Schumer--a seething nest of clichés

Rich Tucker:

If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times: Avoid clichés. Well, all right. At the end of the day they probably won’t do any harm. Still, is it too much to ask that our policymakers present some actual ideas, instead of clichés?

Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., held a news conference to attack President Bush’s economic policies. These days Bush is “more and more like Herbert Hoover, sort of whistling a happy tune as the economy heads south,” Schumer intoned. “The president’s proposals are always a day late and a dollar short.” Hum. Maybe in this, supposedly recession-wracked economy, being only one dollar short wouldn’t be so bad.

Anyway, Schumer concluded, Bush’s “reluctance to roll up his sleeves and deal with this crisis stands in the way of any kind of real recovery. The bottom line, it seems as if the president is on a different economic planet than most Americans.” No doubt. As is Schumer, by the way, since he’s a member in good standing of the world’s most exclusive millionaire’s club, the U.S. Senate.

All right, so Schumer’s speech was a seething nest of clichés. But while sticks and stones may break bones, words will never hurt, right? Still, Schumer’s empty rhetoric highlights a big problem for the Left. While liberals are eager to attack Bush and say our country’s in a recession (it’s an election year, after all) they seem bankrupt of any good ideas of their own.

Consider Schumer’s only substantive comment in his speech. Bush “says he will not do simple things like deal with the foreclosure crisis.” Hold on. Dealing with the foreclosure crisis is likely to be as “simple” as picking the entire NCAA basketball bracket correctly: It’s possible, but it’s not easy.

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Did Bush really say that? Probably not. He probably just rejected some of Schumer's screwy ideas which prompted the crescendo of clichés. What we have here is just bad faith political posturing using bad clichés.