Letter: Republican rattlesnakes committing suicide

Monday, July 16, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

My, how times have changed. It wasn't that long ago that Republican politicians, conservative columnists and TV talkers like Sean Hannity were having a field day (for months prior to the ' 06 elections), making fun of those silly Democrats who couldn't speak with one voice about Iraq and were berating individual Democrats who had voted for the Iraq war but were for a change in course. The Fox News talking heads screamed that the Democrats were "cut-and-run flip-floppers."

But now Indiana's Richard Lugar, New Mexico's Pete Domenici, Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, Maine's Olympia Snowe and a growing list of other Republicans in Congress are "wimps," according to House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio, for advocating a change of course in Iraq. It is indeed reassuring to know that seventh grade name-calling rules the day behind the doors of our mighty Congress.

That reminds me of a scene from the movie "Mississippi Burning." When the tight-knit good ol' boys start to turn on one another, Gene Hackman quips: "The rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide."

Bob Coffman, Las Vegas