I Rest My Case
It's long been my contention that the elephant in the room in American politics--the thing that all even remotely neutral observers know but are unwilling to say--is that Republican politicians are far more willing to say egregiously deceptive things than their Democratic counterparts. If there is anyone out there who still harbors any doubt about this, I present to you Exhibit A (h/t Atrios):
Have you ever seen a more ridiculous example of up-is-downism in all your life? Boehner is alleging that the Democrats endangered pages because they didn't go public with emails which there is no evidence they ever had. But more importantly, these are the very same emails that Boehner and all of the House Republican leadership have known about since last year and failed to do anything about (almost surely for political reasons). And had these emails not been leaked to the press--as Boehner and the Republican leadership no doubt would have preferred--Foley would still be in Congress harassing pages.
And you really have to admire the pure chutzpah of Boehner's last line: "I do not believe thus far that Republicans knew about these sexually explicit instant messages." This is probably true, but of course Boehner is trying to imply here that the Democrats DID know about the IMs, something that is almost surely not true. The IMs only surfaced when former pages read ABC's story about the emails. What makes this so ironic is that when this scandal first erupted a few weeks ago, Republicans like Boehner complained bitterly that Democrats were conflating the emails and the IMs in their public statements on the matter. But here is Boehner doing the exact same thing, and in a far more dishonest way.
Could this guy be a bigger schmuck? And he's the House Majority Leader! Can you think of an example of a prominent Democrat saying something that even approaches this level of deception and hypocrisy? I can't.
DES MOINES, IA - House Majority Leader John Boehner today accused Democrats of endangering House pages for political gain.
Boehner, speaking at a campaign event for 3rd District Republican candidate Jeff Lamberti, said Democratic operatives have known about inappropriate e-mails sent by former Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, to young male pages for some time. He said Democrats had been shopping the information around Washington as a political ploy.
"Someone who had this information allowed those 16-year-old pages to be at risk while they were playing their political games," said Boehner, R-Ohio. "I do not believe thus far that Republicans knew about these sexually explicit instant messages."
Have you ever seen a more ridiculous example of up-is-downism in all your life? Boehner is alleging that the Democrats endangered pages because they didn't go public with emails which there is no evidence they ever had. But more importantly, these are the very same emails that Boehner and all of the House Republican leadership have known about since last year and failed to do anything about (almost surely for political reasons). And had these emails not been leaked to the press--as Boehner and the Republican leadership no doubt would have preferred--Foley would still be in Congress harassing pages.
And you really have to admire the pure chutzpah of Boehner's last line: "I do not believe thus far that Republicans knew about these sexually explicit instant messages." This is probably true, but of course Boehner is trying to imply here that the Democrats DID know about the IMs, something that is almost surely not true. The IMs only surfaced when former pages read ABC's story about the emails. What makes this so ironic is that when this scandal first erupted a few weeks ago, Republicans like Boehner complained bitterly that Democrats were conflating the emails and the IMs in their public statements on the matter. But here is Boehner doing the exact same thing, and in a far more dishonest way.
Could this guy be a bigger schmuck? And he's the House Majority Leader! Can you think of an example of a prominent Democrat saying something that even approaches this level of deception and hypocrisy? I can't.
6 Comments:
Well, in "defense" of hasert - he does represent the "boonies" of illinois - not exactly a bunch of well-educated people. In many ways - he is a perfect symbol of those he represents.
Sorry, I don't think you can rest, even if it's only your case. Boehner will undoubtedly be returning. We need to do everything we can to make sure it isn't as majority leader.
I can't imagine Boehner "representing" anyone with more than half a brain. However, there's a long tradition in several parts of the country (where I originally come from included) of Republicans choosing candidates who won't be "too smart" -- it usually meant they put up nice folks who had to be told where to go and how to vote on a daily basis.
It certainly seems true of Texas, Missouri and Montana.
I, for one, am growing very tired of watching the shambling nitwits attempt, and fail, to run this country. I think Boehner, Hastert, and Bush would be about right for a one-man popsickle stand -- although I wouldn't invest my money in even that kind of enterprise if they were going to be making the decisions.
The more I watch the Rep push back the more obvious it is that it's the message to the followers that they can rest easy, it's the Dems fault, that is more important than any facts or argument out there. Their base just wants that message, no argument, no facts.
If there was any point in using logic with these dirtbags, I'd ask them why they warned the Republican pages about Foley and not the Democratic ones.
But in a world where, as you point out, Republicans will just say anything to weasel out of responsibility (and in which Fox News would simply tell all their viewers that Foley was a Democrat), we know there's very little reason to think it'll matter.
Can you think of an example of a prominent Democrat saying something that even approaches this level of deception and hypocrisy?
Well, perhaps if we call joe "lie-berman" a democrat...
Yeah. Harry Reid saying "Republican culture of corruption", and with a straight face.
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