The Party of Values Continues Downward Spiral

The Republicans call themselves the party of values while feeding at the public trough and ignoring millions of Americans. But Americans are catching on. We'll know by the morning of Nov. 8 how many Americans care enough to force changes in Washington. For the sake of our nation, for the sake of our future, I hope the voters turn their backs on Bush and his Republicans enablers. These aren't the Republicans of old.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo has a post on some of the latest examples of Republican behavior problems:

Okay, let me see if I can give a run-down here.

We have Rep. Foley (R-FL) accused of various inappropriate sexual contact with underage congressional pages.

Then we have Rep. Gibbons (R-NV) in an on-going story about allegedly accosting/propositioning a woman other than his wife in a parking garage in Las Vegas. Gibbons is currently running for governor. And there's a separate dimension of this scandal where his cronies are trying to cover up what happened. I guess this explains how things that happen in Vegas stay in Vegas.

Next we've got the older story of Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) who allegedly tried to strangle his mistress.

Then just last night we learned that the apparently more traditionally-minded Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) "got into [a] verbal argument [with his wife] that turned a little physical by her being grabbed by the neck and pushed around the house."

Although not directly implicated, Marshall should have mentioned Dennis Hastert and the Republican leadership which may have deliberately ignored the Foley problem or at the very least specialized in looking the other way. Hastert has ignored other scandals under his nose. Looking the other way will be what Hastert is remember for when he eventually leaves Congress. This is the party of moral values?

Here's another list of Republicans involved in corruption scandals courtesy of TPMMuckraker:

The list isn't exhaustive, and no doubt we'll be adding entries as readers request them. Does some name keep cropping up in these stories and you have no idea why? Let us know, and we'll explain.

The Duke Cunningham Investigation:


Duke Cunningham
Brent Wilkes
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo
Mitchell Wade
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL)
Thomas Kontogiannis
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Jeffrey Shockey

The Jack Abramoff Investigation:

Jack Abramoff

Inner Circle
Michael Scanlon
Alexander Strategy Group
Tony Rudy
Ed Buckham
Grover Norquist
Ralph Reed

Members of the Administration
David Safavian
J. Steven Griles

Key Lawmakers
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)

Other Lawmakers Involved in Abramoff Scandal
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

And we still have no explanation of where all the money went in Iraq for reconstruction. And where is all the money going for Hurricane Katrina? Republicans have spent far less time dealing with Iraq and the issues of the day than feeding at the public trough it appears. If there are still Republicans with integrity in Congress, and I suppose in a sense there are, they've done a very poor job of holding their fellow Republicans accountable and that includes the president.

Between Bush's numerous failures and the neglect of important issues by the Republican-controlled Congress, we need some real change in Washington. Discussing anything else, including Kerry's mangled Bush joke, is a sideshow. Republicans have nothing to run on. That's the bottom line.