his 'support for a seamless and comprehensive set of services and support for children, from birth through age 5'?
Based on the letter that was sent out to attack their fellow Republican, Chambers opposition boils down to this final conclusion: "Ask her to cut our taxes instead, so we can keep our own money and raise our own children." Of course, getting a grant means the services are paid for without our own money, so that seems like a strange reason to try to block kids getting a jump start on learning.
There is a better reason for Chambers to suggest that Fallin is being too much of a liberal, though. In a time when Republicans control every aspect of the state's governance, this wasn't a Republican idea.
And, yet Gov. Fallin recently said she is committed to seeing that Oklahoma continues to have a strong role in programs that have already been established for early childhood education. It wasn’t our conservative Governor Keating who established those programs.
Any guess at who might have been responsible? Yeah, it was Brad Henry. So, since he wasn't a "conservative" (here used with the political definition of "belonging to the Republican party") governor, anything he did has to be undone. If it means back tracking on improvements in education to fight the ghost of Democrats past, so be it. Not doing so is being a traitor to the conservative cause.
So, while Fallin is actually--and it pains me to point this out--going about doing what is best for the state, her fellow party members are attacking her for not being partisan enough. Thankfully, Bunny Chambers is around to keep the bigger picture in perspective.
