It's two months from now and you're in the stands watching the Mountaineers play the Bears at the WVU homecoming game against Baylor. You're cheering the boys dressed in gold and blue and hissing their rivals in green and gold.
Then, you notice something funny. Every time the gold and blue guys make a touchdown or kick a field goal, points go up on the scoreboard for Baylor. When the green and gold guys score, WVU gets the credit. What is going on?
Oh my gosh, the teams are wearing the wrong uniforms! The Mountaineers are in green and gold and the Bears are in gold and blue!
What the heck? How did that happen? Did both teams go to the wrong locker rooms? Did they not realize they were putting on the wrong uniforms?
No one else seems to have noticed. The fans are still cheering for the wrong team. Someone needs to make an announcement over the loud speaker right away, and the coaches need to make sure the teams come out in their right uniforms after halftime.
Suddenly, you wake up in a cold sweat, your heart pounding, and you realize it was just a nightmare.
We apologize for putting our readers through this fantasy, but we wanted to illustrate how we felt this week hearing Democrats oppose – and Republicans support -- public financing for an electoral campaign.
It wasn't a nightmare. We pinched ourselves to make sure of that. But it wasn't exactly the Twilight Zone, either.
You see, there's a Machiavellian logic to the whole thing: the logic of self-interest and situational ethics.
When Democrats promoted -- and Republicans protested -- Gov. Joe Manchin's pilot program for public financing of the two state Supreme Court seats now being contested, neither side expected a Republican candidate to benefit.
But one did, and now Democrats and Republicans have switched sides on the issue. Wrong is now right, or right is now wrong -- as of right now.
We, however, remain unalterably opposed.
