Praise Where It's Due

As we looked back through our recent editions while we were on vacation break, we noticed that we'd missed covering a few stories recently - including some potentially well-earned praise that we missed handing out.

Since the President is back to work - apparently he's the only major part of our government back from vacation - but the rest of Washington, DC is still on vacation, we thought we should cover at least one of those items we'd bypassed earlier this month.

After all, what else would we talk about? The insanity of Rick Perry, the second-coming of George W. Bush, who is currently leading the 2012 GOP field? Not today. Maybe we'll look at that tomorrow.

The news item we're focusing on today - one we'd missed covering in early August - is a simple one. Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, someone we haven't always had the kindest words for, did something amazing earlier this month at a town hall gathering in Lincoln. His action was amazing because, sadly, we've yet to hear almost any Republican at almost any level these days state what he did.

Fortenberry, in not so many words, told right-wing extremist Grover Norquist and his Tea Party minions to go to hell.

In case you're unfamiliar with the background, we'll give you the Cliff's Notes version. Grover Norquist, an anti-tax, pro-corporate lobbyist, has gained a political stranglehold over much of the Republican Party over the last twenty-five years. His most recent tactic is to demand that our elected officials bend to his whims, and not necessarily to the whims of the people who elected them. To accomplish that end, Norquist extracts a pledge from Republicans running for office that says they won't raise taxes for ANY reason... Period.

Admittedly, Rep. Foretenberry signed just such a pledge when he was trying to win his seat in the house of Representatives in 2004.

What Fortenberry did earlier this month, in that town hall in Lincoln, was to pointedly reject the pledge he'd previously signed with Norquist's anti-tax organization.

As a Republican, in a political atmosphere thick with extremist rhetoric, flush with massive amounts of outside cash from hard-to-track sources, Fortenberry finally took a stand for the moderate GOP members that truly make up the majority of Nebraska Republicans (and we believe, Republicans across the country).

We're not sure if Rep. Fortenberry will back up his comments - comments he's since repeated - with actions that make sense, like those that Warren Buffett has suggested this past summer.

What we will say is this: to our moderate Republican friends and readers who complain to us that they are tired of being tarred and feathered with the same political muck attached to the likes of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry - adjectives like racist, ignorant, classist, uneducated, intolerant, and bigoted ...

If Fortenberry doesn't at least receive a word of praise from you for being to willing to stand up for the sane, moderate, sensible position we know that you truly support, then you'll have no one else to blame but yourself for the kinds of extremist nutball candidates you'll have to pick from in your primary elections in 2012.

We sincerely hope, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, that you follow through with your words, and find some revenue enhancements - meaning taxes on those who can afford them - that you can support.

If you do that, sir, we can honestly say you'll have earned the praise we're willing to afford you now.

The More Things Change...

When someone goes on vacation, or even moves to another place, there often seems to be some kind of strange mental hangover that one experiences. It's an illogical kind of mental disconnect that says, "Even though I know the rest of the world continues when I'm not there, upon my return, things should be exactly how and where I saw them last."

It's a process we've all been through as we've travelled this past week, and it's one we're certain you've also likely experienced in your life.

Of course, things do keep moving on in other corners of the world, even while we're away. The Gadhafi regime fell last week (though Gadhafi himself is still on the loose), and the Washington Monument did not (contrary to rumors reported through certain less-than-accurate media outlets). Hurricane Irene swamped the East Coast, and her effects could last for weeks. There was even an earthquake in Washington, DC - ironically centered in the congressional district of Rep. Eric Cantor, who earlier this year said we didn't need to fully fund the U.S. Geological Survey, as there are places in the U.S. that don't have earthquakes. Like the District of Columbia.

Sadly, even while we were away, certain politicians couldn't stop digging themselves deeper political holes - including Nebraska's Attorney General, Jon Bruning.

Bruning, the Republican front-runner likely to challenge Sen. Ben Nelson for Nebraska's U.S. Senate seat in 2012 had a particularly lousy time of it last week, all self-induced.

First, it was revealed that Mr. Bruning, often one to brag about his small town, Cornhusker work ethic, has apparently been making himself a multi-millionaire while Nebraskans pay him $95,000 a year to be the top law enforcement official in the state. It's alleged that he's only a part-time Attorney-General on full pay, while enthusiastically pursuing his personal business interests. It was also revealed that Bruning is anything but fiscally responsible, as his campaign is heavily in debt.

