Thank you Missy… the problem is that there are just SO MANY Dems who violate the same standards of deceny, ethics or law that they daily demand of us….
James (San Jose)
16 years ago
Of the C.R.E.W.’s 20 most corrupt congressmen 14 are Republicans 6 are Democrats for a 70% to 30% breakdown. Of the four “dishonorable mentions” 3 are Republicans 1 is a Democrat. The Elephants are still way ahead on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheep.
You also may want to refresh your memory of the Foley affair, he was forced to resign by the Republican leadership (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley_Scandal) While he may not have broken the law his behavior as a Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children was grossly inappropriate. Context matters; there was sex and there was a scandal. That makes it a sex scandal. Foley had incredibly inappropriate conversations with underaged men who where under his care ( in loco parentis.) He severely violated the trust of the parents of those pages. To make this case crystal clear, those parents did not send their teen-aged boys to Washington to be seduced and then butt-f**ked by the the former Congressmen. Foley did this multiple times; that was the scandal. Instead of protecting those young men from predators (which was his job both acting in loco parentis and as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children); he was the predator. He may not have legally violated those young men; but morally, he buggered them, their parents, and his sworn duty to uphold the spirit of the law.
This is not to justify the actions of Tim Mahoney, what he did was at least hypocritical and probably self-destructive. In short the man is dumber than a sack of door-knobs. There is not much Pelosi could do about this man’s indiscretion as the full details have only recently come to light. By the time the machinery of the House gets around to the specifics the voters will have spoken. Plus realistically if Pelosi was to punish every House member who tried to cover up lapse in their monogamy she would not have a quorum to run the House. None of the leadership either Republican or Democrat have the will or the manpower to run a bed-check on every member of the House. Both John Boehner and Rahm Emanuel have more pressing matters to attend to than some randy junior Congressman’s fly. Last week they were desperately trying to save the entire world economy from melt-down. There will be a Kabuki theater production called an ethics investigation, but with only 20 odd days before the election nothing will come of it. Mahoney will most likely get voted out of office and the Democrats will have him off their hands. Mohoney’s biggest worry will be Mrs. Mahoney and her divorce lawyer not the wrath of Nancy Pelosi or Rahm Emanuel.
Hoping that either party will actually clean up it’s act voluntarily is a fools game. Thinking that either party will end the culture of corruption on its own is also moronic. The real answer is to hold both Democrats and Republicans accountable for their actions in the primaries. Unfortunately neither Elephants nor Donkeys are really willing to do this. When a man as dirty and corrupt as Ted “Tubes” Stephens manages to win in the primary when he is under indictment there is a systemic problem in at least the local party. Same goes for the dumber than dirt Democrats that voted for the Congressman with all the money in the freezer.
As it stands, Republicans have the deeper corruption problem but only because they have held power for so long. Newt Gingrich utterly failed to clean up the legislature. Tom Delay actually embraced corruption with his “K street project.” In 2006 the feces hit the fan and many Elephants were relegated to the graveyard. The voters delivered a strong message to the party of Lincoln. This election is shaping up to be yet another boot to the head of the G.O.P. With a true Democratic majority in the house , that is with enough “Progressive” Democrats in the House to out vote the DINOs / “Blue Dog Democrats”, there may be real reform in 2009. If enough Republicans get serious about cleaning the House there WILL be real reform. But that means the Republicans have to get tough on the toe-tappers and whore-mongers in their own ranks. It means they own up on their miscreants. Pot cleans Pot, Kettle cleans Kettle and neither worries about the amount of Carbon on the bottom of its mate.
Pelosi and Reid are not going to disarm unilaterally. The main reason they close ranks on their problem children is because Republicans closed ranks on theirs. Democrats protected Tim Mahoney because Republicans protected Larry Craig. I know it sucks, but to truly clean up Washington Republicans are going to have to put partisanship aside and provide cover for reforming Democrats. There is no percentage for the Democratic leadership if the Republicans keep playing “gotcha” on Democratic foibles while defending Republican bad behavior. On the flip side there is no percentage for Republican leadership when Democrats play gotcha with the G.O.P. in the same way. Case in point; this very article which assaulted Congressman Mahoney’s and Rangel’s actions while ignoring Don Young’s and Tom Feeney’s. Case in point; this very articles inflation of Mahoney’s misdeeds while it trivialized the actions of Mark Foley.
