Accidental Blogger

Brian Leiter at Leiter Reports has two comical examples of politicians speaking the truth inadvertently. Their self serving platitudes are meant to convey righteous indignation, but the delicious irony is not lost on us.

First…., Bush (speaking to a Venezuelan woman in Omaha, NE ):  ”I’m a little worried about your country, I’m worried about it, a little worried about it. I think it’ll be OK.”

But, he added: ”It’s going to take awhile. Sometimes leaders show up who do a great disservice to the traditions and people of a country.”

Second…, Sen Edward Kennedy (on the failure in the U.S. Senate of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage): ”The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution,”

In response, [Utah Republican Senator] Hatch fumed: ”Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?”

I just came across a third truthful "gem" spoken without a trace of irony.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley easily beat back a GOP primary challenge from Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore.

Riley said voters saw state government has changed while he has been in office. "People appreciated the difference in the level of corruption we had in the past and the corruption we don’t have today," he said.

His challenger, Moore, the former state chief justice who became a hero to the religious right in 2003 when he was ousted after refusing to remove the Commandments monument from the state judicial building, said: "God’s will has been done."

Addendum: Note to Sen Hatch.

This afternoon on the Senate floor, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) stood before a large photograph of his family and shared this important fact: “I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship.”

INHOFE: As you see here, and I think this is maybe the most important prop we’ll have during the entire debate, my wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship.

Inhofe is consistent in his professional life. His office says “he does not hire openly gay staffers ‘due to the possibility of a conflict of agenda.’”