Dec 12 2008
So Now They Care About Ethics
In the wake of the scandal involving Illinois Governor Rod Blago-Does-Anyone-Want-to-Trade-Last-Names-With-Me and the recent upset victory of a GOP candidate over disgraced Democratic Representative William Jefferson in Louisiana’s Second District, Republicans are trumpeting a new theme. Ethics! Ethics! Ethics!
Well, good for them! And not a moment too soon!
Power does strange things to people. Those who get to make the laws tend to break them, while those who don’t get to make the laws often stand guard over those who do and wait for their chance to boot disgraced lawmakers out of office and put themselves in charge – and then break the laws. Such is the ebb and flow of democracy.
According to Carl Hulse of the New York Times, “Congressional Republicans learned the hard way in 2006 that ethics transgressions and outright corruption could be molded into a potent campaign message. Now they are trying to turn the tables on Democrats who pressed a good-government theme in their successful drive to recapture Congress.”
While I despise numbskulls like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who, quite frankly, suck at leadership and responsibility, the Republicans haven’t proven themselves to be much better.
Just who are the Democrats supposed to look up to as role models of integrity? Tom Delay? Hardly. Dennis Hastert? Not bloody likely. Larry Craig? I don’t think so.
“Good government”??? Good God!
Hulse also reports that Republicans are planning to use “Seatgate” (or Crackpot Dome, take your pick) to pull President-elect Barack Obama from that golden pedestal he’s been sitting on for the past two years and drag him down into the muck of American politics.
“The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with Governor Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high-ranking officials who will be working for the future president,” Virginia Representative Eric Cantor said in a statement. Cantor serves as the Republican Minority Whip in the House.
“It is a different tack for Republicans, who have been on the defensive on ethics in recent years,” Hulse continues. “But they are energized by last weekend’s upset defeat of Representative Wil liam J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, by a virtually unknown Republican challenger, Anh Cao, who was helped along by the bribery and money-laundering charges facing Mr. Jefferson.”
“The Cao victory is a symbol of our future,” GOP Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Minority Leader, wrote to his colleagues this week. “In the two years ahead, House Republicans will demonstrate our commitment to reform by holding ourselves to the highest possible ethical standard.”
It’s easy to tout these idealistic principles when you’re out of power. It only seems like yesterday that I heard the likes of Pelosi and Reid railing against the Republican “culture of corruption” and making solemn pledges to clean up the swamp known as Capitol Hill.
Now, who’s up for another game of musical chairs?
Great chances for hypocrisy among the beaten Republicans. For instance, they ignored Anh Cao until he won, giving him ZERO help. Suddenly, he became a Republican hero with Newt Gingrich offering to help him stay in touch with African-American minorities. More hypocrisy took place today and yesterday with the Republicans railing against unions while allowing hundreds of billions of dollars (some say trillions) to be sucked up by the Wall Street black hole with no strings attached, money for the rich but not for the working man. Meanwhile, the cowardly Dumbocrats stand by and say nothing. The Republicans will have to stay squeaky clean between now and 2010. An unlikely proposition. I’m sure there are more Craigs and Delays out there not to mention the David Dukes and the Sarah Palins.
Oldfart, it’s unfair to associate Duke with the GOP because he has actually run as a candidate for both parties, and he even ran in the Democratic presidential primaries in 1988. And besides, almost all Republicans have condemned him whenever he tried to run as a member of their party, except Pat Buchanan (but that guy was always loony in his own way). The GOP’s bad, but not THAT bad.
No - the GOP is THAT bad. I really don’t have time to document it unless you insist but some actual GOP members of Congress are THAT bad.
“but some actual GOP members of Congress are THAT bad.”
Yes, SOME, but not ALL, or even most. And Dems aren’t exactly that enlightened on racial matters either.
When you have the time, i would like to see that documentation if you would.