By Scott Tibbs, March 12, 2005
On March 2, Republican City Councilor David Sabbagh joined council Democrats in criticizing President George W. Bush for cutting funds to the Community Development Block Grants program. (The city got less money to distribute this year than in years past.) Sabbagh also voted for City Council resolutions opposing the war in Iraq and opposing the "USA Patriot Act", both of which criticized policies of President Bush.
I don't have a problem a Republicans criticizing another Republican over policy issues. If a Republican believes that another Republican's policies are harmful, they have a right to speak against that policy. The problem is that David Sabbagh gets upset when conservative Republicans criticize liberal Republicans, while he sees nothing wrong when the roles are reversed, especially when he is the one doing the criticizing.
If Sabbagh wants to criticize President Bush or other conservative Republicans, he is free to do so. In fact, I agreed with Sabbagh's vote for the resolution against the "Patriot Act". If Sabbagh is going to criticize conservative Republicans, however, he should stop whining when a conservative Republican criticizes a liberal Republican, especially if he is the target of that criticism.
I have long thought that David Sabbagh might as well be a Democrat, with his Leftist stances on social issues and his lukewarm (at best) fiscal conservatism. Since Sabbagh does not stand with Republicans on core issues like the right to life, I have no intention of following the so-called "11th Commandment" when he votes with Democrats. Sabbagh's own criticism of conservative Republicans leaves him no room to complain when that happens.
