Posted on 09/03/2007 6:15:40 AM PDT by Plainsman
Republicans are so intent on pushing scandal-plagued members of Congress out of office and far from the media spotlight that the entire party--from the White House to congressional leaders to the Republican National Committee to various campaign committees--was instantly united last week in the effort to force Senator Larry Craig of Idaho to resign.
At another time, Republicans might have cut Craig some slack, allowing him to finish his term and not seek reelection. But after suffering crushing losses in last year's midterm election--spurred in part by highly publicized GOP corruption in Congress--Republicans are not in a mood to tolerate another nasty scandal. The common expression among leaders is that they must "clean house."
They were already doing so when the story broke last week of Craig's arrest and subsequent guilty plea for disorderly conduct in an airport men's room notorious as a spot for anonymous gay sex. House Republicans had quietly coaxed Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona into announcing his retirement next year. And with at least one more forced retirement expected, the corruption issue was being taken care of, belatedly but decisively.
But the Craig case suddenly overshadowed the house-cleaning drive. His arrest had "global implications," a Bush administration official says, because everyone has heard of it and knows the sordid details. Within hours of the disclosure of his arrest, Republicans decided Craig must go. Rarely have Republican leaders acted so swiftly as they did in sending the matter to the Senate Ethics Committee and stripping Craig of his seniority and ranking position on committees.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Personally I think Larry Craig should’ve fought the legal battle to avoid conviction in Minnesota. He was outed in October 2006 as being gay. Why take the conviction to “keep it a secret”? We live in the internet age and those kind of things don’t stay secret.
Funny about the way the MSM has wallowed in Craiggate while Hillary’s fundraising pals are being ignored. Whatever happened to Willie Jefferson and his nine thousand dollars in his freezer?
Ain’t it funny what gets covered?
Good. No reason when the results are obvious to wait. Occasionally the party might have to apologize to an innocent man, but that will happen so infrequently we might not ever see it.
What they don’t understand is that the Dems and drive bys will manufacture scandal out of whole cloth, if they need to. They need to fight back.
-—yep—timing is everything—wash out Hillary’s treason with a purported Repub fag scandal——
Now Craig is gone during a busy Labour Day weekend and he'll be naught but a distant memory by November.
Exactly. I cannot understand why Snow or his replacement does not stand up and call out the press on their “stories”.
Cannot figure it out.
Either we demand real Public Service from our Public Servants serving at the will of the People... or we just remain a constituency to be harvested by the money machines.
I'm convinced the answers need to come from an informed populace, not some life-term judge appointed by some 8-term politician sitting in his office because The People were too bored, jaded, confused, tired, or apathetic to vote all the bums out.
/rant
These writers all seem to avoid a central point — that Republican voters were disgusted with the ‘Pubbies behavior, lack of guts, lack of principle, lack of spine, and general cowardice of convictions; so much so that we gave them ‘the finger’ at the ballot box. Last year’s elections were not a referendum on the Iraq War (as the Press label it) or Republican corruption — but rather it was a manifestation of the fact that Republicans felt abandoned (in principle and value) by the peopl we sent to office (who behaved as RINOs).
We chose not so support them going back to DC. Period. For Democrats and the PRess to think “we” support Demoncrat policies and people is a flight of fancy on their part.
It was $90,000.00, not nine.
Yeah, that’s about right. Now we’ll see how dedicated the MSM is to doing stories that might make Defeatocrats look bad.
Can the MSM actually ignore Hsu?
We’ll see.
I stand corrected. Maybe if the media actually covered it we’d all know that.
The waning power of propaganda. HOORAY New Media!
If the GOP had actually followed The Contract With America to the letter, the Dem Party would be moribund today.
It was $90,000. He was actually videotaped taking a bribe of $100,000 -- but the other $10,000 has never been recovered. He'll go on trial in January, and probably be sentenced sometime during the summer.
IMHO that will be good timing. The Larry Craig episode will be old news, and it will be during an election season.
What you said!
Alright class. Your assignment for today is to compare and contrast the actions of the Republican Party to purge its ranks of those implicated in or tainted by corruption and scandal with the actions (or lack thereof) of the Democrat Party. Mention those Republican lawmakers now served prison sentences or removed from all political office. For the Democrat Party, mention those scandal ridden politicians who are running or have run for the Office of President, have served or are serving as Committee Chairmen in the House or Senate, and those convicted or impeached who are still in positions of power within the party.
Finally, draw conclusions from this analysis. Which party will be better positioned to provide the honest and responsive government that Americans desire?
Now get those pencils out and go to work.
$90,000 - trial going on as we type.
If as a teacher you had given that assignment you’d be fired and the union wouldn’t do a damned thing for you.
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