Cleaning up Washington is a non-partisan effort. By making it partisan you not only ensure that the Donkeys will behave badly, you also ensure that the Elephants will also be embarrassed by substandard behavior. The Republican party is only a news-cycle away from its own Mahoney kerfuffle, keep that in mind, OK? Beat this drum all you want, just remember the drum will beat you back.
This is not to justify the actions of Tim Mahoney, what he did was at least hypocritical and probably self-destructive. (BARF). I can say the same thing about the man he replaced.
Ahhhh, such an artful dodge. I seem to remember an “outrage” from the MSM and the constand drumbeat for head to roll in 2006 (Mahoney and “Macaca”), but Mahoney….well…nahhhhhh….that’s a personal matter. But Mahoney did more than just “text”, he did the full Monty, paid off the wench, found himself blackmaled and the press gives a “so what, it’s his personal mistake/life” response (yawn).
Meanwhile, Congressman Jefferson (aka: $80k in the fridge) still keeps his assignments and just hums along like a content fatcat.
Hey, don’t get me wrong, if somone does something wrong, then call them out on the carpet (if not by the leadership, then by the voters), but can I at least have the SAME kind of outrage and anal probe when a Dem gets caught.
You know, “WHAT DID HE KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT”, “HE CALLS AN INVESTIGATION ON HIMSELF (SNICKER-SNICKER) yah…sure.” “CONGRESSMAN, DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE JUDGEMENT TO CARRY ON AFTER THIS?” yadda, yadda, yadda.
James, your post came of as “quibbling”…..a pointing of fingers saying “We won’t, because the opposing side won’t do it.” It makes the Dems come off as a big crybabies. So, since there is evil on the other side, it gives us cover to do the same. With that mentallity, NOTHING will ever get done.
Aye: I hope the RNC has that ad running non stop in Palm Beach.
Rush had a montage today of the breathless “news” reports that were a daily torrent during the Foley scandal:
O’BRIEN: …the resignation of Florida Congressman Mark Foley over improper e-mails to a teenage page. Five weeks until the elections. Is the GOP in trouble?
NURENBERG: Five weeks before the election it seems unlikely that those Democrats will let the issue die.
MALVEAUX: This is the last thing they anticipated five weeks before the midterm elections.
CHRIS CUOMO: The implications could be very big for the election.
LIASSON: I think the question now is how this affects the midterms.
HOLT: The resignation of Congressman Mark Foley over those emails is heating up in an election year season bonfire.
HALPERIN: The Democrats are 1/15 of the way there. I can’t see how they could lose this seat.
EPSTEIN: You begin to get a very strong, wave and a sentiment out in the public to throw the bums out.
HARRIS: A potentially massive, metastasizing scandal, just five weeks before Election Day.
Have we heard ANYTHING like this about the Mahoney mess? Nope!
I was surprised today to learn that someone I know had never heard of William Ayers and didn’t know anything about this ACORN business. He only watches the occasional mainstream “news” broadcast.
I’d say that there are millions of Americans out there who don’t know about any of this stuff because the “news” media refuses to cover it.
If each of us reach out to at least one friend or family member who is in a similar situation we can do a lot to help the cause.
Uddercha0s
16 years ago
I appears that there may have been a second “affair” going on at the same time as this.
On Tuesday night, a person close to the Mahoney campaign told the AP that Mahoney also was having a relationship with a high-ranking official in Martin County in his Florida district around the same time of the purported affair with Allen.
Udder: Expect the usual “it’s his private life”…. “it’s just about sex”….”everybody does it” crapola to resurface once again. Funny how they drop that routine when it is a Republican involved but are so quick to pick it up again when it is one of theirs.
If Mahoney was half the man Mark Foley was he would have resigned by now. If the Dems had the same standards as the GOP they would be insisting on it.
