The American Spectator

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Get Carter

4.18.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 5)

Skipping back a few years, Carter actually seemed to believe we were meddling in the internal affairs of the former Soviet Union when, during an appearance in Berlin, President Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

I spent many years as a federal employee and had first hand experience with Jimmy Carter's style. Overall, he tried to run the federal government as if it were a county courthouse in rural Georgia. Worse, he surrounded himself with fellow amateurs.

He and his cohorts emasculated the IRS's criminal investigation division and the IRS' tax collection efforts. "Intelligence Division" seemed too sinister a term so it was renamed the Criminal Investigation Division. Automatic part payment agreements were offered to all first time tax delinquents. This was a decision that flew in the face of the part payment characteristics of the income tax withholding system. The result? Federal tax delinquencies soared.

And he abolished 900 covert positions in the CIA. The impact of this crippling move would last for years.

Saving the most ludicrous for last, he turned off the hot water in all Federal building washrooms to "save energy."

Jimmy Carter was America's first amateur President. Since "retiring" he's done nothing to jeopardize his amateur standing.
-- Stan Welli
Aurora, Illinois

Jimmy Carter's lousy legacy continues to haunt us after more that three decades, especially in the area of energy independence. His head-in-the-sand nuclear energy polices helped decimate the entire industry by barring plutonium recycling in light water reactors. At the time of his administration, the United States was the world's leader in nuclear power including plutonium recycling. Now, we are importing twice as much oil and are also dependant on nuclear technology from foreign sources.
-- Tom Bullock
West Covina, California

Well said Mr. Tyrrell, but in some ways isn't it good to have this living, walking, breathing example of a Democratic President directly in front of us? What a great example of what the American people get when they buy into the obfuscation handed out by Democrat candidates. Bill Clinton has helped on that front as well it seems as he has campaigned for his lovely wife Bruno, as I believe you call her. In a perfect world they could both be in a jar but I think the example they set can be useful for many Americans as we approach election day.
-- Roger Ross
Tomahawk, Wisconsin

For a Christian in these perhaps last days one tends to see the Anti-Christ everywhere from the Rev. Wright to Hillary, but maybe Carter is the real deal. He certainly fooled many good and faithful Christians when he went around the nation meeting with churches prior to his successful run against poor Jerry Ford who deserved better as we all did. What we got was a far left phony every bit as radical as Obama is sure to be. As I say quite often these days "it is worse than it has ever been" and Lord help us all.
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter's response was to not let our athletes go to the Russian Olympics. I'm sure that shook the Russians up.
-- Fred Edwards

STILL PERPLEXED?
Re: George Neumayr's Christ Our Hope:

Excellent article by Mr. Neumayr. He has nailed the connection that many refuse to see. The more the Church attempts to accommodate "popular" positions, the less "popular" it will become. Just look at many of the dying parishes. They offer the "Church of What's Happening Now" to ever dwindling congregations. Those that offer the Eternal Church which unapologetically preach the Eternal Truths are thriving. And there is no connection?
-- James Siegler

While it is tempting to believe that the major source of the problems that exist within the Church today are more likely found amongst Catholics than the Protestant denominations, the fact is that any possible solution to those problems -- of which there are many -- will only come through the exertions of those within the Church, not those outside it. George Bush, a Methodist, may be more theologically and spiritually attuned to the Ponitifex Maximus than Pelosi/Kennedy/Leahy/Kerry, but, although he is not part of the problem, the president is also not part of the solution. The visit of Pope Benedict XVI will, I pray, identify those problems. and point to solutions.

Realistically, the pope should begin in addressing the priestly scandals in which more than one billion dollars in damages have already been awarded. Yet, to counter the growing image of priestly depravity, critics of the critics of the Church started a chess game in which the proven assertion that significant numbers of the Catholic priesthood were dysfunctional was checked by the statistical assertion that teachers and other religious were, proportionally, equally guilty of "sexual abuse." I have never quite understood that analogy, for the nature of the Catholic priesthood is to be an "alter Christus," unlike a clergyman from Protestant churches, or your high school teacher. The pope indicated his deep concern about this issue before he even arrived on these shores, and, by so doing, at least has publicly recognized the situation, something that was never directly addressed in the previous pontificate. Another problem needing attention is the revamping of the criteria regarding those who qualify for clerical vocations. Benedict XVI has said that "pedophiles" have no place within the Catholic clergy, but will he take the next step? Homosexuality is considered a "disorder" within the Church; does the pope, then, believe that pedophilia and the disorder of homosexuality are not twinned, and if so, will he take appropriate action to prevent the further decline of the church?

Equally important is the decline of Catholic religious education. Foremost in that cataclysmic retrogression is the failure of the schools organized and administered by the Society of Jesus, aka "Jesuits," where the "dictatorship of relativism" not only reigns, but thrives. The pontiff is more than vaguely aware of this problem: in January of this year, addressing the Jesuits 35th General Congregation at their conference in Rome, he called upon the order to return to its earlier and orthodox ways:

And, really, so as to offer the entire Society of Jesus a clear orientation which might be a support for generous and faithful apostolic dedication, it would prove extremely useful that the General Congregation reaffirm, in the spirit of St. Ignatius, its own adhesion to Catholic doctrine... [emphasis mine].

Today, the pope is 81 years old, and, like the presidency of the U.S., the demands of the papacy age the person in office very quickly. But I believe that Pope Benedict XVI sees it as his destiny to play a pivotal role in returning the Church to responsible episcopal and priestly authority, clerical responsibility, and a sense amongst the faithful that the Church has returned to its roots. It is a formidable task, to which my only wish is: God speed.

Letter to the Editor

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