BAH, HUMBUG!

One of the most right-wing editorial pages in America, Connecticut's Waterbury Republican-American (perhaps you remember the Rep-Am's red-baiting of Ned Lamont), now spots a moment of generosity from the White House literally, unabashedly imitates Scrooge in response:

Perk from the president

As he did in 2001, President Bush is giving most federal workers Christmas Eve off with pay so they may have a four-day holiday weekend. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now. Yes, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon and Carter did the same thing when Christmas Eve fell on Monday, but they did it because federal workers at the time were less handsomely paid. That age, however, is a distant memory.

... despite a budget deficit of more than $100 billion, a national debt of $10 trillion and unfunded entitlement liabilities of $90 trillion, the president spends gobs of other people's money to give his people a day off with pay and makes private employers who can't afford to follow suit look like Scrooges.

If federal employees want Christmas Eve to be a paid holiday, let them negotiate it into their contracts. Otherwise, make them use a vacation day, just like America's working stiffs.

And a Happy New Year to you, too.

(Yeah, I know -- Scrooge didn't want to let Bob Cratchit take Christmas Day off, which is much harsher. Then again, Bob Cratchit didn't have several multi-leg flights to catch to visit far-flung relatives, like so many Americans today.)

The Rep-Am editorial page is a Free Republic favorite. In addition to the editorial calling Ned Lamont a Stalinist by blood, here are a few other choice quotes:

"Journalist" George Stephanopoulos appeared on "Good Morning America" Monday to explain how the latest biased polling data show Republicans should expect to be slaughtered in the 2008 national elections. The delight with which he delivered "the news" was predictable because he is a former Clinton White House aide, but his liberal leanings are only a hair more transparent than those of his journalistic peers...

...Like it or not, a state of war has existed between Islamofascists and the West for almost a thousand years....

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential platform is largely regurgitated progressive pap. ...

*****

'A merry Christmas, Bob!' said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he claped him on the back. 'A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!'

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more....

--Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"

Damn Scrooge. He was just foolishly protecting the Cratchits from the revitalizing powers of the free market.