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Home Colorado Politics With Apologies to Fido, Lassie, and All of Loyal, Trustworthy, Canine-Kind

9/16/2008 By Ben 2 Comments

With Apologies to Fido, Lassie, and All of Loyal, Trustworthy, Canine-Kind

Okay, this one made me laugh. When I read the liberal wag’s op-ed, I nearly fell out of my chair. Now, there’s no need to glorify his work with a link or even a free Google mention – especially since, given the site, the link figures to evaporate very soon. Nevertheless, the following paragraph was written under the sub-heading “Bigoted remark”:

Another senior staff member of the Independence Institute, education policy analyst Ben DeGrow, offered the “analysis” on a Feb. 20 Internet broadcast of RIGHTTALK.COM, that because of [Governor Bill] Ritter’s executive order enabling state employee groups to form partnerships, a variety of unions had “been attracted to the state like opening up a can of dog food and getting your dog to come in.”

I can’t vouch that the way the quote has been excerpted accurately reflects the context of what I was saying. Presuming that it was, I will admit the selected quote from the long, off-the-cuff interview was hardly the best analogy and was less than artfully delivered. But I didn’t realize until re-reading it today, more than six months from its initial utterance, just how awfully bigoted it sounds.

So I apologize to all the loyal, innocent, and trustworthy members of canine-kind for comparing you to fatcat union leaders who make big salaries and live high on the hog from workers’ paychecks, only to spend workers’ pension dollars freely on political causes, and fight to take away their secret ballots. I hope Fido and Lassie have not been too badly scarred by my bigoted outburst, and I promise to mend my ways in the future.

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, Labor, My Life, Random and Miscellaneous Tagged With: analogy, Ben DeGrow, bigotry, Bill Ritter, canine-kind, corruption, dog food, education policy analyst, Executive Order, fatcat, Fido, inartful, Independence Institute, labor unions, Lassie, liberal wag, loyal, op-ed, outburst, Partnerships, pension dollars, political causes, restoration, RightTalk, secret ballots, state employee groups, trustworthy, union leaders, workers paychecks

Comments

  1. rmr says

    9/16/2008 at 2:57 pm

    Isn’t this from the same genius who called Brad Jones a “liar” for saying that Amendment 59 would damage TABOR only to have Treasurer Kennedy’s remarks about “driving a stake in the heart of TABOR” widely publicized the very next day?

    Yeah, I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over this one.

  2. Ben says

    9/16/2008 at 10:07 pm

    I’ll sleep quite well tonight, as I did last night. Calling him a “genius” is one of the more ironic possible uses of the English language – thanks for making me smile.

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