If the past is any predictor of the future, we are less than three weeks away from the Wheeling Intelligencer’s annual exercise in self-praise -- its anniversary editorial. On August 24, for at least the last decade, the Intelligencer editorial page has printed the same editorial: one that proclaims to its readers that the Intelligencer is a great newspaper. More specifically, we are then reminded how the Intelligencer is guided solely by devotion to the best interests of its readers, "without regard to any political party or ideology." The Intelligencer then brags about all of the different points of view found on its editorial page:

Our editorial pages provide a variety of viewpoints while taking stances aimed at improving the lives of local individuals and families, often through better government at all levels.

In anticipation of their anniversary celebration, I thought that today might be a good day to examine the “variety of viewpoints” found on its editorial page.

Harris and the “Flashy Thing” by Cal Thomas

This is a lazy Cal Thomas column that gets much of its material from Donald Trump’s media posts. Thomas, however, fails to tell us that the former president is often the source, and that fact checkers have thoroughly debunked Trump’s assertions. Here is one of Thomas’ examples:

During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Harris promoted a bail fund that freed men convicted of murder and sexual assault. While on bail some committed additional crimes. Sounds like what happened to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (D) when Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who had been sentenced to life without parole, received a weekend furlough, traveled to Maryland where he twice raped a woman after pistol-whipping, stabbing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted. A TV ad about Horton helped ruin Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, helping George H.W. Bush win.

Notice that 80% of Thomas’ paragraph is not about Harris, but rather about Michael Dukakis. As for the Harris bail fund, here is what the Washington Post wrote:

Now, that stigma resurfaced in a post from an official Trump campaign account on the social media account X, which shows a mug shot of Stallings, who is Black, alongside a photo of Harris, who is Black and Indian American. The campaign accused Harris of raising “money to bail Stallings out of jail” because she promoted a bail fund that helped him. The post failed to mention that Stallings was acquitted.

A minor detail.

Rich Lowry tells us about “Kamala’s Sociopathic Dishonesty”

Taking an even bigger shot at Harris, Rich Lowry’s column attacks her on the border issue for daring to suggest that she and the Biden administration had a workable plan to deal with the border problem:

Harris is running an ad that claims she’s working to fix the broken immigration system while Trump is trying to stop her — a lie so heedlessly flagrant that it truly boggles the mind.

The ad leans much on Trump’s opposition to the bipartisan immigration bill that failed to pass several months ago. But the case against that bill was that it did too much to bless the unacceptable status quo and that Biden always had vast unilateral powers to act on the border — a claim that Biden vindicated by, after much resistance, indeed acting on his own.

Of course, Lowry defends Trump’s call to kill the bipartisan bill even though those who were most affected by the bill fully supported it:

The U.S. Border Patrol agents’ union has endorsed the bipartisan Senate proposed bill. Listen when the people who do this for a living tell you it works for them. @BPUnion pic.twitter.com/mgeTjiUpF5

— Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1) February 6, 2024

The border agents were not alone; other important conservative voices, who had agendas beyond getting Trump elected, also supported that bill:

WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. By any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades.”@WSJopinion https://t.co/Mq9frsRnTe pic.twitter.com/Kh366QRBUY

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) February 6, 2024

So Harris’ support for a workable bill makes her “sociopathic,” Rick?

Michael Barone’s “white dudes”

Finally, the editorial page included this column by Michael Barone: “The White Dudes for Harris Phone Call Was Really Weird.”

Who cares, Michael. No, what is weird is that the Intelligencer could not find a better anti-Harris column.

Three anti-Harris columns and this is what passes for a "variety of viewpoints."

A footnote: The Wheeling Intelligencer announced last weekend that they will soon have a new editor, James Spanner. Wouldn’t it be something if the paper lived up to the aspirations found in its annual editorial?