SCRANTON TIMES-TRIBUNE Editorial: By the time he died Sunday at 96, William Warren Scranton had not only seen it all but had predicted a great deal of it during his rather brief but highly eventful political career.
In his attempt to wrest the 1964 Republican presidential nomination from arch-conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater, Mr. Scranton warned that his party and the nation could not prosper if the GOP had “one foot in the 20th century and one in the 19th.”
Today, the paralysis in Congress – with House Speaker John Boehner in thrall to the tea-party-driven hard right wing of his caucus – demonstrates what Mr. Scranton predicted. The politicians are secure in their seats with the help of ruthless gerrymandering, but they are the opposite of Mr. Scranton’s call for “progression rather than regression.” … (more)
