On the way to Subway for lunch today, I tuned into the Randi Rhodes Show and she was reading off count after count of Republicans who had been outspoken against gays, teen sex, etc., and who suddenly found themselves in jail due to sex crimes against minors… You know, that “do as I say not as I do” sort of thing. It was amazing. Name after name after name. Here’s the site from which she was reading. Listed are names of mostly high-ranking GOP-ers who were caught doing some pretty repugnant things. Here’s a couple quotes from the site. Links to the stories are on the site itself:
Ed Schrock, two-term republican congressman, with a 92% approval rating from the Christian Coalition. Cosponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, consistently opposed gay rights. Married, with wife and kids. Withdrew his candidacy for a third term after tapes of him soliciting for gay sex were circulated.
Rick Roach, West Texas Republican district attorney who was elected in 2000 after running a “strong anti-drug campaign.” According to the Washington Times, he was “once publicly praised for his efforts to stamp out narcotics in his part of the Panhandle.” 2205: FBI agents confiscated two handguns from Roach’s briefcase, before raiding his home and discovering “35 more guns, along with a cache of cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana, scales and syringes.”
Jeffrey Patti, Republican Committee Chairman, was arrested for distributing what experts call “some of the most offensive material in the child pornography world” - a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
Donald Lukens, Republican Congressman, was found guilty of having sex with a minor - a girl he was accused of sleeping with since she was 13.
Paul Ingram, Republican Party leader of Thurston County, Washington, pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal, a prominent anti-abortion columnist and GOP fund raiser. He lost his position after it was revealed that he impregnated the daughter of an old girlfriend and then encouraged her to abort his child.
That is some heavy, heavy stuff… And this is not the worst of it. I highly encourage you to take a look at the site.
It turns out that the reason Randi was brining all this up is because a bigwig in our very own Department of Homeland Security has been caught in the act of soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl over the internet. DHS Deputy Press Secretary, Brian J. Doyle, was just arrested and charged with 23 counts “related to the use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor.” Turns out this 14-year-old girl he was sending obscene material to and attempting to seduce was actually a Polk County, FL detective. You just gotta love it. I’m hearing more and more people are actually pretending to be children on the internet in order to flush these predators out.
Talk about republican corruption… Yesterday Tom Delay steps down, but he still got some parting shots in and claimed he was going to take down the Texas prosecutor that’s been investigating him and his buddies-in-crime. Then there’s all the criminal activity in the White House that’s bubbling beneath the surface (and that will finally be revealed when the Democrats take over the House & Senate in November).
You have to wonder if this whole “moral values” issue for Republicans is so important to them because they’re repressed? Or because they’re trying to cover up for their activities? Is it just the power that gets to them and makes them think they’re above the law? And even if they’re financially criminal, like so many in this administration, what could possibly ever lead someone to believe that it’s OK to abuse a child in ANY way? What happens to that person’s mind when one of these GOP-ers crosses that line? I mean, they have to know it’s wrong if they’re jumping up on the stump and claiming how bad gays are and how bad sex offenders are, right?
Most of all, why would anyone decide to be a member of the Republican party and thereby align themselves with these kinds of people?
Makes you wonder.