Republican hypocrites strike again!

In 1993, in an effort to attack the then Democratic-controlled leadership, the Republicans adopted a rule that required House GOP leaders to step aside if indicted for a crime that could bring at least two years in state or federal prison.

Actually, while I am a Democrat, I think that was a very good rule, and EVEN if the Republicans did it to attack the Democrats at the time, I would have supported it as it just makes sense. Why should anyone indicted of a serious crime be allowed to represent our country as an elected official?

The Republicans, at that time, accused the then Democratic leaders as being corrupt and arrogant, and wanted to oust those indicted of crimes, and went on the war path! Again, since it requires an indictment, how bad could this be? Oh how times have changed. NOT!

This week, the Republican led House Representatives overturned that very same rule. And why would they do that? Well, it seems, one of their own, Rep. Tom DeLay, our country’s wonderfully powerful majority leader, may be indicted on state corruption charges stemming, once again, from a fund-raising scandal which has already involved three of his associated.

Of course, DeLay and his band of Republicans say this indictment is just a Democratic Party play to get him out of office. Never mind that DeLay has been reproved three times in the past for what the Republicans now call ‘ethical lapses.’ (When did breaking the law become a ‘lapse?’) But you see, because it is a Democratic Texas investigator from Austin that is leading the investigation into yet another ‘lapse’ by Tom DeLay, it must be a political ploy and not based on any real problem, even though this is ‘lapse’ number 4! It does not matter if Tom DeLay is actually guilty of what he is accused of doing now, because the new ruling by Republicans say that THEY now get to decide if an elected official should be ousted for crimes! AMAZING! You know damn well if this were a Democrat being indicted, they would toss that person out as fast as possible.

‘It is interesting that the first order of business following the election, on the part of the Republican majority, is to lower the standards for their leaders in the Congress by saying that IF indicted, you can serve’ said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

I am not surprised by this however, as the Republicans have already done this several times. For example, during the Democratic-controlled years, the Republicans used filibustering (a method used to delay or postpone the passage of legislation) on way to many occasions to stop the Democrats from passing legislation they did not like. However, when the Republicans took power in 2000, they immediately tried to pass a law that made filibustering illegal! ‘Good for me, bad for you’ seems to be the Republican mantra these days.

So, what I still do not understand is why people blindly follow the Republican Party? With so much corruption, deceit, and two-faced politics going on, why not demand more from your party? I always thought the US was supposed to stand for ‘doing the right thing.’ If our elected officials cannot do the right thing, how can they expect the rest of us to do what is right? No wonder crime is up, we have such great role models in our government.

I am not sure the Democrats are any better, but at least they have the Republicans to keep them in check! Kudos to Nancy Pelosi for standing up to the Republicans this time, but where was the rest of Party to stop this nonsense?

Elsewhere in the news, Republicans raised the national debt limit by $800 billion, to more than $8 trillion on Wednesday! Take a clue from this people and go get your credit card limits raised and spend, spend, spend like crazy! George W and his band of merry spenders have no intention of ever paying any of this back (that would mean earning income by raising taxes God forbid) so why should you? Buy ALL that stuff you want and simply declare Bankruptcy. You get to keep your stuff and wipe out your debt, and 7 years later you can start all over again. If it is good enough for the US Government, it is good enough for you!