I don’t know if anyone remembers it, but Dick Cheney once shot someone in the face and then lied about it. I know that is not as bad as sending sexually explicit emails and instant messages to teenage boys. I just thought I would bring it up anyway.
Another thing you might have forgotten about is the time that the Bush administration fixed the facts around the policy of invading Iraq. That led to the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of people. I know that is no reason to have wall-to-wall coverage on cable news. It certainly isn’t a mistake on the magnitude of letting an adult perform extramarital fellatio on you. I just thought I would remind you, in case you forgot.
Just so it doesn’t go down the memory hole, I guess I should mention the time that the CIA officer in charge of tracking Iraqi and Iranian weapons of mass destruction programs was outed by Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Richard Armitage. That ended her career and was done purely and simply for revenge against her husband. I know it isn’t as interesting as a women that is screwing a Congressman going missing and later turning up dead. I just thought I should bring it up.
Did Denny Hastert takes bribes from Turks to block pro-Armenian legislation? No one seems to care. Did he have any idea what Tom DeLay was doing? No one cares. Did he have a clue about the corruption of Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham? Not one cares. How many times did he answer Jack Abramoff’s phone calls or take his free tickets and dinners? No one cares. Did he illegally use his position as Speaker to enrich himself? No one cares. When did he first learn that one of his members was a pervert that flirted with Congressional pages? Oh sweet Jesus.
You get the point.
Watching some cable news tonight, I get the strong impression that Dennis Hastert’s attempt to put an end to this scandal has been a spectacular failure. He is probably not going to retain his speakership. And it’s all because he looked the other way about a member that he knew was infatuated with underage boys and didn’t investigate him. That’s a perfectly valid reason to shit-can him. But what about all the other reasons to shit-can him that have been set down to business-as-usual? Maybe David Broder can explain it to me. In the meantime, how many of these crooks are going to lose their jobs next month?
