In this previous posting, I applauded Mitt Romney’s stance regarding Sunday’s lecture in Massachusetts at Harvard’s Institute of politics. Today’s Boston Herald published a letter from Daniel Wolfson of Brookline, MA expressing a similar sentiment to mine on the upcoming visit of the former Iranian leader and Gov. Mitt Romney’s refusal of the use of state resources (honor) during the event:
Three cheers for Gov. Mitt Romney for refusing to provide security for the former Iranian president’s visit to Harvard on Sept. 10 (“Mitt refuses protection for ex-Iran prez,” Sept. 6). I need not even mention the unbelievable impropriety of their choice of dates.
He then continues with a point about Harvard I failed to raise that mustn’t be overlooked:
Once again, Harvard demonstrates its left-wing double standard. They say that Mohammed Khatami should have the right to freedom of expression, including his opinion that Israel should be destroyed. Apparently, that’s fine to Harvard. But when Lawrence Summers, their own former president, expressed his opinions about the differences between men and women in science, he was railroaded out. Whatever happened to Summers’ freedom of expression?
And how much freedom of expression is allowed in Khatami’s home country?
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The other question I have about the visit by the former leader of a card-carrying member of the Axis of Evil is who invited this guy in the first place? Upon hearing the answer, I was at once both surprised, and not surprised at all. The September 7th Granite Status column by John DiStaso in the Union Leader (NH) answered my question:
Romney won’t give Massachusetts State Police protection to Mohammed Khatami on Sunday when the former Iranian president speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Institute of Politics in Boston..Wonder what the institute director thinks of that?."She thinks they’re making more out of this than there needs to be," said Bill Shaheen, husband of director Jeanne Shaheen, our former governor.."If we stand for freedom of speech, we stand for freedom of speech," said Bill. "Let him speak and let people ask him questions.".Shaheen said his spouse was deeply involved in the "invitation process" for Khatami and is organizing the controversial event..At Harvard, he said, "They like controversial figures to come and speak. What’s wrong with hearing what they have to say? I just don’t see the big deal."
The Shaheens are "players" in Democrat party politics. They are, in my mind, representative of what could be described as "mainstream" Democrats. Not seeing "the big deal" about allowing a member of the leadership of our stated enemy in the new world war a platform from which to espouse his views is exactly why, as bad as the Republicans can be, we cannot allow the Democrats to gain the levers of power in the upcoming election.
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To allow the enemy the chance to speak here in our homeland, in the midst of a war that most people of all political stripes agree is every bit as much ideological as military, seems foolish to me.
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It’s really too bad for our country that when liberal Jeanne Shaheen left the political stage here in NH, she didn’t really go away. She WILL be a part of almost any Democratic presidential administration that might come in the foreseeable future. OOOOOHHHHHH NNNOOOOOO!!!!