O'Reilly, with Hearst, Welch , Beck and Schock

SCATTERINGS:


The pushback by Fox News on Bill O'Reilly's gilded  memoirs that claimed (finally!) he witnessed the war zone from photographs recalls an earlier day when  war was the big story  in the newspapers.    It was the time of the Cuban revolt in the late 1890s when William Randolph Hearst was in the thick of a circulation battle with Joseph Pulitizer. Hearst, forever the show-biz publisher, sent Frederic Remington, a renowned artist,  to Cuba to decorate the articles in the Hearst  papers. His memorable instruction to Remington:

"You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

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As President Obama's policies are forever bashed by a vengeful Republican congress, you have to wonder whether the  day will ever arrive when a gentle Boston lawyer like Joseph Welch at the Army-McCarthy hearings will  go at the villainous Sen. Cruz et al  with a plaintive plea, coaxing:

"Senator, have you no sense of decency?"

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Glenn Beck wants America to know that he's abandoned the Republican Party. Right out the door!  Not  a dime more will he contribute to the GOP.    Believes Republicans are too soft on Obama.  "They are not good,": he pontificates.   But isn't he a bit presumptuous to think that most Americans give a damn about what he is?  So, Glenn, we can only add:  "Don't let the door slam you in the ass."

And while Beck's  out, Donald Trump says he's  in .  As a presidential candidate with an exploratory committee.  Is his business that dull that he needs more excitement  as one of America's elite egotists?  Maybe.  After all , here's what he says about a candidacy:

"I am the only one who can make America truly great again."

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Not a good week for rising Republican stars, past and present.  If you saw my earlier piece on rising stars, those bright gaseous objects in the heavens, you'll know that I have an amateur astronomer's interest in rising political stars that never made it.  Here are the latest to add to the list:

Aaron Schock,  the young Illinois Republican congressman who resigned after POLITICO   outed his extravagances in mileage reimbursements as well as furnishing his office in the Rayburn House Office Buiilding (including a bust of Abraham Lincoln and  pheasant feathers )  to create the ambiance  of Downton Abbey. Said POLITICO:

"Schock's resignation marks a swift downfall of  one of the GOP's most promising young stars and prolific fundraisers." Back to earth at age 33.

And then came word of  a return to prison of former Republican Gov. John G. Rowland of Connecticut on corruption charges. The New York Times reported that the 57-year-old ex-governor was first "elected to office at age 23 and was soon hailed as one of the Republican Party's brightest stars."

No soft landing for either of these guys.

(For some reason, Democrats don't produce as many  rising young stars.  The one who comes most readily to mind is a former Illinois senator who, as he will tell you, "won both of them". ) 
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