I don't think Democrats are inherently more virtuous than Republicans. But it's clear the Republicans shouldn't be trying to claim the moral values high ground anytime soon.
First, a just-released House report documents 485 contacts between the lobbying firm of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House, including 82 meetings in the office of Karl Rove -- with Rove himself present at 10 of those.
All in all, that would seem to belie White House claims that they did not have a close relationship with Abramoff.
Meanwhile, an internal HUD investigation found that Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson told his aides to steer contracts to Bush supporters, and avoid awarding them to Democratic donors.
And let's not forget Bob Ney and the near-criminal incompetence and cronyism that went into awarding contracts in Iraq.
Quite a record, really, when you put it all together. But it doesn't appear to be one that Republicans want to run on.
Update:Another Republican Congressman, Mark Foley, has abruptly resigned.
Alphonso Jackson, Iraq, corruption, politics, midtopia
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Republican corruption
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3 comments:
Ha! Pretty funny.
You're probably right; if this isn't criminal incompetence, what is? I'm just giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Hastert & Co. may have sat on it. So isn't that the modus operandi for the Republicans? Isn't that what's been happening with the current NIE Report, and the prior one, and what delayed Tom the hammer DeLay's censure? It seems to me that the press and the media and middle of the road Republicans and conservatives and the Liberals and Democrats have been playing the victim, as in "Poor me!", for much too long. First, they let people like Hastert do something unjust like holding up a report. Then they act surprised at the "bad" Republicans for doing this. Then they protest, calling what the Republican leadership does "despicable" or "dirty tricks" or "untrue" or, worse yet, as you do, "unfair". All of which only makes you, the press and your organization look even more like victims. And so you dig your own fate. I also sense that, when you do this and ring your hands, you are hoping the Republican leadership will receive their comeuppance from some mysterious force, and that they will self-destruct of their own accord. The Democrats have been out of power for so long they're afraid to lose any handhold they have, and the press and media have become so used to truckling to the Administration, it is almost a lost battle. It is important to recognize that, if you are ever to restore any semblance of dignity you and your organization have, you need to vote for the Democrats this time around, nevertheless, to balance the Republican leadership who have lived up to Lord Acton's maxim: "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." I'm starting to see it for what it is, being a victim. Unless you can take action, get the vote out, sue, even call up your Rep and Senator and pressure them to take action, it's just more of being a victim.
This smacks, by the way, of the same type of cover-up that the Catholic Church has now disavowed. It cost the Church millions of dollars and resulted in great shame. Hastert & Co. are as smarmy as the Church was in their cover-up. One, they need to go in shame. Two, a fund needs to be created for the interns affected by all this, carved out of Hastert's personal fortune, or a lawyer needs to be appointed to charge Hastert with conspiracy and perjury, and to sue for injuries and damges. If those who perpetrated this, and helped to conceal it, are taken care of, the Republican Party can claim clean hands. Remember, this is not the rank and file, this is the Leadership of the Party.
I am so ashamed that I wasted my vote on george war bush. What was I thinking? Why did I let my right wing extremist, neo-conservative, neo-evangelical thinking get in the way of exercising sound personal judgment? Growing up, I was led to believe that the republican party was a grass roots party of the people & for the people. In retrospect, it is clear that the last 3 presidents produced by the republican party were nothing more then the rich man’s rich man hiding under the disguise of the overly misused term, “conservative”. The economic dark ages of reagonomics fleeced the middle and lower classes of this county simply to benefit the rich and wealthy. George warmonger bush has quietly shifted this country back to those economic dark ages. Bush inherited a strong economy and squandered that real quick. And even though 9 -11 did happen, none of bush’s reckless decisions are in any way justified by that day in history. It is clear that he never had any real salient foreign & domestic policies when he became president in 2000. Now we have 4 more years of neoconservative republican lies and a growing body count overseas. When are people going to wake up to the truth that neoconservative political philosophy does not work for anyone but the rich and wealthy at the top? When are people in the USA going to wake up to the fact that neoconservative republican political philosophy does not even cross paths with reality? Anyone who believes george war bush’s lies about promoting democracy in these middle eastern Islamic states is living in serious denial of reality. Those who believe bush’s lies are simply easy pickins and victims of logical fallacies. Historians and political scholars realize that to impose such changes on another country takes decades and that is only if it seriously adopted. Also, the very definition of democracy is not something that the United States has any claim of ownership. Even some communist states think that what they have is democracy. If we ever actually do get out of Iraq, nothing will have changed and nothing will have been gained. The American people have never been given a specific objective in Iraq or a clear definition of exactly what victory in Iraq is from the president. Invading Iraq never had anything to do with, WMD, freeing the Iraqi people or making Americans safer and secure. Statements about WMD, Freeing Iraq or Making America Safer are nothing more then a marketing spin used to hide the ugly truth and make the lies palatable to the American public and justifiable to the red necks who voted for him. Bush likes to make statements such as “It’s worth the price” but he never says just what exactly “it” is. If he really believes that, then he should put his money where his mouth is and send his little party animals to go fight in Iraq. The republican party claims to be for smaller less wasteful government but the current administration is responsible for the waste of more money, resources and human lives then any past democrat presidency. I have a hard time sleeping at night knowing that the blood of Americans and innocent civilians is on my hands and the hands of those who voted for george warmonger bush. The real legacy of the bush cabinet is going to be one characterized by lots of wrongful deaths, lots of money and resources wasted, unnecessary tax increases for our children and grandchildren and the unnecessary destruction of various social programs that good decent people count on. Thanks to bush and his power hungry cabinet who all want to control congress, the senate & the supreme court, the USA is now a third world country hiding under the disguise of prosperity. Now that the USA owes all these hundreds of millions of dollars to countries like China, Germany, Russia & Japan, I wonder which language I need to learn for the day when these countries come to collect…
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