The world is made up of all kinds of people and Arkansas has a fair share of a cross section of the populace. It has one group, which more than likely can be found in other states, I choose to call “repeaters.”  They repeat everything they hear and read whether it is true or not and the Voices column of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette has a serious infection of them. But the infection isn’t limited to Arkansas; they are everywhere like termites swarming in the spring.

When Dan Rather had the “goods” on the George W. Bush with the National Guard story, the repeaters wrote thousands of words repeating, like Polly Parrots, the soon to be discredited story. It made no difference to them that the story was false. It was a smear on the President and that was all the proof they needed that the story was true.  Facts mean nothing when a Republican is in their sights.

A smoking gun, or so they say, is the British memo that says the President “fixed” the deal so he could go to war against Iraq. A reporter copied the memo, or so he says, and then destroyed the original. No matter that the memo is a first cousin to the Texas Guard documents and worth the same amount; the repeaters never let the truth stand in the way of another attempt to “Gore” the President. The long horns they stampede toward George W. Bush have a way of impaling them on the very horns they aim at the President.

But a good trampling doesn’t stop them. The repeaters keep up their Polly Parrot squawking. The latest is Karl Rove and the mess Valerie Plame, and her husband, Joe Wilson, created for themselves. The press, ever eager to skewer Rove, has kept up a drum beat and litany of words that are proving to be in the same category as the Dan Rather brand of truth and the British memo. The truth is slowly seeping out like a foul odor emanating from a stopped up sewer and the odor is the duplicity of Wilson and Plame in being a part of an agenda to pillory the President about the Iraq war. Even the supporting liberals are backing off from the fair haired Wilson now that the truth is shining light on the affair.

When Rove spoke the truth about the liberals and their wanting to understand the terrorists and their grievances, the liberals went into a frenzy demanding an apology saying how terrible it was for Rove to have told the truth. The letter writing repeaters called him and the Republicans names and accused all within their sight of dastardly deeds. Of course, the repeaters never ever consider that they are guilty of name calling and smear while demeaning Rove and others. After all, their motives are much higher and more noble that any rascally Republican or George W. Bush. They have lies to spread and the truth be hanged.

Whenever the repeaters are challenged with the truth, they huff and puff like the big bad wolf trying to blow down the house. They have no facts so they call names, accuse, and bluster to cover up for their lack of being able to think rationally. Like Polly Parrots they repeat the repeats and then cry loudly when they are presented with the truth.

Yet they aren’t like Polly Parrots either. The repeaters have been trained to talk back with more untruths while Polly will eventually shut up, which the repeaters have yet to learn to do. No one ever said repeaters were smart.

 © 07-17-2005 DEC