The FAUX News people make no bones about their allegiances or their preferences when it come to political parties and politicians. High on their list are Republicans. Most Democrats don't even make the list! MainStream Media types, most of whom work for companies owned by huge corporations (which, naturally, are driven not so much by the quest for truth (in advertising or anything else), but by the profit motive), would like us to believe they are less biased or even unbiased in their presentation of the political facts of life in this country.
To do this, they tend to use words like "equivalent," or "equivalency." So when one of their Republican pals gets caught with his or her hand in the proverbial cookie jar, or makes some outlandish statement which could only come from a brain the size of a pea, the MSM folks search for a Democrat with a similar failing and then talk about how "both sides do it."
There is no question that some bad apples are floating in the Democratic barrel. But equivalency doesn't work because the ratio of bad guys to good guys is off the charts when comparing Republicans and Democrats!
My good friend, Tommy Korioth, who blogs at Basket of Puppies, has a site called Republican Offenders, where you can find the goods on all sorts of Republican miscreants.
What makes going after Republican nogoodniks so much fun is that not only are there so many of them but their hypocrisy is monumental. Republican politicos love to talk about their religious faith, their love for country, their undying devotion to their state, county, city, neighborhood, and their love for their families. "Family values" is a phrase that trips from their lips like a cartoon bunny.
The nice thing for them is that "family values" can mean many things and if the politico doesn't define it his listeners can absorb the words into their own particular meaning and nod their heads in agreement. That's why you can get Kentucky moonshiners loving up their Republican reps 'cause their Republican reps have the same "family values" they do! "Pass the jug, will ya?"
If a Republican politician does talk about family values or values in general you can be pretty sure these "values" include opposing equal rights for our gay friends, especially the right of marriage. Marriage is between a man and woman don't ya know, even if, as in the case of Newt Gingrich, it may may one man and several women (at different times, of course, unless you're a Mormon). You can also be sure Republicans are opposed to birth control, to evolution, to abortion for most any reason, and that they believe this whole business of global warming is just a lib'rul plot to give our commie prezident an excuse to establish martial law and take over the country.
Now, if you can get a Republican in a public venue and ask him what he believes, he'll talk a lot about honesty and integrity and ethics and how folks need to look to the Republican Party to ensure that those values remain core to the country. Oh, yes, Repubs are also big on bizness. It's small bizness and big bizness that made this country what it is. (They might be right about that when you consider the shape the country is in!)
But if you can corner a Republican in a dark corner of the cloakroom you may be able to work all kinds of deals that will not only betray his "family values" but serve to keep him in office. In other words, money is power and politicians need money - lots of it. And being a politician opens a bunch of doors as to how to get money and thus power and ride that horse for years!
We've got some fun examples to show you today, starting with the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives in the state of Alabama! Mike Hubbard is the name and con artist is his game. He's been around a long time so he knows how to game the system. In fact, from 2007 to 2011, he was the chair of Alabama's Republican Party.
But Mr. Hubbard was arrested just the other day and charged with 23 felony ethics counts. 23! Mr. Hubbard is one of those guys very worried about "voter fraud" (which doesn't exist) which means he's worried that if you allow all the Democrats to actually vote they'll run him out of office and out of town!
Evidently, Mr. Hubbard used his office for financial gain. It's all a misunderstanding, you understand. No real problem, here.
Then there's Bobby Harrell, Speaker of the House of Representatives in South Carolina since 2005. Last September 11, he suspended "his position" because of a cluster of indictments dealing with ethics violations - or as someone else put it, "misconduct and using campaign donations for personal use."
He did nothing wrong either. Well, he might have written the wrong dates on "a handful of items," but hey, we can sit down and talk this through. Right?
What is really exciting is to find some ultra Christian rightist who claims to love Jesus and to know what Jesus wants people to do and not do blow it big time. I'm speaking of the former governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell.
Bob really does love Jesus and that may have been one of the reasons he was being considered as Mitt Romney's running mate during the last presidential election cycle. He wouldn't have been much worse than Paul Ryan, but still.