All of those liberal newscasters/writers who were morally outraged at the Mark Foley scandal of ’06 now hardly seem interested enough to mention it.
They are all full of Foley Mahoney.
Forgot “Cold Cash” Jefferson.
Thank you Missy… the problem is that there are just SO MANY Dems who violate the same standards of deceny, ethics or law that they daily demand of us….
Of the C.R.E.W.’s 20 most corrupt congressmen 14 are Republicans 6 are Democrats for a 70% to 30% breakdown. Of the four “dishonorable mentions” 3 are Republicans 1 is a Democrat. The Elephants are still way ahead on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheep.
You also may want to refresh your memory of the Foley affair, he was forced to resign by the Republican leadership (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley_Scandal) While he may not have broken the law his behavior as a Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children was grossly inappropriate. Context matters; there was sex and there was a scandal. That makes it a sex scandal. Foley had incredibly inappropriate conversations with underaged men who where under his care ( in loco parentis.) He severely violated the trust of the parents of those pages. To make this case crystal clear, those parents did not send their teen-aged boys to Washington to be seduced and then butt-f**ked by the the former Congressmen. Foley did this multiple times; that was the scandal. Instead of protecting those young men from predators (which was his job both acting in loco parentis and as chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children); he was the predator. He may not have legally violated those young men; but morally, he buggered them, their parents, and his sworn duty to uphold the spirit of the law.
This is not to justify the actions of Tim Mahoney, what he did was at least hypocritical and probably self-destructive. In short the man is dumber than a sack of door-knobs. There is not much Pelosi could do about this man’s indiscretion as the full details have only recently come to light. By the time the machinery of the House gets around to the specifics the voters will have spoken. Plus realistically if Pelosi was to punish every House member who tried to cover up lapse in their monogamy she would not have a quorum to run the House. None of the leadership either Republican or Democrat have the will or the manpower to run a bed-check on every member of the House. Both John Boehner and Rahm Emanuel have more pressing matters to attend to than some randy junior Congressman’s fly. Last week they were desperately trying to save the entire world economy from melt-down. There will be a Kabuki theater production called an ethics investigation, but with only 20 odd days before the election nothing will come of it. Mahoney will most likely get voted out of office and the Democrats will have him off their hands. Mohoney’s biggest worry will be Mrs. Mahoney and her divorce lawyer not the wrath of Nancy Pelosi or Rahm Emanuel.
Hoping that either party will actually clean up it’s act voluntarily is a fools game. Thinking that either party will end the culture of corruption on its own is also moronic. The real answer is to hold both Democrats and Republicans accountable for their actions in the primaries. Unfortunately neither Elephants nor Donkeys are really willing to do this. When a man as dirty and corrupt as Ted “Tubes” Stephens manages to win in the primary when he is under indictment there is a systemic problem in at least the local party. Same goes for the dumber than dirt Democrats that voted for the Congressman with all the money in the freezer.
As it stands, Republicans have the deeper corruption problem but only because they have held power for so long. Newt Gingrich utterly failed to clean up the legislature. Tom Delay actually embraced corruption with his “K street project.” In 2006 the feces hit the fan and many Elephants were relegated to the graveyard. The voters delivered a strong message to the party of Lincoln. This election is shaping up to be yet another boot to the head of the G.O.P. With a true Democratic majority in the house , that is with enough “Progressive” Democrats in the House to out vote the DINOs / “Blue Dog Democrats”, there may be real reform in 2009. If enough Republicans get serious about cleaning the House there WILL be real reform. But that means the Republicans have to get tough on the toe-tappers and whore-mongers in their own ranks. It means they own up on their miscreants. Pot cleans Pot, Kettle cleans Kettle and neither worries about the amount of Carbon on the bottom of its mate.
