1 Boring Old Man

Putting GOP Interests Over Child Safety Is NOT Acceptable

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The adults in this situation, who were apprised of the problem, ought to have intervened on these kids’ behalf.  I’m sorry, but there it is.  And from what I can tell, the GOP leadership has devolved into "woulda, coulda, shoulda" this morning — with Boehner pointing the finger at Hastert, and then taking it back, and Hastert playing dumb.  Someone dropped a whole lot of balls on this one — and that is simply not acceptable.  Does no one in the entire GOP know how to take responsibility?

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In fact, by now, we are to the point where even asking this question is naive – maybe even a mistake. Not taking responsibility for anything negative is at the center of a strategy that is so much the rule that it should be called "the Bush Administration Code of Honor." They are not responsible for:

• voting irregularities in 2000 & 2004
• doing nothing about al Qaeda prior to 911
• cooking the Intelligence to justify the War with Iraq
• not sending enough troops to Iraq
• "outing Valerie Plame" to discredit her husband
• actively ignoring the Geneva Conventions
• having a relationship with Jack Abramoff
• hiding information about the Iraq Civil War
• Reed, Cunningham, Delay, Ney, Foley

Reddhedd’s question ["Does no one in the entire GOP know how to take responsibility?"] has a loud answer. The answer is simply "No!"

How Mark Foley Represents The Entire Republican Party

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What’s illuminating here is not that a pedophile held Congressional office. That’s just sad and awful, especially for the children he took advantage of and exploited. What’s illuminating is the Congressman’s behavior. Sending text messages and emails? As if he could never be caught; as if he was invulnerable. And it’s exactly the kind of arrogance and poor judgement that has come to dominate the Republican Party. Like Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham who brazenly accepted bribes and illegal campaign contributions. Same with Tom DeLay. Worse, like George Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, tirelessly insisting we’re winning, things are getting better in Iraq, when anybody can see they’re getting worse. As if the truth won’t come out. It’s a culture of corruption that believes it can never get caught.

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Stephen Elliot writing on the Huffington Post gets even more to the center of things. The Hubris [to borrow from Corn and Isakoff] is staggering. They behave as if what makes something okay is that they’re doing it. They whine about being questioned as if that’s not our right to question. When confronted about something, they don’t respond until they’re given their "Talking Points" script. And the truth is not defined by what happened, it’s defined by what they can get away with claiming happened.