Last Sunday on CBS[base ']Äôs Face the Nation, Karl Rove attacked Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) by offering the following [base ']Äúpatronizing comments[base ']Äù about the city of Richmond, Virginia:
With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done.
He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town.
Watch it:
The residents of the Virginian capital are not taking Rove[base ']Äôs comments lying down. In an article entitled, “In belittling Richmond’s size, Rove shows he’s out of touch,” Richmond Times Dispatch journalist Michael Paul Williams writes, [base ']ÄúWow. And Republicans call Democrats elitist.[base ']Äù
“It appears that Karl Rove will swiftboat anyone, including cities,” said Del. Dwight Clinton Jones (D), a candidate for mayor. City Council President and mayoral candidate William Pantele added, “Richmond has more in culture, history and business than all those cities [cited by Rove] put together. And so, perhaps Mr. Rove would like to come see how terrific a place this is, the capital city of Virginia, rather than just taking shots on a news show.”
Williams notes that if physical size is such an important consideration, the current Vice President shouldn[base ']Äôt have been selected:
It should be pointed out that Cheney’s political career began in Wyoming, the least populous state in the nation. With fewer than 525,000 residents, it’s less than half the size of the Richmond metro area.
In a web-video posted on the Times Dispatch site, Williams calls Rove[base ']Äôs comments a [base ']Äúcynical and misguided viewpoint, out of touch with America and the real people with real problems who reside there.[base ']Äù
In July, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has claimed that Social Security is “broken,” went a step further and disparaged the retirement program at a Denver, CO townhall, calling it an “absolute disgrace”:
Americans have got to understand that we are paying present day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers…and that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace.
Watch it:
McCain’s statement reflected a lack of knowledge about Social Security. “[P]resent-day retirees have always been paid their benefits from the taxes paid by current workers. That has been true from Social Security[base ']Äôs inception,” noted Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Now, Colorado seniors are pushing back. McCain is scheduled to speak in Aspen, CO on Thursday, which is coincidentally the 73rd anniversary of the Social Security Act. The Aspen Times reports that a group of seniors plans to protest McCain’s event:
The Colorado Alliance for Retired Americans is organizing a gathering of mostly Front Range retirees to protest during McCain[base ']Äôs engagement at The Aspen Institute[base ']Äôs Greenwald Pavilion. … The Colorado group and the national alliance have been expressing alarm since McCain[base ']Äôs remarks at a July 7 town hall meeting in Denver.
McCain has long supported gutting Social Security. In 2005, he campaigned for President Bush’s radical Social Security privatization plan, though he denies it today. In 2008, McCain said his plan would create “private savings accounts…along the lines that President Bush proposed.”
In 2007, McCain received $23,157 in benefits from Social Security, despite his claim that the system is “broken.” [base ']ÄúWe[base ']Äôre just absolutely flabbergasted that a man who has been collecting close to $24,000 a year in Social Security has called it a disgrace,[base ']Äù Bernadette Horchner, a member of the Colorado group, said. [base ']ÄúHe doesn[base ']Äôt give back the money.[base ']Äù
