Say it isn’t so

Friday, February 5, 2010

There are these persistent rumors that former congressman Charles Bass, who once upon a time was pretty liberal state senator, is pondering another run for the U.S. House.

Lest we forget, this is the same Charles Bass who was elected in 1994 on, among other things, his promises to limit is term and to balance the federal budget, all part of Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America, that brilliant piece of marketing that obviously meant so little to so many who ran on its precepts.

Bass was one. Not only did he not limit his term, he would have hung on and on, apparently, had not the voters limited it for him. Oh, and it was Bill Clinton who balanced the federal budget, not Bass and his party of spendthrifts like George W. Bush who took Clinton’s balanced budget and spent it into a huge debt. Bass helped. He liked President Bush, apparently, enough to help him spend America into penury.

Now he wants to return. It’s kind of like making a sequel to “Dracula” because there’s still lots of blood to be sucked out of the treasury.

Yes, we known, the current administration and Congress haven’t done anything to balance the budget but, unlike the Bush White House and the Bass Congress, at least this group is trying to help people who need help, not the exceptionally well-to-do which was Bush’s raison d’etre.

But this could be a good year for Bass. He’s been out of the public eye so people have probably forgotten his failure to limit his term — as he promised — and his willingness to help President Bush spend like a sailor on an infrequent shore leave. And given what just transpired in Massachusetts, it’s probably going to be a darn good year for Republicans in general which means a bad year for people who aren’t exceptionally well-to-do.

Scott Brown, who whacked Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, has already promised to help derail President Obama’s health care bill, as if there is no one in the nation who needs help getting health care. It’s possible Brown knows there are people who do; maybe he just doesn’t care. But how could that be? He seems like a nice enough guy.

So does Bass, really. Quite a few years ago, when Bass was in the state Senate, then-Cabinet editor and publisher Bill Rotch brought him to the office and introduced him to reporters and editors with great fanfare, lauding him as a progressive legislator who really cared about people. And anyone who knows Bill Rotch, and the editorial history of this paper, knows that Rotch was not wont to lavish praise upon someone who didn’t care about people. Rotch was, and is, a caring, liberal gentleman, so if he lauded Bass, Bass obviously deserved to be lauded.

So, what happened? How did this somewhat liberal, caring man Bass become part of the Bush establishment that ran up the debt, didn’t even ponder health care for people who need it, and didn’t honor his promise to limit his term?

We don’t know, but it’s sad.

Well, Bass might want a comeback. Hmmm. Maybe he can come back as the man Bill Rotch lauded, rather than the man whom George W. Bush must have loved.