Coffee, Tea, or Coakley

By Phil Boehmke

On Friday former President Bill Clinton was on the stump in Massachusetts for Martha Coakley. Mindful of his past political faux pas committed in the Bay State, Slick Willy steered clear of controversial coffee remarks.

The former President was in town to try and save Ted Kennedy's seat in the Senate (he missed the Brown/Coakley debate) and to take a slap at the V.R.W.C.

I came here to tell the people of Massachusetts this: This country's revolution was born in Massachusetts, The Revolutionary War was first won here. The war was over here years before it was finally finished. It started with the Boston Tea Party, and the right wing Republicans have appropriated that on the premise the tea party was against government. What they were against was abuse of power.

Sorry Mr. Clinton, but the tea party movement is not against government. In stark contrast to the anti-government protests of Bill and Hillary's youth the tea party protests have been peaceful in the extreme and the tea partiers have made it a point not to damage public property or even litter. The tea party movement of today is opposed to abuse of power. Given the dizzying array of new taxes in the proposed health care bill, the clear opposition of the vast majority of our citizens and the dirty back door deals of the Democrats, the phrase "no taxation without representation" comes to mind. That sure sounds like abuse of power to me.

If we are lucky someday we will look back at Mr. Clinton's words and smile. What wonderful irony if "The war was over here years before it was finally finished" turns out to be prophetic.