You'd just better get used to it, boys and girls: The GOP is an aggregation of stupid, lying greedweasels. They are venal and vile and thoroughly reprehensible...and their days are numbered. (And this is NOT just wishful thinking.)
Today, in the very first trial connected with the vast Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, it took a jury just five days to return with a unanimous verdict of guilty on four out of five felony counts of making false statements and obstruction of justice against David Safavian, former chief procurement officer for this blighted administration. To those of you who have waited so patiently for the fireworks to start: THIS is why Abramoff is going to be more deadly to the radical rightwads than Black Death Plague...
The Justice Department constructed their case for for the benefit of the jury without ever having to put their star witness, "Black" Jack himself, on the stand at any time during the proceedings. Savafian's flimsy contentions that inexperience and poor judgement led him to blithly provide Abramoff's high-powered lobbying team with insider information simply did not hold water. His admission that he had no idea whatsoever that they were attempting to drum up business with his own department, the General Services Administration, was frankly absurd in light of the--week-long!--golfing excursion that he took to Scotland and London in company with Ohio Congressman Bob Ney, a pair of Ney's aides and Ralph Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition. (When was the last time YOU took a week off and flew overseas just to play golf, eh?)
The grouping, too, is supremely significant.
As noted in the "Republican Desperation Edition" of our very own Falling Babylon Bulletin, Rep. Ney is likely to be indicted at any moment for his own close association with Abramoff. You see, his former chief of staff, Neil Volz, has recently pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in return for a guarantee of testimony against his old boss...and he was one of the two Ney staffers present on that trans-Atlantic golf junket. Oops.
Furthermore, Ralph Reed's current campaign for lieutenant governor in the state of Georgia has just taken a full-frontal hit due to the Safavian conviction. Can you even doubt it? Reed's credibility, already tarnished, may now very well be irreparable. Once described as the "Right Hand of God" on a Time Magazine cover in the 1990's, he is now increasingly seen as the Devil's Advocate, having been completely compromised during his brush with money and power, by the very fundamentalist flying monkeys who were once his most ardent supporters. Not good.
As noted in my earlier post on Mr. A, there is surely no telling where this twisted skein might possibly lead. Let's face facts here: It is an absolute certainty that the Republican Party and the Justice Department (under the direction of Abu Gonzales, former personal attorney to President Sock-Puppet) are going to do their bloody best to contain all fallout, to paint this as the work of "a few bad apples." Democrats, themselves no angels, are altogether too likely to be an integral part of what can only be described as a wide-ranging coverup of corruption. David Sirota points this out eloquently {Yes, this is an unabashed plug.}
It is, specifically, our political system in its present, financially-driven condition which is ultimately to blame for these abuses. Yes, the GOP would shame nine herds of jackals...but they don't act in a vacuum. What is needed here, more than anything else, is broad, non-partisan reform...and, in a weirdly optimistic essay, William Greider, author of "The Soul of Capitalism," suggests that very thing may already be in the works. (VERY important link: http://www.alternet.org/...)
Meantime, kick back and enjoy the cockroach races that will be taking place all summer long--probably coming to a polling place near you--as campaigning politicians of every stripe seek to distance themselves from these sordid activities.
Some fun, eh?
Cross-posted at