Republicans, caught lying, fight back by spreading more lies

I'm watching Donald Lambro from the Moonie Washington Times on C-Span's Washington Journal and he is saying with a straight face, that Democrats Garry Studds and Barney Frank were both caught doing the same thing as Foley, but the Dems only voted to censure them, that they both were re-elected, Studds for 7 more terms (I think) and Frank is still serving.

After going on about this, he said, to paraphrase, "But those were different times, and this needs to be dealt with seriously"

This is outrageous. And trust me, this will become the favored Republican defense, or at least a tactic to make it seem as if the Dems are just as bad (the "everybody does it" defense) and when Dems did the same thing, they slapped them on the wrist and re-elected them.

BUT, it's 100% guaranteed that Lambro and the rest know this full well, yet conspicuously neglect to mention it, that the cases of Studds and Frank contain some differences that make such statements complete B.S.

In both cases, they were accused of (horrors) having gay relationships with LEGAL ADULTS, and the relationships were CONSENTUAL.

Those two facts alone make them completely and utterly different from a congressman exchanging illicit messages with underage pages who apparently did NOT either want such creepy flirtations nor did they appreciate it.

Studds actually remained with the person he was with for many, many years and eventually moved to Portugal with them.

So don't buy the disingenuous attempts to make this argument that the Dems are just as bad or even worse. Hell, they censured these two when apparently their only crime consisted of a difference in age and the fact that they were gay.


That said, this scandal is being hyped by the Dems as well, though I have a hard time blaming them. Many say that something should have been done immediately when Foley e-mailed a 16 yr old guy and asked him to send him his picture. I've heard people say that should have gotten Foley investigated and they should have suggested counselling.

I'm sorry, but, while a bit suspicious, I don't think that constitutes anything approaching sexual predator status. I think this is why they said they considered this sort of thing "overly friendly", which I think is fair.

Now, that's just ONE instance in this sordid story. Foley most certainly DID cross the line further along in a big way and made sickening and revolting comments to some teens. These messages left no doubt as to Foley's sickness. But the suggestion that red flags should have been all over because Foley asked a 16 year old kid for his picture is a bit much. It should have definitely caused them to keep a damn close eye on him, but ......

And another thought occured to me.

Is it not pretty sad that this administration and the party which supports him no matter what, can invade a country which did nothing to us, resulting in the deaths of literally thousands of INNOCENT men, women, and children, costing more lives of our service men and women than were killed on 9-11, spending the country into a bottomless deficit which will affect generations to come, and miring us in an untenable situation with no way out, causing unimaginable destruction and making America hated around the world, and that doesn't get them too upset. As long as their taxes get cut, oh well. As long as all they're not asked to give up anything, or do anything more than slap made in China ribbon magnets on their cars and trucks, oh well.

It's revealed that the government routinely lied to us in trying to "sell" their war of choice. Yawn.

CHILDREN are being bombed, left homeless, crippled and orphaned, and we don't seem to mind. OUR government now holds people without chages and employs torture as a matter of policy.

As a matter of fact, those of us who DO mind are routinely labeled as nuts or fringe lunatics, un-american, "cut and runners", and worse.

The country goes about it's business and says to Bush, go on ahead and do whatever you want over there, I can't be bothered. They don't bat an eyelash at the fact that their government is spending hundreds and hundreds of BILLIONS to slaughter brown-skinned people half a world away, inflaming hatred among millions of people worldwide. No biggie, go get 'em, they seem to say. If we're kicking a little ass, I'm a tough guy too, so I'll support it. It's like a football game in their minds.

That not only doesn't cause any political problems for the Republicans, they actually use it to hold onto power!

They can slaughter people and kill them with abandon for years with little or no political costs, and most Americans either cheer them on or sit by silently. Wholesale murder doesn't seem to offend our moral sensibilities.

Yet now the thing that is apparently just TOO much for the public to stand, the thing that is making them finally stand up and reject Republican rule is....... a gay congressman sending illicit instant messages to a page???!!!

We can inflame the entire planet and that's just fine, but one member of the party gets creepy with a person one year away from being a legal adult and THAT is what finally get's America upset?

What a very sad, sad fact that the American public can absorb an almost limitless amount of incompetence, war-profiteering, secrecy, corruption, corporatism, making America hated around the globe, and death and destruction on a massive scale without much objection.

But sexual flirtation by e-mail on the part of one congressman finally gets their attention and disgusts them to the point where they want to throw them out?

I'd like to believe that this latest Republican scandal may be just the straw that broke the camel's back, though I'm not sure that's the case.

And by this point, I'm grateful for anything that wakes people up and returns some balance to our government. But yet I can't help but note that the public largely couldn't care less about the far, far, far worse things which have been done by this administation, things that greatly affect our strength and security as a nation, and the very constitution itself, yet rise up in outrage about something that really does no damage whatsoever to our country as a whole.

If it's not tabloid, you can get away with it, no matter how criminal, no matter how immoral, no matter how damaging to our country. But give people a story that can fit into their dumbed-down tabloid mentality, and you're toast.

Is it because we're obsessed with sex? Is it because killing other races just doesn't get us too upset? Why is this?