Republican Scandals

Although I have done versions of this before, this was inspired by a Daily Kos Diary:

This is what happened Monday, Aug. 29, 2005...the day Katrina hit, John McCain's 69th birthday...the day America realized that Republicans don't give a shit about Americans.

Hurricane Katrina:

I remember the radar images from the weather channel the night before landfall. I remember distincly watching it and thinking, "My god...that's going to be bad." I also remember thinking that the government had better be ready to get people out and to deal with the situation.

I was right...it was going to be really, really bad. I mean THIS bad:

While Mississippi and Louisiana were getting slammed by Hurricane Katrina and Americans were dying, THIS is what Bush and McCain were doing:

From CurrentTV comes this amazing footage from WITHIN Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans:

Republican Corruption used to be one of my main topics to write about in the leadup to the 2006 election. It had become so clear to me that corruption in the Republican party in recent years had grown to a degree not seen in America since the Harding administration...perhaps even longer. I dedicated a whole blog to covering corruption, mostly Republican but some Democratic as well. But more recently I had started becoming kind of numb to the massive flow of Republican corruption that I stopped covering it. Didn't even touch the FBI investigation of Doolittle (R-CA).

But this really is one of the most important topics to discuss. Republican corruption is not just criminal, it also decreases the effectiveness of our government, creating situations like the deaths after Katrina and the recent imported gluten scandal. And quite frankly, Republican corruption is destroying the Republican Party, which, some might be surprised to hear, I don't think is a good thing. We need two strong parties in America to maintain the balance between States and Federalism that has sustained our system since the Constitution was written. And the Republican Party has dropped the ball on its end.

The most recent Republican corruption is in Alaska. It isn't quite the level of sleaze as you will find in the Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky State Republican Parties where corruption is deep and extensive, but it involves three Republican politicians. From Salon.com:

In Pennsylvania, Republican Congressman Don Sherwood was caught in a very public scandal where it was discovered he had a mistress for 5 years. This was discovered because he tried to strangle her, she locked her self in his bathroom and called 911. After being rescued from the abusive Republican Congressman, she sued him, furthering the scandal.

In Virginia Republican George Allen has been publically using racial slurs and apparantly has been using them since at least college. He is also thought to have past connections with white supremicists.

These are the two people George Bush is going out of his way to campaign for. From Salon.com:

Bush will make separate appearances Thursday for Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa., and Sen. George Allen, R-Va.

Sherwood had been considered to have a safe seat for re-election until a woman filed suit against him and alleged that he had choked her during an altercation at his Capitol Hill apartment. He admitted to having an affair with the woman, 35 years his junior, but denied hurting her. They settled the case out of court.

"Mr. Sherwood has certainly admitted to what is going on," [White House press secretary Tony] Snow said. "And the president also believes that we're all sinners, we all seek forgiveness and, in this particular case, he's supporting Don Sherwood's candidacy."