So the credit crisis is the fault of poor people, candidates who haven't been in Congress yet, and the Community Reinvestment Act

As they say in the Navy, "any port in a storm."

JOHN MICA and other wicked evil Republicans are trying to blame the credit criss on poor people. That's excruciatingly silly, even for Republicans. See Newsweek column, below.

JOHN MICA has tried to blame Iraq on Faye Armitage, who hasn't even cast her first vote in COngress yet. Faye Armitage is an economist who will beat Mica.

Republicans are also trying to blame the credit crisis on progressive legislation, including the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. That's a low blow, and another Republican lie.

I was there in 1977, advising Senator Jim Sasser of Tennessee on the bill as a 20-year-0ld Legislative Research Assistant. The Community Reinvestment Act passed by one vote. One of my Georgetown University School of Foreign Service school friends was advising another U.S. Senator on the bill -- he was going to advise against it. I took several hours and persuaded Edward F. McElwain to recommend that Senator Gary Warren Hart (D-Colorado) support the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

Who says one vote doesn't matter?

So the CRA is the problem? Sponsored by maverick Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisc.), CRA simply required banks to report where their deposits were from and where their loans were going -- exposing outrageous policies of redlining and racism.

So the CRA is the problem? Nope. Dull, uninformed, lying Republicans are the problem. There are entirely too many of them -- from City Hall, where our lying City Manager WILLIAM HARRISS thinks he's the Sun King, to the State Legislature, where Flagler COllege Chancellor WILLIAM PROCTOR thinks he's invulnerable, to Congress, where inspid Congressman JOHN MICA votes for special interests every day of the week.

Your votes will choose two new City Commissioners, new state legislators, a new Congressman, a new President and a new Vice President.