Oh, you poor fellows...

In February, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, while debating a proposed tax increase for people making over $250,000 per year, said that "after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money." Steele made the comment in Little Rock during a debate against Democrat Harold Ford Jr., then a potential New York Senate candidate. (Steele is not the only out-of-touch-with-reality Republican: radio host Rush Limbaugh—who reportedly makes about $50 million a year—also recently argued that "$250,000 is not wealthy.")

Forget the lavish Republican "strategy session" in Hawaii in January. (As John McCain himself once asked, whatever happened to the Republicans as the party of fiscal responsibility?) Forget the Republican financing of a party at a lesbian bondage night club in California. (Can you say "family values?") Mr. Steele's statement breaks new ground as the epitome of arrogant insensitivity, coming as it does when unemployment nation-wide is hovering near 10%. For workers earning the median salary in this country, it would take 20 years to earn a million dollars before taxes, assuming they could even hold a job for that duration. Shed no crocodile tears for Mr. Steele or Mr. Limbaugh.

The only other organization that is so out of touch with ordinary citizens is the Catholic church. (On second thought, maybe the church is a little too much in touch!) "Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment..." Cardinal Angelo Sodano said recently while "defending" the pope. With friends like that, who needs enemies? How can Cardinal Sodano have the audacity to dismiss reports of hundreds if not thousands of documented cases of child abuse by Catholic priests as mere "petty gossip"???

Both the Republican hierarchy and the church hierarchy just don't get it. A pox on both their houses...