THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF LEADERS

by Larry S. Rolirad

There are two kinds of leaders. One you would follow into a fire. And another you would push into a fire. President GW Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are the kinds of "leaders" you would push into a fire. Not once in their pathetically corrupt lives have they ever demonstrated any leadership abilities. Not once.

Bush can't even string two sentences together without butchering what he is trying to say. Face it, Bush can't read, write, or speak on a third grader's level. President Bush is no leader. Vice President Cheney is no leader.

A leader takes charge immediately when tragedy strikes. But in two striking examples, President Bush demonstrated that he is no leader, but rather a buffoon. During the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks President Bush decided to read the children's book "The Pet Goat" to a school room full of children. While our country was being attacked President Bush thought it was more important to read for almost ten minutes instead of immediately taking charge. The answer was simple. Bush had no clue what to do until his trainers and handlers told him what to do.

Most recently, President Bush decided to go to a lavish republican fundraiser as New Orleans was being flooded and people were sick and dying. President Bush went to that republican fundraiser to get millions of dollars for his political party from republican millionaries and billionaries. Not one of those republican donors offered to give a dime to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. If that wasn't bad enough, President Bush spent the entire next day playing a guitar given to him by a country singer and then playing golf with other wealthy republicans, even though tens of thousands of New Orleans residents were without food, water, medical care, or homes. In one instance, forty elderly people were trapped in a hospital but they were left to die in 106 degree temperatures while they waited for someone in the federal government to save them. While they were without food, water, medical supplies, or air conditioning Bush and Cheney were AWOL, a familiar place for them to be. President Bush didn't care that those victims were sick and dying. Three days after the Hurricane hit, President Bush's trainers told him to go to New Orleans so Bush had his plane fly over the devastation from 3000 feet up. He dared not get too much closer. There were poor people down there. And besides they were also democrats.

Real leaders hold those who work for them accountable for their actions, or rather non-actions. The FEMA director, Michael Brown, completely failed during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, causing an untold number of additional deaths due to his negligence. But even though Brown failed miserably, President Bush told him "Brownie, you are doing one heck of a job". A real leader would have never appointed a person like Brown to head FEMA in the first place. Brown's only qualification was that he ran horse shows. Horse shows for god's sake! The only 'qualification' Brown had for Bush to be satisfied was that Brown was a republican. President Bush's selection of someone with no qualifications to protect us during a national disaster or emergency reveals Bush's total disregard for the safety of every American. And Brown was given the job as the head of FEMA right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when Bush promised to protect Americans in case of another national calamity. So much for words. Accepting responsibility and being accountable for his actions is not a concept Bush has the capacity to embrace.

And take Vice President Dick Cheney. He spent the first few days of the disaster fly fishing in Wyoming. And then he went to Maryland to buy another multimillion dollar mansion. When asked where he was for the week following Hurricane Katrina's invasion of Louisiana and Mississippi Vice President Cheney said he was "glued to the television". Oh yeah Cheney? How could you be "glued to the television" when you were in the wilderness fly fishing and then buying a mansion in Maryland? Cheney, you are a liar. While Vice President Cheney was being interviewed a man yelled out "Go fu*k yourself". Cheney replied, "I never heard that before", Another lie, because it was Dick Cheney, who on the floor of the senate, told the respected democratic US Senator Patrick Leahy to "Go fu*k yourself". Cheney immediately denied he said those horrible words to a respected senator. Then after realizing he was being recorded Cheney grudgingly admitted saying it. And then a couple of hours later Cheney said he was "proud he said it". My my, just what kind of "honor and dignity" do republicans believe in?

Bush and Cheney are definitely not leaders. Real "leaders" would have thought of others in a time of crisis. They wouldn't have played while others were sick, suffering and dying. Bush and Cheney are definitely people you would push into a fire. They are not leaders. They are not even human beings. They do not deserve any respect because it was their acts of criminal negligence that caused the deaths of an untold number of additional human beings.

Now, President Bush is trying to undo the damage to his image by making appearances in the Gulf Coast area. Sorry Bush, but unless you can bring people back from the dead, people that your negligence helped to kill, your image will be going down faster than one of your drowning victims. Tread on that thought for awhile.

Copyright 2005, Larry S. Rolirad, All Rights Reserved