Wild all right.  It feels as though Massachusetts is the staging area for a huge political corruption rodeo.  The corrupt politicians are the cowboys and the stampeding cattle dodging the lassos are runaway government spending programs and wild charging tax increases.

Let’s get the August low-down, or in this case “hoedown”:

August 1^st our statewide sales tax increase of 25%, courtesy of Governor Patrick, kicked in.  Nobody wanted it.  The small business owners and mom n’ pop operations that compete close to the state border were decidedly opposed to it, and rightfully so.  Nobody quite understands the tactic of squeezing ever more revenue from cash strapped taxpayers, but our Governor is one heck of a cowboy.  And our House and Senate, in unison, yelled a democratic “giddeeyup”.

Tuesday of this week was the Town Hall meeting, in Dartmouth, of our delightful Congressman Barney Frank (D).  Going in, Frank was the one Congressman who has taken over $270,000 in campaign donations from the insurance industry over the past few years.

Voters at that meeting expressed their criticism of a Government run healthcare system.  When they made statements that were very matter of fact, disagreeing with his position, he yelled back.  He lost his cool.  His response to one woman who likened government pressure for citizens to accept a government run plan to Nazi Germany was “What planet do you live on?” and “I want to have a conversation with you about as much as I want to with a dining room table.”

When Frank was asked if he would leave his congressional ’Cadillac’ health insurance plan to opt into any resulting government run plan, he refused to answer.

Then, he was very calmly asked, “If your constituents are against this bill, is there anyway you would go against President Obama and your own party?”  His response was  “I will vote based on what I feel is the best public policy.”  Translation:  I will vote for whatever healthcare bill they put on the table.

The crowd jeered, and he reacted to their disdain with his particular style of arrogance by characterizing it all as yelling and hooting.  He wanted to provoke a hostile argument.  He wanted to do that, because he believes, in his own narcissistic world, that anyone who disagrees with him is a ‘right wing nut job’. 

He said he came for a dialogue. He lied. He came to ramrod his opinion. When all his town hall nonsense is folded up and he has gone back to Washington, he’ll proceed to hold the line for the administration and ram Obama’s legislation down our throats. 

Then Wednesday of this week brought the request from ailing U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D), asking that the power of appointing his successor be given back to the Democratic Governor and Legislature.  In essence asking our Governor to overturn legislation he himself put forward a few years ago to prevent then Republican Governor Mitt Romney from doing the appointing.  The GOP agreed that the voters should make the decision democratically. 

Now a Kennedy has asked that his own legislation be repealed because it suits him and the Democratic Party.

How do you spell hypocrite?

What else do we observe?  New England is filled with liberal gaffes and Massachusetts is the heartland of political corruption. 

Finally, to further irritate, the first family is set to invade our beloved small island of Martha’s Vineyard” tomorrow.  Business on the island is down 15% compared to last summer, so from an economic standpoint the businesses there are hoping for a boost.  Oprah is there, and other celebrity types.  So we can all anticipate that our news outlets and gossip columns will be affording us the latest fashions and handholding displays by the first family. 

Joy.

Can somebody tell me, please, if there are 49 other states, why do we have to host the worst political rodeo of the season?

And I am not yelling “yee-ha” right now.