Last Sunday on the Fox news channel Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert implied George Soros had been receiving money from drug cartels to further his drug law reform efforts. Soros quite naturally called for an apology. In a letter Hastert replied that he was concerned about Soros funding groups advocating legalization of drugs, saying ”These were the drug groups that I referred to in my comments on the 'Fox News Sunday' program," The Speaker wrote this even though on television he used the words drug cartels.

When thinking about this we are left with two choices. Maybe Hastert does not know the difference between a group that sells drugs on the necessarily violent black market and a group such as the Soros funded Drug Policy Alliance who ran an ad this week in the New York Sun (complimentary copy to every GOP delegate’s hotel room each day of the convention) quoting such people as Milton Friedman, Grover Norquist, and William F. Buckley on the failed war against people who use certain kinds of drugs. More likely though, Hastert does know the difference between these two types of organizations and was deliberately smearing Soros figuring the rest of us were too dumb to notice and showing himself to be a second rate political hack.

Now, if the drug cartels were to contribute money to either of these two men it would most certainly be Speaker Hastert. After all, George Soros is a billionaire and can fund pretty much anything he wants without any help. But, more importantly, to the extent that he is an advocate of drug legalization he is the mortal enemy of the narcotic cartels. The reforms put forth by the polical groups Soros supports would end the corrupt violence filled black market, which provides so much money to these drug selling associations. Why would they want such changes in policy?

On the other hand, the drug cartels have no better friend than Dennis Hastert. It is people like him who assure the continuance of the black market in drugs and the enormous profits made there. If you are a big time drug dealer it is definitely in your interest to keep Hastert in office.

tipton cole - 9/7/2004

"The Speaker wrote this even though on television he used the words drug cartels."

That is not what Mr. Hastert said. He used the phrase "drug groups."

Arguments based on falsehoods cannot hold when readers are informed of the truth. Even very silly arguments aimed at very silly people.

Who in the world could possibly credit anything that you have to say in the future?

It is a shame to waste one's reputation on such a trivial argument.