The Republicans are corrupt. We know that. We have already seen Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham (CA-50) go to jail, Tom DeLay (TX-22) resign in disgrace to face trial, Bob Ney (OH-18) cop a plea, and Mark Foley (FL-16) exposed as a pederast. New revelations from Tom Reynold’s (NY-26) chief of staff will probably lead to the resignation of Dennis Hastert as Speaker. In fact, it’s possible he won’t even be re-elected. But, I am not happy that sexual misconduct costs people their careers, but not stuff like this from Vanity Fair.
[Sibel] Edmonds has given confidential testimony inside a secure Sensitive Compartmented Information facility on several occasions: to congressional staffers, to investigators from the O.I.G., and to the staff from the 9/11 commission. Sources familiar with this testimony say that, in addition to her allegations about the Dickersons, she reported hearing Turkish wiretap targets boast that they had a covert relationship with a very senior politician indeed—Dennis Hastert, Republican congressman from Illinois and Speaker of the House since 1999. The targets reportedly discussed giving Hastert tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments in exchange for political favors and information. “The Dickersons,” says one official familiar with the case, “are only the tip of the iceberg.”
Bill Frist engages in insider trading. Rudy Guiliani employed a mob-connected incompetent as his police chief. Cheney’s chief of staff is on trial for obstruction of justice and perjury. Porter Goss filled the CIA with corrupt cronies. If sheltering a pederast is what it takes for America to turn on the GOP, so be it. But I don’t have to like it. They should have turned on them long ago. What is this obsession with sex in our country? We cannot tolerate perversion or promiscuity, but we can tolerate a war sold on lies? This is all sanctified by the School of Higher Broderism, which insists that Clinton deserved to be impeached for lying about a blow job, but clamors not for the impeachment of Dick Cheney for ‘fixing the facts around the policy’. It’s pathetic. Denny Hastert should resign, yes. But he should have been hounded out of office years ago for taking money from foreign nationals to block pro-Armenian legislation.
Not in our DC. In our DC is has to be about sex. If it isn’t about sex, it requires the most blatant evidence. And even that is usually swept under the rug.