From our readers: Four views of the Mike Sodrel profile in yesterday's C-J.

Yesterday's posting (Rep. Mike Sodrel profiled in today's Courier-Journal) brought forth four comments that fully deserve your attention. Accordingly, I've elevated them to the marquee, and you can read them below.

Thanks for your input, readers.

Today's C-J profile of Baron Hill can be found here, and don't forget that Hill is scheduled to visit tonight's Drinking Liberally gathering at the Public House.

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At 6:37 PM, edward parish said...
Not real sure where the CJ reporter got all of the info on Sodrel, but some of it was way misleading. His family had that business and US Mail contract that MS just happened to expand. To say he is a self made man would be like saying that Candice Bergman made it in Hollywood all by herslf with out the help of her father and Charlie McCarthy.

Misinformation ...

At 8:05 PM, bluegill said...
At least 50,000 are dead due to U.S. intervention.

The right to a fair trial in this country is now based on the decision making of a small group government employees rather than the Constitution.

The number of people on the federal government's payroll has increased by over 2 million since 2002.

The federal deficit is setting records.

The federal government now has more control over our local schools than ever before in the history of the country.

I'm supposed to believe that Sodrel supports all the above because he learned that "big government" is bad for us? My picture is on the wall of the gymnasium where the rally was held but, luckily, most of my time was spent in the classroom where I learned to question nonsense when I read it.

At 8:16 PM, The Indiana Democrat..in my opinion said...
I happened to catch MS spreading the BS on WHAS-TV's noon news yesterday boasting how he grew up in the projects in New Albany, and the different areas of the inner city, and that he wasn't always "this way" (rich). Then MS says he stands up for Indiana values, and understands what the people want.

Well, he doesn't understand MY values. He doesn't understand the many low, or no income people who seem to be forgotten from President Bush down. I'd like to see how many people who live in the projects and the inner city areas, that MS was speaking of, actually got any benefit from Bush's "tax cut". I would venture to say..none of them. I would also bet that if MS still was still living in the projects or other areas, if he would be so willing to support a "tax relief" plan that only benefits those that are already wealthy. I'd venture to say...NO!

MS also boasts that Baron Hill voted 6 times against the tax cuts. I say good for him if he did! Why should the wealthy get the tax cuts? MS recites how he voted on different issues. I would challenge anyone to look at his voting record and find ANY vote that was not along Republican party lines. If he did go against Bush, he'd not be getting free visits at Sellersburg, and $500 a plate fundraising dinners. He hadn't been in office 3 months and he already had one of these at Kye's in Jeffersonville.

Every day in the mail I receive anywhere from 1 to 3 MS ads. I considered cutting them up in little pieces, putting some limburger cheese in the envelope, and mailing it back to the Indiana Republican State Committee.

(Sorry for rambling Roger)

At 10:17 PM, Feel the Paine said...
Sociologists and psychologists should study the phenomenon involving wealthy Republicans who attribute their riches solely to the sweat of their brows, superior intellect and entreprenurial courage. A certain amnesia or protective delusion prevents them from acknowledging that but for an accident of birth, familial connections and associated advantages or, in many cases, mere luck, they would be scratching and clawing out a middle-class existence as their wages failed to keep pace with inflation. Sodrel has the syndrome in spades.

But to me, the most telling and asinine Sodrel quote in the Courier article was this:

"What I want to do in Congress is make sure my kids and everybody else's kids have the same opportunities that I've had."

First, I will wildly speculate that Sodrel's kids spend little time worrying about whether they will have any opportunities for financial success. Second, Edward Parish has correctly exposed Sodrel's "rags-to-riches" success story as a fraud. Third, the only opportunity Sodrel has provided for future generations is to pay off trillions in debt resulting from uprecedented deficit spending, including the Iraq debacle. At bottom, Sodrel's record of supporting the fiscally irresponsible Bush adminstration unmasks his manufactured persona as a conservative.

Finally, lets not forget that Sodrel reneged his oath of office to uphold the Constitution thru his outright contempt for the Separation of Powers and attempts to usurp the rulings of the Judiciary in the Terry Schiavo matter and others. His record is one of total fealty to his fundamentalist taskmasters.