Republican sleaze

Republicans routinely insult Blacks, Native Americans and Muslims, and even Jews. It is no wonder hate crimes are up during Bush's time in office.

The latest example of Republican anti-Black and anti-Muslim hate speech comes from a Congressman from Iowa. From an email I got from American Family Voices:

While the Democratic Party has yet to decide who the nominee of the party will be, the radical wing of the Republican Party is just beginning their opening salvo against Sen. Barack Obama.

We need your help today to stop these racist and bigoted attacks.

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) is known for his outrageous and disgusting comments. In the past he's been quoted as comparing immigrants to livestock, calling undocumented workers a "slow-moving terrorist attack", claiming that immigrants have murdered more Americans than the combined death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, comparing the abuses at Abu Ghraib to mere "hazing" and waging a war against "secularists" who want to "eradicate Christ from Christmas." Suffice it to say, this man is off his rocker.

As my friend says about Republicans: "Losers and lamers. HINT: if you can only win with BS tactics, maybe your politics SUCK!"

I may be using that line alot in the near future.

Here's one example of right wing disdain for democracy. This comes from Firedoglake:

Laura Ingraham has asked her listeners to call the Dem Voter protection hotline — and they are now being flooded with calls from crank callers. Please call Laura and tell her what you think about this: 800.876.4123. You can e-mail her here. Apparently, voter intimidation and fraud are a joke to Laura Ingraham. Let's let her know that it is no joke.

More on Laura Ingraham: "caller indicated she is running a tape of Bill Clinton over and over saying "call 1-888 Dem Vote to report problems" — and then making fun of him, thus producing a spike in crank calls to the number" Protecting voter integrity is no joke. And I am not laughing. If anyone has audio of this, I'd love it.

DNC has released an audio of it here.

I really do urge people to call 800.876.4123 and tell them voter integrity is no joke and that Laura Ingrahm is un-American for denegrating democracy. Let them know what you think. In fact call them and let tell them my friend's comment just for good measure.

The Republican Party is imploding because of corruption. Their corruption has already sent Randy Cunningham to jail and forced the resignation of Tom DeLay and Mark Foley. In Ohio and Missouri and Kentucky their corruption is shocking. And voters are tired of it.

The Republicans try to cover up their corruption, lying for eachother. They even protected a sexual predator for six years! When faced with corruption in their ranks, Republicans lie and cover their tracks. Their final defense is to whine pitifully, "but the Democrats do it too!"

Well, Democrats have indeed been known to be corrupt. But there are differences. Here in Brooklyn, for example, there is a strong movement WITHIN the Democratic Party to reform the local, corrupt party. While Republicans whine and lie to protect their most corrupt members, here in Brooklyn a Democratic DA has sent corrupt Democrats to jail. I have joined many Democrats in calling for the resignation of William Jefferson, a Democratic Congressman caught red handed taking bribes. You don't see Democrats whining that Republicans do it too so it's okay for us to do it, do you? No. We attack Republican corruption and on the rare occasions it comes up we attack Democratic corruption as well. I see no comparable reform movement within the Republican Party. All I see are more lies, more sleaze and more greed. All I see are Republicans and companies like Halliburton and Exxon and Enron in an orgy of greed and profit, looting America and sacrificing American troops for profit.

Over at a Republican biased polling place there has suddenly been a big shift in their Senate predictions. For ages they have been estimating that Dems would pick up two or three Senate seats...at best. That doesn't count Lieberman as a Democrat, of course. The Republicans have been seeing it as a pretty good chance, though far from certain, than Dems would pick up Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania Senate Seats, maybe pick up Rhode Island, and probably lose New Jersey.

Their predictions had held largely steady for quite some time. Then came Foley's sleaze scandal where a sitting Republican congressman was caught soliciting sex with a minor. And the Republican leadership, which may have known about the scandal as far back as 2000, has been lying about it and covering it up.

Suddenly, this Republican biased election prediction site sees Democrats winning Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Missouri AND Tennessee. They also see Democrats holding on to New Jersey and catching up fast in Virginia. Let me emphasize that anyone who wants to help Democrats win in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Missouri, Tennessee, New Jersey and Virginia can click on the above named states and donate/volunteer through my Act Blue lists.

The Republicans are spinning things so fast about the Foely sleaze scandal that it's a wonder they don't fall down from dizziness. Republican Congressman Foley solicited sex from a minor...period. And the Republican leadership knew about it well before the story broke and they did nothing except try to cover it up. THAT is the scandal.

All the Republican posturing about gays and liberals is all just a smoke screen to try and hide the clear fact that the Republicans ALLOWED A SEXUAL PREDATOR TO REMAIN IN CONGRESS.

But the Republicans want to blame the gays. This is the response from the Human Rights Campaign:

Congressman Mark Foley’s sexually-charged communications with young congressional pages was reprehensible and we have strongly condemned it. We have also been equally quick to condemn some in the GOP for their attempts to blame this scandal on the GLBT community.

Just hours ago, following Speaker Hastert's press conference, I sent a letter to him expressing outrage at the efforts of some in his party to scapegoat gay people for this unfortunate situation. You can read the full letter here.

At the beginning of the week, I issued the following statement to the press:

“Gay or straight, Democrat or Republican, it is completely inexcusable for an adult to have this kind of communication with a minor. Congressman Foley brought shame on himself and this Congress by his horrible behavior and complete lack of judgment. We strongly condemn his behavior.”