John Fund pens a column today in the Wall Street Journal that absolutely blasts Alaskan pols Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. He concludes:
It’s time for Senate Republicans to step up to the plate. It’s increasingly clear that their Sen. Stevens has ethically compromised himself and brought shame to the Senate. Will his colleagues continue to kowtow to him as a powerful Appropriations Committee member and allow him to serve on other key committees? Or will they send a signal that they are prepared to shun senators who abuse the public trust?
John Fund is a great friend of Grover Norquist (I have a source that says they are, or were, much more than just ‘friends’). Norquist famously said, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” It would be easy to see Fund’s column as a plea to the GOP to return to their avowed principles of limited government. Of course, that would have to ignore how people like Norquist have benefited financially from the bloated budgets of the Bush era.
In fact, Norquist’s outfit was intricately tied to Jack Abramoff and disgraced religious leader Ralph Reed. This is the crowd that John Fund runs with. Far from rejecting big government, they have tarnished themselves through their various schemes to steal and misdirect federal dollars. Seen in this light, Fund’s lambasting of the Alaskan delegation must be seen as an another example of breathtaking hypocrisy.
The Republicans have worked tirelessly to make their brand: strong military, lower taxes, smaller government, and traditional conservative religious values. That is their brand, but when they had an opportunity to govern, their record was uneven. Their version of a strong military is one that has lots of equipment but shows no more than lip service to the Pentagon’s human resources. Their commitment to small government has come into direct conflict with their religious conservatism (think Terri Schiavo) and their lust for pork projects. And their sacrosanct lower taxes pledge has led to unprecedented deficits and wealth disparity.
Facing an immediate future where they will control no levers of government (save the courts) many people in the Republican intelligentsia (if we can call it that) are urging a return to core principles. But John Fund, Grover Norquist, and Ralph Reed have already demonstrated the core principles of the GOP. Fake religiosity, mendacious calls for small government, and fearmongering are all harnessed to bring power…which is then used to steal money from the middle class, deny help to the poor, and line the pockets of crooks.
Enough. I don’t care what the Senate does to Ted Stevens. He’s no different than the rest of the Republican Party…he’s just better at it.