His questionable behavior doesn't end there.

Four years ago, student loan company Nelnet reached a million dollar legal settlement with Attorney-General Bruning and the state of Nebraska over improper and questionably legal conduct. Bruning, however, relieved Nelnet of its obligation to pay a penalty, since Nelnet made a similar deal with the state of New York. Bruning stopped defending that decision later, after being accused of favoritism toward Nelnet.

This past week, it was discovered that Bruning and two top Nelnet executives purchased a $675,000 lake house together just a year after the earlier controversy had blown over.

We've warned Mr. Bruning on these pages more than once, that the story his actions have been stringing together has not been a tale likely to convince voters of his fitness to be a U.S. Senator.

We had thought that when we left for a week of vacation, since the President was on a working vacation, and Congress was in recess (and getting yelled at back home), the Supreme Court was on break, and the astroturf groups took this August off from disrupting Americans, there wouldn't likely be any political news for us to miss covering. Apparently, we were wrong.

Maybe Mr. Bruning had a feeling similar to what we experienced on our respective vacations - a feeling that if no one said anything, maybe his somewhat smelly actions wouldn't be noticed. Just as we described before, it's as though he thought if he left his actions alone, nothing would change and his image would remain relatively clean.

We hate to tell you, Mr. Attorney General, but not even elected officials are immune to the effects of time. Things change, even when you're not around.

This time, that includes your reputation.

Friday Funday: On The Road Again...

As our regular readers know, our staff members tend to get around the United States a bit. We have conferences, presentations, and other business to attend to and we usually take our work with us. From DC to Lincoln to Florida, and a whole host of other places, the three of us do a surprising bit of travel, and still deliver a solid media product to you each weekday.

Being a member of the media is demanding work, as many of you know - since many of you also work in that profession. We have more than a few cartoonists, writers, broadcasters and other members of the American national media who follow our work. Quite a few politicians and other politicos who interact with the media are also on our mailing list - and we know you too, see how hard we work.

Some of you even use our work to give you a starting point for the next 24-hour news cycle.

We know this, and don't mind. Frankly, people who toil in the media and communications fields know we sometimes borrow ideas from one another - or at least, appear to. When the facts all point in the same direction, and great minds all think alike, it's inevitable that some of us arrive at similar conclusions.

For the next week, though, you'll have to make those conclusions without our participation, as our entire staff is going on vacation.

We're taking some time away from the news because... we can.

As we noted earlier this week, the astroturf groups appear to have taken the month off, thank goodness. With the President taking a vacation, and Congress still in the middle of their five week recess, we weren't sure when we'd get another chance to take some R&R for ourselves.

When we get back, we know the coming months will be filled with long days, long nights, stacks of work, and tough decisions - and that's just in our day jobs, not just what we do for you here at The Daily Felltoon.

We know you might be feeling a bit lost while we're gone - so we hope you'll read the work of a few of our colleagues to keep yourself well-informed and occupied while we're away. As always, we hope you read at least two newspapers daily, including the New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times, and Wall Street Journal. For foreign news, keep up with the BBC and Aljazerra. We also hope you'll keep checking out the work of Nate Silver and the fine folks at FiveThirtyEight.com. Dave Weigel of Slate also usually has some good work, and Greg Sargent, Adam Sewer, and the gang the Plum Line are often spot on.

Make sure you read your local and regional newspapers too; not everything is a national issue, after all.

For your daily cartoon fix, we hope the fine work of Jeff Koterba, Wiley Miller, R.C. Harvey, and a host of other great cartoonists from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' website will keep you chuckling and thinking while we're away.

Take hope, though; while you won't be able to get your Daily Felltoon fix via the usual email channels, you can still access Paul's daily editorial cartoon view of the world at the website of his syndicator, www.artizans.com - or even easier at his page on the AAEC website.

It's always good for people to take some time for themselves, whenever that rare opportunity comes up.

We plan to make every moment count - and we look forward to being back with you on August 29th.

Somehow, we have a feeling there will be plenty to share with you upon our return.