The party of hypocrites

[BobcatJH]

The Republican Party, during an election season, is typically in high cotton. The run-up to each all-important vote allows them to do what they do best - attack. Not only attack, but also attack with the brand of venom and dishonesty usually associated with the matron and patron saints of the party, Ann Coulter and Karl Rove. As the big day approaches, we learn that our favorite Democratic candidates are terrorist-appeasing, tax-raising, gay-loving flip-floppers who have no moral fiber or are, in the words of Coulter, godless. Republicans hurl these false smears, hoping something sticks with voters. But what Republicans weren't counting on this fall, however, was the terrible, terrible taste of their own medicine. While no outcomes are certain, the wheels are appearing to be falling off the vaunted Republican machine. Everywhere you look, a new scandal is weighing down the right's chances of holding both houses of Congress. From racism to corruption to covering for a child predator, the so-called "party of values" more accurately looks to America like the party of hypocrites. And if the Republicans finally collapse under the weight of their own hypocrisy, come November, the party may be over.

Hypocrisy, as I've said before, is a matter of degree. Take the Terri Schiavo saga, for example. At every turn, the party of state's rights couldn't even let Schiavo's home state decide what was right and wrong. What's worse, the same president who barely lifted a finger when the terrible tsunami struck across the globe moved heaven and earth to interfere with Schiavo's final wishes. But something that got lost in the shuffle of an entire nationwide political apparatus injecting itself into one family's private affairs was the spectacular hypocrisy surrounding Tom DeLay, one of the biggest advocates for needlessly keeping Schiavo alive. DeLay, if you'll recall, was faced with a similar decision nearly 20 years ago. In that case, with his own father ailing, DeLay agreed to end his father's life. I wonder what those protesting outside of Schiavo's hospice would have thought of DeLay's behavior? Of his moral scolding despite his ties to forced prostitution and forced abortion in the Northern Mariana Islands. Of the fact that, about what was occurring there, DeLay said, "You represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America."

Other hypocrisies strike the Republican base close to home, too. Take, for instance, the party of "compassionate conservatives" saying things that they would spend a lifetime decrying if they came from the mouths of our enemies. You know, like Pat Robertson praying for vacancies to open on the Supreme Court. Or Michael Reagan, son of the former president, saying, "Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!" Or Coulter echoing Robertson and saying, "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. That's just a joke, for you in the media." In other words, things that Fox News would spend an eternity blasting if they came from, say, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Hugo Chavez. When words just aren't enough, of course, some faith-based individuals took matters into their own hands, physically assaulting a man whose crime was disagreeing with them ideologically. While I claim no faith, I suspect that is something Jesus wouldn't do. Republican Jesus, maybe.

When they're not telling you how pious they are, Republicans love to remind you that theirs is the party of national security. That theirs is the party of protecting our freedom. That theirs is the party of supporting the troops. Reality, however, is a cruel judge of the Republicans' hubris. First, the party that purports to be the party of national security has repeatedly put politics above keeping America safe. Rove, himself a walking national security threat is, at last check, both a Republican and remains employed by the Bush White House, the same White House responsible for outing an undercover CIA operative solely to attack one of its opponents. That agent's job? Keeping track of the flow of WMD technology to and from Iran. Second, the party that purports to be the party of protecting our freedom has repeatedly sacrificed our civil liberties in the name of our safety. But tell me, exactly how much safer are we? Were we safer after the Madrid bombings? The London bombings? In the midst of a war that experts say has only made the world a more dangerous place? Third, the party that purports to support the troops has repeatedly proven that they do support the troops - with a knife in the back. From feeding them spoiled food to caring more for public relations than treating the signature wound of the war to not providing our men and women with the proper equipment, nothing is as it seems for the Republican Party. In fact, I can safely say this: Hypocrisy accomplished.

But the latest - and worst - example of the hypocrisy of the Republican moralists is Foleygate. What started as a case of a Republican congressman, Mark Foley, using his position of power to take advantage of minors soon became much, much more. Foley, supposedly an advocate for missing and exploited children, was instead a child predator, engaging in inappropriate online conversations with underage pages (later having sex with a former page), interrupting an important vote to engage in cybersex and showing up drunk at the pages' Washington dorm, only to be turned away. And what did the Republican leadership do, knowing about Foley's behavior for quite some time? They coddled and covered up for a child predator, appearing more concerned about protecting their majority than protecting underage children. What's worse, knowing what they knew and when they knew it, the leader of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Tom Reynolds, urged a hesitant Foley to seek re-election. And what, when on the defensive, did the Republicans do? While continuing to play Russian roulette with their electoral chances this fall, they turned the Foley scandal into yet another opportunity to appeal to their anti-gay base.

But that effort, like so many others before, smacks of hypocrisy. The Republican Party represents itself as the party that wants to keep gays from marrying, adopting and, when taken to the extreme by the Robertsons of the world, even existing, yet they knowingly cover for a child predator, going so far as to urge him to stay in office. What's more, the Republican Party represents itself as the party of the big tent, yet one of its top 2008 presidential hopefuls, George Allen, has a history of racist behavior. On top of that, the Republican party represents itself as the party of small government and responsible spending, yet they've bloated the bureaucracy to unprecedented proportions and have sunk billions into an ill-conceived foreign policy, with disastrous results. And for once, it appears as though the two-faced nature of the Republican Party is catching up to them. To me, nothing speaks to the perils facing the Republican Party than the fact that the party known for its vicious election-season attack ads is forced to run two ads in which two GOP congressional incumbents, Reynolds and Don Sherwood, apologize to voters for letting them down. This November, however, sorry won't be good enough.

[RobertSeattle]

1. The GOP: Do as I say, not as I do

GOP Hypocrite is redundant.

[BobcatJH]

2. No doubt

That's definitely the condensed version of this piece!