Whistling Dixie

Joy-Ann Lomena Reid has two words for those who get worked up over public criticism of the Bush League: grow up!

Republicans defend their ideological lynching of the opposition by saying that the (Dixie) Chicks and others erred by airing their grievances against Bush during wartime -- and overseas, at that. But since when is it unpatriotic to criticize the Commander in Chief -- where ever you happen to be standing -- while the nation is at war? Republicans certainly didn't hold back on Franklin Delano Roosevelt while he prosecuted what is still the conflict of the 20th century, and haters of John F. Kennedy kept right on sneering at him even as the Cuban missile crisis loomed. It certainly wasn't considered unpatriotic for the likes of Tom Delay and other Republicans (who excused themselves from military service during the Vietnam conflict) to fulminate against President Bill Clinton while our fighter pilots were in the air over Kosovo, or on the ground in Mogadishu. Perhaps it's only unpatriotic to criticize the president when he is a Republican.

I have to wonder along with Reid "just what (Chicks lead singer Natalie) Maines is guilty of: Feeling ashamed? Being from Texas? Or speaking her mind?"