Bob, who believes in marriage between a man and a woman and is against everything else, is in process of divorcing his wife; or vice-versa. Whatever, they're not one big happy family anymore. Their family values finally caught up with them and Bob and Maureen may go to jail for a while.
On September 4 of this year, a jury of their peers found them guilty of 11 counts of corruption. Mostly this involved the taking of money for personal things like their daughter's wedding. It was a good deal for Bob. He'd get money and then work hard to see what he could do for his financial benefactors. I guess Jesus forgot to tell him that wasn't very nice. And illegal!
Scott Walker, a real nogoodnik governor up in Wisconsin, is having some ethical problems of his own, but he may be able to beat them; he's got the backing of Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers and other nasty diseases.
Down in Texas, the Jesus-lover Rick Perry, has been indicted for "coercing a public official." He says it's all political, and it certainly is that, but he did what he was indicted for. He'll probably beat the rap, too, though. I've heard tell that some powers-that-be don't think his dirty deed was important; everybody does it, they said. So he's a hypocrite, they said. No big deal.
Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, joins the club of nogoodniks. He should be run out of town for scamming the people for too many years; for screwing the public servants including teachers by turning over their pensions to his buddies on Wall Street; but more immediately, his fudging the truth about "Bridgegate" could take away whatever wind is left in his sails.
Rick Scott in Florida, has been a known criminal for several years, his biggest crime pulling off the largest Medicare fraud in history and slithering away from prosecution with some $300 million in his pocket, a bunch of which went to buy the governor's office in the Sunshine State. And what he's done to the state since becoming governor would, in a just world, put him in jail for years and years. One example. On October 14, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled his administration broke federal law when it purged non-citizens from voter rolls during the 2012 presidential election. Etc., etc., etc.
One of my favorite politicos, though, hails from Connecticut. John Rowland used to be the guv of Connecticut. Back in September, 2004, he was tried for violating campaign laws. He resigned and pled guilty to "depriving the public of honest service" for which he spent 10 months in prison and 4 months under house arrest.
But some of these Repubs just can't help themselves. He's back. Again. Same problem. In September of this year, former governor Rowland was found guilty on 7 counts of "engaging in corrupt political acts."
You'll notice that I haven't mentioned Sarah Palin, erstwhile former governor of Alaska, who served out only half her term before getting cold feet and running for warmer climes; who before elected to that office she was mayor of the town of Wasilla which she nearly bankrupted and set neighbor against neighbor through her mayoral activities. Her history is too mixed and sordid to deal with in a short blog post, but her most recent shenanigans, which involved a bar fight in an Alaska saloon - punches were thrown, lots of cursing all around, and ol' Sarah right in the middle of it - is a rather apt illustration of the vacuity inherent in the Republican's claim to "family values."
Does anyone see a pattern here?
As I said at the outset, Democrats have their own problems, but compared to the Republicans they look like all the saints in glory (which were a mixed bag in their own right!).
And here's why: Rep. Steve King, one of the Republican Party's far right kooks, in a recent interview, opened his mouth and merde fell out. King, a Roman Catholic, from the good ol' State of Iowa, said he doesn't expect to meet any gays in heaven; or divorced people; or people who've been screwing around sans benefit of clergy. Well, he didn't use those words. He used these words when asked if he thought whether or not divorce or living together without being married were sins:
"I think that I'll not comment on that part," saith the King. Then he commented on it. "I'll just say that what was a sin 2,000 years ago is a sin today, and people that were condemned to hell 2,000 years ago, I don't expect to meet them in heaven. So let's stick to that principle."
Isn't that interesting? Mr. King the Stupid, is so damn dumb he doesn't even know how dumb he is. It was a sin not to keep the Sabbath 3,000 years ago. It was not a sin to own slaves, however. But, if you didn't keep the Sabbath, the Lord said you should die! King doesn't keep the Sabbath, he has giving God the finger by worshiping on the first day of the week - Sunday - rather than the seventh! And there has been no further word from God about slaves, but the government won't let you keep them. Maybe that's why King hates the feds so much!
I'd guess heaven is going to be beyond his piteous, pious, precarious post-death plans and he ought to be looking into some specially-made Hazmat suits!
