It’s Always The Democrats’ Fault

Jack Kingston (R-GA), vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, said on Fox News Sunday that the Democrats were behind the release of information regarding Mark Foley’s predatory e-mails to a page. His words:

What I don’t understand is where have these e-mails been for three years? Are we saying that a 15-year-old child would have sat on e-mails that were triple-X rated for three years and suddenly spring them out right on the eve of an election? That’s just a little bit too suspicious, even for Washington, D.C.

Does Kingston really think that if the Democrats had this kind of information three years ago and had intended to use it to nail the Republicans that they would’ve waited until AFTER the 2004 general election to come out with the information?? Perhaps the Democrats were just pure genius at strategizing that it would take a couple more years before America was at the tipping point, and that just before the 2006 elections would be a MUCH better time to spring these letters out in the open.

The truth is, according to this article at MSNBC, certain Republicans knew of Foley’s “inappropriate internet exchanges” as far back as the year 2000. Speaker Dennis Hastert claimed that the Republicans only became aware of Foley’s activities last fall. The bottom line is, if Hastert and others knew about this last fall, why didn’t they do anything about it then, when they could’ve controlled the message that was given to the press? Instead, this is turning out to be a huge coverup operation. I guess I understand their desire to make sure none of this got out. I mean, what could be more damaging to the reputation of the “morality party” than to have one of their own be revealed as a potential pedophile?

But now that it (and Foley himself) is out, I think the Republicans would do well to take care of the sorry state of their own party instead of blaming Democrats for what is (once again) a GOP scandal. Particularly since the GOP’s strategy in this case is clearly not working. According to a recent Resmussen poll, a full 61% of Americans believe that Republicans have been protecting this guy for several years, and 69% of voters unaffilliated with either party believe that the Republicans have been protecting Foley. Only 21% of Americans believe that the Republicans “only recently” learned about the inappropriate e-mails. I wonder who those people are? Probably the same twenty percent that have a favorable view of Dick Cheney. Public disapproval of Congress in general is back up to its highest levels. It seems as if the Foley scandal will be placed securely at the feet of the Republicans, despite all their attempts to deflect the blame onto Democrats. Unless there is a late October surprise, I think Rush Limbaugh’s prediction that the GOP won’t lose either houses of Congress is a bit off the mark. I could be wrong though, lord knows I have been before. It just seems so ironic that this party could lose the House and Senate due to a Republican sex scandal… And one involving children at that. Next the right-wing talking heads will say Democrats are “taking glee” at this scandal. No, we’re not taking glee, we’re just breathing a small sigh now that the general public is finally seeing that this party is full of hypocrites from top to bottom. And we’re glad that their attempts to throw blame once again to the Democrats are being dismissed.

Every time the GOP gets caught for its continuing hypocrisy, it plays the blame game. It was always someone else’s fault. Remember, this is the party that was going to return accountability to Washington. I guess we just have to try to remember that everytime the Republicans say something, their plan is to do the exact opposite.

I read in an article somewhere online that Newt Gingrich is somewhat in demand these days on the news/talk circuit because people are trying to look back at the “glory days” of Republicans in Congress. Yeah, Newt is a perfect example of Republican morality, isn’t he? This is a guy who divorces his cancer-stricken wife to go off with his own intern (whom he is now divorced from) at the same time he’s criticizing Bill Clinton for having an affair. Once again, do the opposite of what you preach.

I’m currently reading John Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know what this new “modern conservative” really is, and from where this movement originates. Dean traces the history of the conservative movement in the US, and details the contortions of interpretation that were necessary in order for “conservative scholars” to be able to claim such progressive and liberal documents as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for themselves.

Indeed, for a movement that supposedly prides itself on tradition and extremely gradual change, it is relatively young. Liberalism, meanwhile, can trace its roots to “ancient Greek and Medieval thought.” Dean shows time and again that conservative Republicans are inherently often at odds with the philosophies they claim to represent. For instance, in that same article linked to above at Wikipedia is this passage:

Within the United States, classical liberalism is rhetorically confused with conservatism. The Cato Institute, a think tank known for its advocation of classical liberalism in government, states from its website:
“Only in America do people seem to refer to free-market capitalism–the most progressive, dynamic, and ever-changing system the world has ever known–as conservative. Additionally, many contemporary American conservatives favor state intervention in some areas, most notably in trade and into our private lives.”

Conservatives, in an attempt to steal the flag of patriotism from American liberals, have even tried to downplay the American Revolution as just a minor spat that happened in our history (since the concept of revolution against the government is an anathema to conservative ideals). How such key parts of American history and of American Patriotism could be so radically reinterpreted by conservatives to support their cause is a marvel to behold. Most of Dean’s research is comprised from conservative writers, which makes the read all the more interesting. The book goes on to show how modern conservative “leaders” such as Pat Robertson (who probably has Goldwater rolling in his grave every time Robertson gets up to speak on behalf of conservatives everywhere) have co-opted the mantle of conservativism to push their religious agenda. This leads to an in-depth look at how we arrived at this point of political polarization and hostility that pervades the country at the moment. If you want to know how it is that the Republicans, when revealed by their own actions for the hypocrites they are, can be so bold as to throw all blame to the Democrats, Dean’s analysis of “Authoritarian Conservatism” will be most illuminating.

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