Eli would have skewered these phonies

The late great Bee columnist Eli Setencich would have had a field day with the presidential candidates, starting with the carnival barker who currently leads the sad-sack field of GOP hopefuls, all of them bragging about how they would be a bloodletting commander-in-chief.

Eli would have skewered the candidates who profess Christian piety out of one side of their mouths and call for carpet bombing of Muslim countries out of the other side of their mouths. Has anyone in the mainstream media thought to ask Donald Trump when was the last time he regularly attended church?

One candidate thinks it’s OK to kill innocent family members of ISIS members. Several call for torture of captured enemy combatants, citing the Constitution while ignoring its commands.

Nor would Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders escape being zinged by Eli, who knew how to deflate the pompous.

Honestly now, is the current crop of clown-car occupants, on both sides of the aisle, really presidential?

I wonder what Eli would have written about the 2016 presidential race. I know one thing: It would have made us laugh.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 2:55 AM with the headline "Eli would have skewered these phonies."