Rep. Mike Simpson (R) condemned Senate GOP leaders on Thursday for their treatment of fellow Idahoan Sen. Larry Craig (R), accusing them of hypocrisy.
“I hope I never stub my toe and they throw me under the bus,” Simpson said of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republican leaders. “It kind of makes you wonder what party you want to be a member of.”
They spend a lifetime in politics trying to vilify and marginalize one group or another (gays, hispanics, blacks, non-evangelicals just to name a few) and then they look in the mirror.
The more I watch politics the more I'm convinced that the Republican Party couldn't win an election on policy. If it weren't for their constant attacks on the character of others (using Willie Horton, The Swiftboaters, and hounding the life out of Clinton just to name a few) they couldn't get any votes worth counting.
By distracting from the real issues, they distract from the consequences and implications of their policy proposals. The dirty tricks that Rove learned from his time on the Nixon campaign and the Republicans have been pursuing ever since is that the ad hominem argument works. People fall for it. You can fool some of the people all of the time! You can make yourself look better by sliming the other guy, even if it isn't ethical and you're a hypocrite. Unfortunately, though it may win elections, it does nothing for the nation except provide us with a never ending parade of incompetents (like the one we have currently occupying the White House). I'm not saying that the Democrats are immune from hypocracy or from engaging in dirty tricks. They're certainly not. It's just become terribly obvious over the years that they're no where near as good at it as the Republican side of the aisle ... and you have to have morals and ethics like rubber bands to be as good at it as the Republicans have become ... from Nixon on.
The picture of hypocracy.
I honestly believe that, through Republican "ethics", hypocracy and the constant misdirection to these made-up character issues and away from the real issues that effect us all, the Republican Party has done irreparable harm to itself from which it will take a generation to recover. Drunk on the sense of power that came from their almost impeachment of a sitting president on the basis of bogus charges they've overstepped them selves and betrayed the trust that the American people had put in them.
Now, the real problems with the economy are starting to surface and their support of the never-ending war are catching the attention of the electorate. Their hypocracy of labeling themselves the "Family Values Party" while acting out like debauched Romans at an orgy has caught the attention of the religious Right, whom hey saw as their base and their base is not pleased.
I'm sure their strategists had hoped none of this would surface, at least until after the next election when it could all be blamed on someone else ... but they've opened Pandoras Box and it cannot be close again. They've been caught in the process and there's no one else to blame.
They dreamed of a permanent Republican majority. Irony of ironies, it was theirs to loose and they've been working overtime to loose their chance.
"Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake." - Napoleon
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