Ferraro remains true believer in big government

Attacks Abstinence, Defends Clinton, Would Censor Bible

If Geraldine Ferraro is a student of political history, she better take close look at her own. To ignore her own record would portray her as a political Siamese twin of that other time-worn liberal, Ruth Messinger. This overwhelmingly Democrat city [of New York] took one look at Ruth and saw a kindly dinosaur with ideas of helium.

As a commentator for CNN's "Crossfire," Ferraro praised Messinger, saying: "Listen, when Ruth says something, I believe her . . . I've got to tell you something-she is a very issue-oriented person." That was last August 4.

Ruth as issue-oriented? I don't know what campaign Ferraro was watching. Now, Ferraro gained a lot of visibility on "Crossfire" for someone who has ambitions for running for office. But on that show she is an unashamed proponent of a left wing that has long been rejected by a country sick of welfare and free rides.

In a city, or a country, for that matter, we recoil in honor at the number of school kids who are contracting AIDS. And yet on "Crossfire" in May last year, one could get the impression she was harking back to the "free love" era of the '60s and '70s. "In today's society, this is absolutely unrealistic to tell these kids that abstinence is the only way to go as far as pre-marital sex. It isn't realistic, and it's dangerous."

It's dangerous? Look, I am no paragon of virtue. Let's forget the morals for a second. The point is, some sex kills today, and teenage statistics show this to be frighteningly true.

Ferraro has indicated on that very same show that she doesn't believe there is any need for an indictment on the Whitewater scandal. And she believes that Susan McDougal of Whitewater infamy should have been free a long time ago.

She is against the Bible being taught in the context of history. And when it comes to Clinton's funny-money campaign funds, she borders on the incredulous. "I think, it's great to open the White House to-people," she said in January 1997. Well, the White House has always been open to people.

Clinton White House A Motel for Fat Cats

Then she added: "I don't think that the President should be in that White House f6r four years and not invite people in who have been supportive of him." Fine. Contribute half a million dollars in funny money, and you sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom. For crying out loud, let's turn the White House into a motel for fat cats.

If she tangles with Public Advocate Mark Green and Rep. Chuck Schumer in the Senate primary this year, her high profile on "Crossfire" might be a cross to bear rather than free publicity.

But it is her voting record in Congress that reveals little grasp of vision and a dyed-- in-the-wool conviction of big spending, big government, big taxes and a big heart to a legion who believes a job is a poor alternative to welfare.

In 1984, she voted in Congress to raise taxes $181 billion and increase domestic spending by $99 billion. A year earlier she voted against President Ronald Reagan's call for a reduction in income taxes by 25% over the following three years. Ferraro voted against a motion to allow states to establish workfare instead of welfare.

But when it came to foreign affairs, her voting record was childlike at best, downright anti-American at worst. Can you believe she voted six times to allow U.S. taxpayers to give aid directly to Nicaraguan Communists and the Castro wannabe Daniel Ortega? Amazing.

Ferraro wanted to cut the military spending by $203 billion at a time President Reagan dubbed the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire" and at a time when it was at its peak of frightening strength. The future of communism and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, absolutely due to Reagan's tough stance, has escaped this politician who lives in some sort of political bubble. Tell me Geraldine Ferraro is not a political Siamese twin of Ruth Messinger.

I am convinced Shumer and Green will keep the primaries clean. But you can't avoid the issues-and those issues make Geraldine Ferraro look like latter-day Bella Abzug. Mr. Dunleavy writes for the New York Post, from which this article is reprinted with permission.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jan 30, 1998
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