A Perspective on the Noriega-Cornyn Debate

From: Eddie Griffin

TO: Rick Noriega, Candidate for U. S. Senate
Cc: John Cornyn, Incumbent U. S. Senator

Dear Rick,

I watched the debate last night between you and John Cornyn on PBS. While clearly I could have choked the moderator by his throat for botching the job, I am disappointed by your performance. By my evaluation, you scored a C.

Thankfully, you will get another shot at John “Corn Dog” Cornyn in Dallas next week, without the Libertarian candidate Yvonne Schick. Although she was a distraction, she scored a B in performance.

Mr. Cornyny is about cool, calm, and collective as Barack Obama. He scored an A, because he conducted himself as a self-confident incumbent.

Get the picture?

Here again, I repeated to you what I have told you on four separate occasions: In order for Barack Obama to win Texas, you must beat John Cornyn. What part of that strategy did you not understand? You’re not trying hard enough.

(I noticed your skinning and grinning on the question of public campaign financing… because of your under-funded campaign, you favor public financing... Wrong, wrong, wrong!)

I am particularly disappointed with your timid response on Torture. “We don’t do torture.” How is that a different answer than Cornyn? If there were one thing that I insisted that you not forget was the children and innocent detainees inside Guantanamo. There have been three military prosecutors who have resigned, because they know some of these cases are bogus.

Why didn’t you make John Cornyn answer for the US government’s behavior in this war on terrorism? Ask him: Does he feel, as Sarah Palin, that Bill Ayers is a domestic terrorist? Would he approve spying on ex-militants from the 1960s bygone era? Or, would he expand the Patriot Act to include spying on everybody hoping to find one terrorist in our midst of millions?

Rick, you are supposed to be our hope in returning to sanity. But you sound so much like your opponent last night that I could recognize which of you were the Democrat and which was the Republican. And, when you mentioned the name of Barack Obama, you sounded like a church mouse.

How do you defeat John Cornyn, now that you have a bloody nose?

First, you don’t be so modest about being battlefield-proven, a proud Lieutenant Colonial, active in the Army Reserves, and an Afghan War vet. This is an asset gained only by experience, which John Cornyn does not have. He has never had to shed a tear over a comrade on the battlefield. He doesn’t know the pains of war, especially a war provoked by poor decision-making.

He never heard your comment about dealing with Post Traumatic Stress and quality medical care and benefits for veterans. 30 seconds, times up.

Nobody heard you say that Cornyn was a main supporter of George Bush going into war. Nobody heard you criticize George Bush, your commander-in-chief, when you went into harms way on the premise of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Why didn’t you just tell Big Bad John just how you felt as a soldier when you found out that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction?

There is a basic rule of war: One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

Think not? Consider China and its terrorist list. Some of these Chinese outlaws are US friends. So, who is a terrorist to whom? Terrorism is in the eye of the beholder. The innocent Chinese Muslims now being held in Guantanamo remain illegal confined, simply because Chinese classifies them as “terrorists”.

Why have you allowed your opponents to play so loosely with this Red Scare? Have we become so indoctrinated that we react like Joe Six Pack in the McCarthy era, too afraid to speak up, because someone might accuse us of being “a communist sympathizer”. Is that the cat that’s got your tongue?

Rick, you know when any government can get away with this kind of stuff, along with a blank check to eavesdrop and spying, we have already reach totalitarianism. That is what George Bush and John Cornyn operated... a totalitarian government, where the wishes of the people are the furtherest thing from their minds.

Why don't you ask John how he feels about the Child Soldiers locked up in Guantanamo accused of being terrorist? How does he feel about recent court decision favoring them? Does he, like George Bush, criticize the Supreme Court's decision to hear their cause in the courts?

Ask your opponent those questions, and then ask yourself. Then convince me that you are the man for the job and not just another Democratic Party wimp.

Eddie Griffin