Et Tu, Gresham?

We’ll be honest … it’s been awhile since we’ve been as disappointed in a politician as we are right now with U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett.

Sure, he’ll probably still mount an impressive gubernatorial campaign here in South Carolina two years from now (and may even win the governor’s mansion), but our hopefulness in him representing something bigger than the typical “go along to get along” politician that’s so common in this bass-ackwards state was violently shattered last night.

Turns out when confronted with a true time for choosing in our nation’s history, he’s no different than the rest of them.

Barrett showed remarkable courage earlier this week in joining a bipartisan coalition of rank-and-file U.S Representatives who defeated an establishment-backed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street firms struggling under the government-induced collapse of the sub-prime lending market.

Only a few short days ago, it seemed he intuitively understood the dynamics of the crisis and the correct free market position – namely, that a disaster created by reckless government interventionism cannot and should not be solved by more reckless government interventionism.

He even eloquently articulated this position in an exclusive interview on our website.

But last night, Barrett changed his mind on the bailout, and in so doing gave up on protecting the taxpayers of this country, to say nothing of preserving the capitalist system upon which America was established and through which America has weathered storms much more ferocious than this one.

Bowing to the inexorable, inflexible will of the status quo politicians pushing this excessive, irresponsible, unaccountable and unconstitutional boondoggle, Barrett succumbed to the Washington and Wall Street fear-mongering, swallowing the intentionally-alarmist predictions of a coming “economic Pearl Harbor” if their $700 billion giveaway were to go unapproved.

Apparently, the steady bombardment of America’s taxpayers didn’t concern him, nor did the steady bombardment of our constitutional form of government and the free market principles upon which it was founded.

Ignoring the reality that Wall Street’s current credit freeze is entirely due to “bailout speculators” eager to turn a profit on the taxpayers’ backs, Barrett is also rejecting evidence that the assets the government is about to purchase are worth considerably less than the taxpayers are about to pay for them.

Like Khrushchev’s armada approaching the coast of Cuba during the missile crisis, Barrett blinked at the moment of decision, only this time it’s our free market ideals tucking tail and heading for home.

In fact, Barrett has now lined up with America’s latest (and largest) shift toward the failed policies of command economic interventionism, staking his rationale on the sugary sprinklings of conservative policy added by the U.S. Senate to ensure the passage of this new monument to government overreaching and excess.

“My colleagues on both sides don’t get it – they just don’t get it,” Barrett told us a week ago.

Well, Congressman, now you “don’t get it,” either.

Which is sad, because all those conservative votes you’ve been casting over the past six years in Washington in an attempt to define yourself for the 2010 campaign are all about to go up in smoke today … in one roll call vote.

Only Sen. Jim DeMint now remains opposed to the bailout boondoggle among the South Carolina congressional delegation, and given Barrett’s defection he probably feels like the last lifeboat on the “taxpayer Titanic.”

Say it ain’t so, Gresham.

Our hope is that on his way to cast this decisive vote today, Barrett might at least glance at the South Carolina flag hanging outside his Washington office.

He probably walks by this flag dozens of times each day, but there’s something on it we would commend to his attention under the present circumstances.

The Palmetto tree set against our flag’s deep blue background symbolizes the moment when – in the first decisive battle of the Revolutionary War over 220 years ago – our state stood resolute and defiant against the steady bombardment of tyranny.

Now more than ever, we still need people to stand up, Congressman.

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