Wage Law

A hat tip goes to Facing South, which spotted a curious phenomenon originating here in Wage Law's home town of Irvine, California.

What do this newspaper editorial, this one, this one, and this one all have in common? All of them are unsigned editorials, which makes it look like they're original opinion pieces for each paper. (The Colorado Springs Gazette even says it's "our view.") And they all happen to say exactly the same thing, beginning with this paragraph:

One of the smartest things President Bush did to reduce recovery costs in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita was to suspend Davis-Bacon Act rules in the hardest hit states. But Congress is frantically trying to overrule the president, which would add billions of dollars to the already staggering recovery costs.

Amazing that newspapers from California, Colorado, and North Carolina could be channeling, simultaneously and in complete harmony, the Bush administration line for cutting wages for workers rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

The source of this repeating editorial is Freedom Communications, Inc., a media enterprise that is based here in Orange County and which runs, among other things, the Orange County Register. Facing South somehow discovered that the author of the editorial is Sean Paige, editorial page editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette. Paige is well known for his right-wing politics, and used to be the personal aide to former President Bush's Chief of Staff, John Sununu. And there is certainly nothing wrong with a right-leaning media conglomerate picking up an editorial view written by such a person, but this story comes with a delicious twist of irony.

Last month, Mr. Paige also wrote an editorial criticizing MoveOn.org and its members for sending so-called "astroturf" letters to newspapers, wherein each person submits the same canned letter-to-the-editor in their respective locales. Here is what Mr. Paige wrote (again, with full credit going to Facing South):

I began noticing patterns in the e-mails — the same rote phrases or analogies that betray an orchestrated letter writing campaign, rather than a spontaneous outpouring of thoughts and feelings.

Well, you know what they say: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.