It's fitting that former Republican Congressman Mark Foley's sex scandal will do in the 40 days before the election what years of reporting on Bush administration incompetence and corruption couldn't -- end one-party rule in America.One can only hope. After outlining the Foley sex scandal/coverup he shifts:
As amusing as the Foley affair is as political schadenfreude, it's still a lowbrow sex scandal. At best it merely highlights the ineptitude of the Republican leadership as it tries to cover up its complacency and arrogance -- things we already know about.Point one:
Meanwhile, the GOP leadership is guilty of far worse sins than coddling a potential child predator.
In a properly functioning republic, the media and our political institutions would have dealt with Mr. Foley swiftly and with a minimum of hysteria. He's not as big a deal as the 24 American soldiers killed in an immoral war in Iraq since Saturday.24? I would never have known that. But I do know that Mark Foley asked some 17 year old kid how he likes to masturbate.
Point two:
House Speaker Dennis Hastert deserves all the criticism he's received for tolerating Foley's immoral shenanigans, but he and his cohorts truly deserve to lose their jobs for refusing to exercise even minimal congressional oversight of the war. What good are they if they refuse to carry out their constitutionally mandated business?Again, one can only hope. And finally:
What's the biggest danger to the values and long-term interests of the United States -- a do-nothing Congress that dithers during a half-a-trillion dollar war that has already claimed thousands of American and Iraqi lives or an obscure Florida congressman with masturbatory fantasies about teenaged boys?Get it?
This week, despite earlier denials, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that she was briefed on July 10, 2001, by former CIA Director George Tenet about al-Qaida's determination to kill thousands of Americans.
How do we account for Ms. Rice's selective memory? Isn't there something just a little bit scandalous about it? Where's the scrutiny?
Excuse me for reserving moral outrage over something truly worth risking a stroke over.
Meanwhile large chunks of the Right-wing echo chamber (desparately doing its part to change the subject to anything other than the current Republican sex scandal cover-up) spent a great part of yesterday's radio airtime talking about Gerry Studds and Barney Frank.
The point, I think was to illustrate the "double standard" of the left. But take a look at the details of these scandals - most notably the dates.
Barney Frank - Fred Honsberger initially said that it was Barney Frank that ran the male-prostitute ring. Though he corrected himself and said that it was the male prostitute that Frank had hired who ran the ring. What Fred failed to point out, of course, was that Frank was reprimanded for this sixteen years ago in 1990. So in order to not discuss Foley now, Fred's going back a decade and a half.
Gerry Studds - Studds was censured (by a vote of 420-3) in 1983 for an affair he had with a 17 year old congressional page. The Wikipedia points out that that was above the age of consent at the time. The affair took place a decade before in 1973. Sean Hannity was heard a number of times pointing out how the House Democrats gave him three standing ovations. Remember this is the same House that had just censured him 420-3. According to the Wikipedia, he was also stripped of his chairmanship of the House Merchant Marine subcommittee. Sean doesn't say any of that, of course. In order to not talk about Foley now, they're going back 3 decades.
Yea, they're scared.
Yeah, they are scared. Scared of left wingers who will say and stop at nothing in order to get their power back. Let's not focus on the real issue David. If you stopped smoking your joint for even one minute, you'd know that Honz and Hannity were speaking of all of the sexual scandals that took place in the Democratic camp...which nothing was done about. No liberal outrage. No liberal media coverage, either. However, ONE republican does something bad, and you guys are all over it, exploiting it, embellishing it. Shall I go on? In fact, we'll just sit there and sip our lattes all of the sudden support the NSA wiretaps when for months and months and months and months you called them illegal and called for the impeachment of Bush over them. Now, that they offer something you can use for a political stunt 30 some days before the congressional election...all of a sudden...they are "A-OK!" Go figure.
ReplyDeleteohmygod! TrollBraden really believed the IM post!
ReplyDeleteJesus, what an idiot.
We may just have to ban him so that others aren't in danger of losing IQ points just reading his comments.
But for the record, I would certainly love it if someone were to bring me a latte right now. grande, vanilla
There is a difference between having a sense of humor and demonstrating a lack of intelligence. This just goes to prove that Maria (And David for that matter) is either high most of the time, or her sense of humor is downright grotesque. I do not find any of this funny and to make humor of said events is the sign of a troubled mind. Perhaps she is wolfing down too many vanilla lattes.
ReplyDeleteBarney Frank - Fred Honsberger initially said that it was Barney Frank that ran the male-prostitute ring. Though he corrected himself and said that it was the male prostitute that Frank had hired who ran the ring. What Fred failed to point out, of course, was that Frank was reprimanded for this sixteen years ago in 1990. So in order to not discuss Foley now, Fred's going back a decade and a half.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, it was Barney Frank himself who requested the House ethics committee conduct an investigation into the matter.
See Media Matters
Unlike conservatives, we don’t have to go all the way back to primordial days to find Republican ooze.
ReplyDelete1. In 2003 Republican PA State Rep., Eugene McGill, implored a judge to go easy on his pal, this pal had sexually assaulted a 14 yr. old girl. Seems McGill’s opinion of his pal differed from the court’s.
McGill said his pal was a " dedicated family man & a pillar of the community. The court designated the pal a “violent predator”. Oh well, you say tomato, I say tomato…
Shades of Foley! Shortly after McGill interceded with the judge on behalf of his pal, he cosponsored a resolution making April 2003 Child Abuse Prevention Month.
2. Then there’s the guy I’ve already mentioned, one of PA’s US Congressmen: Don Sherwood, self proclaimed “defender of marriage”, who’s been married for decades. Too bad his girlfriend had to go & call 911 in 2004. She called the cops from her apartment, because Sherwood was choking her.
Uh, that was a Fox News poll. So you know that it's a media creation and thus...ooohhh...
ReplyDelete...never mind.