Convicted felon Ollie North rants (and is wrong) again!

        In a somewhat rambling diatribe, Oliver North in a recent column compares President Obama to George Washington and draws the conclusion that the former doesn't "measure up" to the latter. There is no measuring stick! Washington took office with an inaugural address (8 pages) which was longer than the entire existing operating manual for the nation (2 pages of Constitution). This alone reveals the vast discrepancy between the job faced by each, rendering the entire discussion void, irrelevant,  and so patently  partisan as to defy description. Unfortunately we're getting used to this from mister North.

        Let's compare briefly: Washington initially had no cabinet, in fact, there weren't even job descriptions for most of the original five. North speaks of Washington's "money problem" (we had none) and posits that Washington embarked on responsible fiscal policy. In reality, his Treasury Secretary, Hamilton, urged him to allow the Congress to assume the Revolutionary war debts for states which hadn't paid theirs, creating a permanent national debt. Washington agreed, Sec. State Jefferson resigning in protest. Hamilton's financial policy, implemented at Washington's request and with his assent, is almost  Keynsian  (look it up) in nature, and definitely not, as North implies, a conservative approach to national finance.    

        Washington was also fairly specific that he viewed the role of Chief Executive as principally that of ceremonial head of state and architect of foreign policy. Any modern President operating under those guidelines today....well, you get the picture.

        North also derides President Obama for lambasting Congress for the Sequester and other culpable acts of inaction which are supported by (in every poll!!) a  clear majority of Americans.  Let's compare. Washington, in the House had James Madison, and Roger Sherman, two principal shapers of the Constitution, in the Senate he had James Monroe, Richard Henry Lee, Charles Carroll, and Robert Morris, several signers of the Declaration in 1776; President Obama has had John Boehner, Rick Santorum, Mitch McConnell, Michelle Bachmann and Rand Paul, a cast of lightweights and obstructionists.  Little more need be said.

        There's a lot of static these days, much of it from the NRA, about "what if the gummint(sic) comes after us", implying that President Obama supports that sort of thing . Turns out that only one US President has ever personally led  the Army in peacetime  against US citizens. George Washington, in uniform, led 13,000 militia against western PA farmers in 1794.

         Militia nuts, take notice! Mister North, whom I won't call  Colonel, since it is an insult to the uniform to call a convicted felon by military title, take a history lesson!