New York Times to Fire Fighters: Drop Dead

The New York Times is in a spitting snit over NY fire fighters being used to "sell" programs, issues, and candidates:

It's time to wonder whether New York's Bravest are overexposed and overexploited.

Politicians will go the extra mile to rub elbows with them. President Bush went to Queens to get the endorsement of the city's rank-and-file union leadership before he appeared at the G.O.P. convention. Senator John Kerry, who has won the endorsement of the fire officers' union, sounded a siren for them during the debate last week, when he decried that firehouses were being opened in Baghdad while they were being closed in New York. It hardly mattered that more firehouses aren't needed in New York. It's the symbol that counts. ...

New Yorkers don't admire their firefighters for their political savvy or keen judgments on economic development. We look to them for one thing, to be there when they're needed for real emergencies. And that doesn't include being pitchmen for the latest product in need of a hero.

You can imagine my shock and suprise, then, when I noted that the Times had dutifully reported the so-called "Jersey Girls" liberal claque's endorsement of John Kerry, and yet, for the life of me, I have not yet been able to find Gail Collins telling them to mind their own business and go back to their real jobs (vacuuming, bakin' cookies, watching Dr. Phil, etc.)

I'm sure that the New York Times editorial page will chastise the Jersey Girls for using their public sympathy to influence debates in which they have no genuine expertise.

Any. Minute. Now.

posted by Ace at 03:21 PM

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