Distraught Republicans lambasting one another
Former Rep. Mark Foley’s lewd behavior with teenage pages dropped like a match in a dry forest of conservative anger at Republicans. More than the scandal itself, the anger is what could topple the House leadership and end 12 years of Republican control of the House. For many conservatives, Republicans have assumed a startling resemblance to the Democrats they ousted from a 40-year reign in 1994.
Are any of y’all enjoying this as much as I am? Now that their house of cards and lies is collapsing around them, Republicans are turning on one another, lashing out in anger and frustration as they try to preserve their own hides (and jobs). That many of them will be losing their livelihoods on November 7th is almost a foregone conclusion; the only real question is what the final tally of carnage will look like. Few, if any of us on the Left are shedding any crocodile tears for the liars and thugs who have treated government as their private playground since 1994.
Despite their best efforts to the contrary, Republicans can’t pin this one on Democrats. No, they shot themselves in the foot, metaphorically speaking, and they did it unassisted. Not that those of us on the Left haven’t enjoyed the show. While some of us might like to take credit for the demise of Republican electoral prospects, there’s no great secret as to why they’ll be the minority party after November 7th. It’s really all about two things: corruption and arrogance. Not long after they came to power in 1994, Republicans began to believe their press clippings, and some of them began to believe that power and the rewards that flowed from it was their birthright. They began to believe that they, and only they, had the answers for what ailed this country, and that Democrats were just a bunch of clueless, flag-burning, clueless Liberals, useful only as foils for Republican jokes.
“They have become that which they beheld,” said Richard Viguerie, the father of conservative grassroots activism. “In the early 1990s, they talked about a culture of corruption by the Democrats and how they were abusing their power. Lo and behold, that seems to be what the Republicans have engaged in. It’s very, very hard to tell conservatives that there really is a significant difference on most issues between this crowd and the Democrats.”
Of course, Viguerie thinks we should pave Iraq and turn it into a parking lot, but he does have a point about what Congressional Republicans have done to themselves. Newt Gingrich rode into power on the heels of the GOP revolution of 1994, promising that things would be different. Well, when it comes to politics, the more things change, the more they stay the say. Power may corrupt, but it’s also true that absolute power corrupts absolutely -and most Republicans were convinced that they were to the manor born. As Ann Richards once said of Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader, they woke up on third base and convinced themselves they’d hit a triple.
House Republicans are a long way from the heady days of 1994, when the Republican revolution began with a 54-seat landslide after fiery back-bencher Newt Gingrich of Georgia and his conservative allies issued the Contract With America, “aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government,” starting with fiscal responsibility and reform of the House itself.
Foley’s escapades fuel a long-simmering frustration that Republicans have betrayed their principles. The latest issue of Washington Monthly ran essays from seven lifelong Republicans arguing — before the Foley scandal broke — that it might be better if Republicans lost the House.
Titles ranged from “Bring on Pelosi” to “Let’s Quit While We’re Behind.”
Former Florida Rep. Joe Scarborough, a member of the GOP class of 1994 and now an MSNBC television host, wrote that he would prefer “an assortment of Bourbon Street hookers running the Southern Baptist Convention than having this lot of Republicans controlling America’s checkbook for the next two years.”
Well, Scarborough won’t see as “assortment of Bourbon Street hooker” walking the halls of Congress anytime soon (Damn…wouldn’t THAT be a sight to behold??), but barring a comeback of unimaginable proportions, Democrats will become the majority party on the night of Novemer 7th.
THEN CAN WE IMPEACH THE LYING, MURDERING BASTARD IN THE WHITE HOUSE??
