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My daddy was the master of common sense. Buddy Watts' formal education ceased after two days of seventh grade. Yet this man lived his life displaying - year in and year out - more common sense and reason than anyone I have met with their multiple degrees from OU, UT, MIT, USMA or the University of EIEIO.

I'll never forget one night during a trip home from college to my home in Eufaula, Okla. Daddy and I stayed up until all hours, discussing life and our world. With each report from the cuckoo on the wall, we were closer to solving the world's many problems. Finally, as we rose to retire from a long night, Daddy made a comment I never will forget.

"I think I want to go to college," he said.

"Why do you want to do that at your age, Daddy?"

"I want to see what makes you all fools when you get out."

Daddy had a way of cutting through the garbage. When he heard something that defied common sense, he would often say, "Kinda makes you go 'hmmm,' doesn't it?"

As I read the papers over the past couple of weeks, I present - in honor of Buddy Watts -- a few thoughts that make me scratch my head, and go "hmmm."

When Senator John McCain disagrees with conservatives and sides with moderates or even liberals on an issue, he's hailed as a hero. But when Senator Joe Lieberman disagrees with Democrats and sides with Republicans on matters of national security... he's a traitor to those same Democrats.

Hmmm.

Speaking of Lieberman, when the liberal challenger to Lieberman invests his personal treasure, he invests like a conservative Republican capitalist. But when he campaigns for the Senate, he pledges to spend your taxpayer money like a radical free-spending liberal.

Hmmm.

When Enron and WorldCom filed fraudulent financial statements and mismanaged corporate earnings, people went to jail. Out of this fiasco was born the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reform bill. But when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have fraudulent financial statements, and have clearly mismanaged earnings ... they ignore Sarbanes-Oxley processes with impunity, and many folks in Washington view them as responsible and productive.

Hmmm.

I even found on the sports page where Terrell Owens has written an entire book where he criticizes former teammates and refers to himself as a hero. When confronted about the controversy his own words have created, he claims he was misquoted. Misquoted in his own book.

Hmmm.

The NAACP has issued report cards on industries that spent money with, contracted with, or hired African-Americans. We've found that while the telecommunications, lodging, finance and retail industries showered their means on African-American charities such as the NAACP, they were sadly lacking in actually hiring black Americans or minority-owned firms. They will give to black charities, but are reluctant to hire black people or black firms.

Hmmm.

While the price of gasoline and diesel continues its relentless ascent at the pump, it was revealed just a couple of weeks ago that Cuba and China are drilling for oil just sixty miles off the coast of Florida. Cuba and China can explore for oil off the coast of the United States, but the United States can't.

Hmmm.

When the president signed the Voting Rights Act at a very public White House ceremony, why he did recognize all of his unelected black Democrat adversaries, yet disregard all of his black Republican allies? Could it be that the President takes the black Republican vote - such as it is -- for granted?

Hmmm.

On the Voting Rights Act, kudos rightfully could have gone to Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and ranking Democrat John Conyers of Michigan, as well as subcommittee chairman Steve Chabot of Ohio. Conservatives and liberals working together for the good of the nation. Why the president didn't recognize them deserves another hmmm.

Hmmm.

Israel has done everything that U.N. resolutions and other agreements have called for it to do, and the nation still is targeted for unprovoked terrorist attacks. Yet when they defend themselves ... they are called the aggressors and are told to show restraint.

Hmmm.

Finally, Congress voted to give opportunity scholarships to low-income students in Washington, D.C., public schools. They had 2,400 scholarships but 6,000 applications. They've gotten great results, yet People for the American Way, the National Education Association and other liberal education groups oppose them. Meanwhile, the person closest to the city's educational performance - Democrat Mayor Anthony Williams -- supports them.

Hmmm.

If Buddy Watts were alive today to read the papers, he'd spend a lot of time scratching his head.

<i>J.C. Watts writes twice monthly for the Pahrump Valley Times. Watts is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group. He is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. His e-mail address is JCWatts01@jcwatts.com