I usually end my column with some sort of inclusive message like, ‘vote for someone from either party who…’ but to hell with that. This past week has been so abhorrent that I’m done with political niceties. Plain and simple: The Republican Party must go.
When Republicans took control of the U.S. House back in 1994, the country was up in arms over President Clinton’s sexual indiscretions. In hindsight, who wouldn’t kill for a stained dress to be the biggest news maker right now?
Let us recap what’s happened since we last spoke. A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which is a report encompassing the conclusions of 16 intelligence agencies, was released that said President Bush’s global war on terror has increased, not decreased, the threat of global terrorism. After receiving pressure from members of his own party to release the full report, the President gave in… for about 15 minutes. Then he realized how damaging this report would be if released just five weeks from the election. He stated that releasing this document would harm us by letting the terrorists know what we know. Keep in mind that what we know is that this war is fueling the flames of anti-American hatred all around the globe. In response, Democrats requested going into a closed door session so that only the elected officials would see the report without any media present. Of course, that too was denied.
Why? Because for the Republican leadership, election season politics trumps national security. Once again, rather than admit fault and re-evaluate the course of action in Iraq, the President sided with playing politics over protecting our security.
In the same week, the Bush administration passed a law that strips detainees the right to Habeas Corpus (the right to a speedy trial). Now we can keep people locked up as long as we want without granting them access to a lawyer, or even letting their families know where they are.
I naively thought that these stories would dominate the world of news through the election. Then came what the media is referring to as, “Foley-Gate” (I’ll get into the how ridiculous using the suffix “Gate” is at some other point in time). For those of you that haven’t, well, opened your eyes since last Friday, Republican Congressman Mark Foley resigned after sexually explicit text messages surfaced between him and several 16-year-old male congressional pages. Pages are high school juniors selected to aide congressmen by answering phones and doing other menial tasks. While an adult (congressman or not) taking advantage of a minor (male or female) is disturbing enough, the story takes an even slimier twist. Shortly after the messages surfaced, it came to light that much of the Republican leadership (namely Speaker of The House, Dennis Hastert) knew of Foley’s exploits with his young pages for over a year! Again, rather than dealing with the problem, the Republican party chose to continue endangering children in hopes of maintaining the congressional seat. But wait, it gets even slimier. Foley was Chairman of the House Committee for Missing and Exploited Children! Even as the Republican leadership was learning of Foley’s inappropriate conduct, no thought was given to removing him for his chairmanship. And this is the party of moral values?
Again, this is usually the point in my column where I attempt to put partisanship aside and end on some sort of unifying message. To hell with that. When Republicans, from top to bottom, are more concerned about maintaining their control than they are about protecting children or
protecting the nation from terrorism, the gloves come off.
The Republicans’ tenure of leadership over the last decade-plus has redefined the words inept and corrupt. From tax cuts for the uber-wealthy, to Katrina, to Iraq, to Social Security reform, to Jack Abramoff, to torture, and now the hiding of a child predator, the Republican Party has to go. I could go on about the growing deficit, the startling number of people who’ve lost their health care, the decreasing wages of middle-class Americans, and the devastation to public education, but you already know about those.
We’re five weeks away from Election Day. On Nov. 7, let’s go to the polls (or mail in our ballots in Oregon) and tell the Republicans to “Get out of my house!”
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Get Out of My House!
Daily Emerald
October 4, 2006
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