Friday, September 18, 2009

Emery: Obama needs better friends

In his latest capitol report, Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, says that President Barack Obama needs to choose better friends:

As parents we want our children to be wise, and we try to warn them about picking the wrong friends. They may follow our sage advice or they may not and learn at their own expense that wrong friends will give a bad impression to others and often send them in a wrong direction. Even wise King Solomon warned "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed."

Public service is an arena where our choice of friends is continually under review by constituents, the press, and political activists. A question I have about those in authority is with whom do they surround themselves? If I do not expect to meet a political figure, I can accurately conclude a great deal if I know to whom they look for counsel or friendship.

I am very disappointed in the Obama administration’s abject lack of historical perspective which is visibly reflected in Barrack Obama’s choice of friends during his adult life. His associations with friends like Bill Ayers, Bernadine Rae Dohrn, Jeremian Wright, Tony Rezko, James Johnson, Franklin Raines, Kwame Kilpatrick, Alexi Giannoulias, Marilyn Katz, or Valerie Jarrett force me to question what he looks for in a friend. These are men and women whose public motivations and private lives are generally the kind my parents would caution or warn me against, not encourage.

This president has appointed 32 or more “czars” to direct government oversight and intrusion into everything from the auto industry to manufacturing to healthcare to wages. Both the titles and résumé's of the czars indicate either willful ignorance of history or embrace of the failed philosophies and policies of men such as Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. History records the foolishness and human tragedy of these men’s ideas.

Wisdom can be defined as “seeing and responding to life situations from a perspective that transcends my current circumstances.” Applied wisdom is choosing a path out of difficult circumstances that does not lead into proven peril. It is checking the map before charting the journey. Undoubtedly the most trustworthy map for the future is an accurate record of the past – a historic perspective. As Edmund Burke wrote in the 1700’s, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

Missouri is not an island, and we will rise or fall with the success or failure of these United States. Even federalism as codified by the U.S. Constitution cannot fully protect us from national politics and policies. That same document weaves our fate inextricably into the fate of our nation. As a state official, I will expose and oppose federal policies that threaten liberty or Missouri’s future prosperity. As your representative I can do no less.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not sure of the friends part but I think if you nominate someone for a federal job with high publicity, you better make sure that nothing can comeup from the person's past to haunt or tarnish their repuation. Doesn't President Obama have some sort of screening tool that does a background check?

Anonymous said...

Well you can tell ole Ed hasn't had his name in the papers lately...he's having some withdrawal issues. To bad he never comes up with anything productive. His salary is a waste of good tax payer dollars. At least President Obama has friends, Ed's are getting fewer all the time. Mr. Emery must think he has lived his life perfectly because he sure doesn't hesitate to throw big stones. I wonder, can Ed spell "racist"?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Emery fails to remember it was the Republicans that got us in this mess in the first place. How quickly we choose to forget and blame the other side. I suppose he's good friends with George Bush. I won't want either of them on my friends list. I've met snakes that I would trust farther than either Ed or George.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the president's friends?

Well you can always say "It's George Bush's fault"...when you can't think of anything else

Anonymous said...

Excuse me! Can't think of anything else to say? You better think about what happened the eight years Bush was in office. This country wasn't in this mess when he went into office. He left with his tail between his legs! He wouldn't have even been elected if his brother hadn't been gov. of Fla. and "helped" with the counting of the votes. This country was headed to hell in a hand basket with Bush. An it wouldn't have gotten any better if McClain had been elected...he was just another Bush. If Bush had been so great, why do we not hear anything out of him?

Anonymous said...

To 5:55.

No, "it's Clinton's fault."