Pelosi and Reid are not going to disarm unilaterally. The main reason they close ranks on their problem children is because Republicans closed ranks on theirs. Democrats protected Tim Mahoney because Republicans protected Larry Craig. I know it sucks, but to truly clean up Washington Republicans are going to have to put partisanship aside and provide cover for reforming Democrats. There is no percentage for the Democratic leadership if the Republicans keep playing “gotcha” on Democratic foibles while defending Republican bad behavior. On the flip side there is no percentage for Republican leadership when Democrats play gotcha with the G.O.P. in the same way. Case in point; this very article which assaulted Congressman Mahoney’s and Rangel’s actions while ignoring Don Young’s and Tom Feeney’s. Case in point; this very articles inflation of Mahoney’s misdeeds while it trivialized the actions of Mark Foley.
Cleaning up Washington is a non-partisan effort. By making it partisan you not only ensure that the Donkeys will behave badly, you also ensure that the Elephants will also be embarrassed by substandard behavior. The Republican party is only a news-cycle away from its own Mahoney kerfuffle, keep that in mind, OK? Beat this drum all you want, just remember the drum will beat you back.
James (San Jose):
You’re gonna quote CREW?
You’re kidding right?
You got the latter portion correct.
The former?
Not so much.
So talking and e-mailing is now sex?
Really?
Who wrote that definition?
Hmmmm….
Wait.
Just a second ago you said that they were underage and having sex.
Now you say that they were not “legally violated.”
Which is it?
Can you tell me what the outcome of the Foley investigation was?
Can you tell me when he was sentenced to prison?
How long will he be locked away?
Just in the first two paragraphs you have proven yourself to be a dullard. The remainder of your post is no different.
Crew? You mean that group founded BY DEMOCRATS to be used to trash Republicans?
Give me a break James. Are you that stupid?
This is not to justify the actions of Tim Mahoney, what he did was at least hypocritical and probably self-destructive. (BARF). I can say the same thing about the man he replaced.
Ahhhh, such an artful dodge. I seem to remember an “outrage” from the MSM and the constand drumbeat for head to roll in 2006 (Mahoney and “Macaca”), but Mahoney….well…nahhhhhh….that’s a personal matter. But Mahoney did more than just “text”, he did the full Monty, paid off the wench, found himself blackmaled and the press gives a “so what, it’s his personal mistake/life” response (yawn).
Meanwhile, Congressman Jefferson (aka: $80k in the fridge) still keeps his assignments and just hums along like a content fatcat.
Hey, don’t get me wrong, if somone does something wrong, then call them out on the carpet (if not by the leadership, then by the voters), but can I at least have the SAME kind of outrage and anal probe when a Dem gets caught.
You know, “WHAT DID HE KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT”, “HE CALLS AN INVESTIGATION ON HIMSELF (SNICKER-SNICKER) yah…sure.” “CONGRESSMAN, DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE JUDGEMENT TO CARRY ON AFTER THIS?” yadda, yadda, yadda.
James, your post came of as “quibbling”…..a pointing of fingers saying “We won’t, because the opposing side won’t do it.” It makes the Dems come off as a big crybabies. So, since there is evil on the other side, it gives us cover to do the same. With that mentallity, NOTHING will ever get done.
Chickens comin’ home…..to Roost.
Yah….Mahoney, the one with Cajones 🙂
Aye: I hope the RNC has that ad running non stop in Palm Beach.
Rush had a montage today of the breathless “news” reports that were a daily torrent during the Foley scandal:
Have we heard ANYTHING like this about the Mahoney mess? Nope!
I was surprised today to learn that someone I know had never heard of William Ayers and didn’t know anything about this ACORN business. He only watches the occasional mainstream “news” broadcast.
I’d say that there are millions of Americans out there who don’t know about any of this stuff because the “news” media refuses to cover it.
If each of us reach out to at least one friend or family member who is in a similar situation we can do a lot to help the cause.
I appears that there may have been a second “affair” going on at the same time as this.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,438161,00.html
Udder: Expect the usual “it’s his private life”…. “it’s just about sex”….”everybody does it” crapola to resurface once again. Funny how they drop that routine when it is a Republican involved but are so quick to pick it up again when it is one of theirs.
If Mahoney was half the man Mark Foley was he would have resigned by now. If the Dems had the same standards as the GOP they would be insisting on it.
@Mike’s America: Already done. The left is so predictable