Remove the plank from your own eye

Where was the outrage of these conservatives and Tea Partyists for the eight years their administration was in power? Where was the outrage of massive record Republican deficit spending?

Where were they when regulation was slashed on the same businesses giving out huge bonus payouts that, now, generate their outrage? Where were they when they took a budget surplus of $200-plus billion and turned it into a $200-plus billion deficit in one year? Where was the outrage when Bush appointee, Tom Ridge at TSA, threw a $500,000 party for all their no-bid contractors and followed it up with another half-million-dollar party/staff meeting on a beach in Hawaii? Where was the outrage when Vice President Cheney's old firm, Halliburton, was cited for massive fraud in its no-bid contract in Iraq?

Where was the outrage when their administration, not Obama, instituted the bailout of AIG, and the banks. Bush gave them a blank check - Obama added "some strings attached" to force accountability. And why is it that conservatives are so quick to take credit for successes that they voted against, but pass off blame for failures they voted for? They now take credit for Clinton's surplus even though they voted against his budgets and said they would lead to ruin.

No conservative administration has ever balanced a federal budget. That's right, not even Reagan, who racked up then-record federal deficits and 10.9 percent unemployment. About the only thing conservatives are good at is character assassination and challenging one's patriotism. Even releasing one's birth certificate and birth announcement in a Hawaiian newspaper is not good enough proof of citizenship for these self-righteous zealots.

Matthew 7 v. 5: "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Jeffrey Crowell

Naperville