I have commented several times that the Republican leaders kept Mark Foley on their missing and exploited children committee because they knew he was an expert at exploiting children.
And when it comes down to it, the GOP today is all about exploiting people.
Look at Rush Limbaugh. Of course he doesn't see this scandal as a big deal.
From
Unclaimed Territory:
If the term "moral degenerate" has any validity and can be fairly applied to anyone, there are few people who merit that term more than Rush Limbaugh. He is the living and breathing embodiment of moral degeneracy, with his countless overlapping sexual affairs, his series of shattered, dissolved marriages, his hedonistic and illegal drug abuse, his jaunts, with fistfulls of Viagra (but no wife), to an impoverished Latin American island renowned for its easy access to underage female prostitutes.
Glenn Greenwald, rightly in my opinion, links the Foley scandal with Limbaugh's behavior.
Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert turned to Limbaugh to excuse Hastert's attempted coverup of Foley and the attempted coverup of the coverup.
They just don't care about morality, decency, humanity. All they care about, these so-called conservatives, is their tax cuts.
Hastert: The economy is good because we've done the right things on holding taxes down, on holding litigation down, holding regulation down -- and I'll tell you, if we lose this election, if this goes back over to the Democrats, it'll come back in spades.
Limbaugh: What do you mean it will come spades? You mean they'll reverse the work?
Hastert: You'll see higher taxes. You'll see more litigation. You'll see more regulation. That's what they're all about -- and we won't have this economy.
A man I know and once called a friend is one of these Republicans. In his comic book shop, he openly sold sexually explicit magazines, all in full-view of any minors who would come in to buy toys and comic books. When I asked him why he didn't cover up the magazine covers or sell them in the back instead of the front room, he just laughed. He wasn't going to risk losing any sales.
And when he would talk about how he was "pro-life" and that the "unborn had to be protected" it was always with a very cynical laugh because he didn't care about those issues. He just knew it would turn out the Christian right and they could be manipulated while he'd get the tax cuts and the no-regulation in government he wanted.
My hope is that the Christian listeners of Limbaugh will be horrified now that they see the so-called conservative movement's leading advocate with his mask off. They'll see the depravity that lurks in the dark corners of those eager to exploit workers with low wages and no health care and who condone torture that has at times resulted in murder and in the harming of innocent and guilty people alike -- as no worse than "hazing."
It is time for all good people regardless of political party to step forward and ask "Are you not yet ashamed enough?"
I do not think Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito is at heart an evil woman. She said the very emails that Hastert claimed were not a big deal should have set off alarm bells.
To me it is telling that when Capito's son was being educated in her Charleston, W.Va. church, the man she allowed to be her son's mentor was her Democratic opponent in this race, Mike Callaghan. Just as she showed herself to be a good judge over the "creepy" nature of the Foley emails, she showed good sense in picking a role model for her own son.
Yet I cannot help but think that a vote for Capito by anyone in West Virginia 02 -- or for any Republican candidate for that matter -- is the same as a vote for a Dennis Hastert or a similar monstrous person to lead the Republican Party.
Those of us on this side of the political spectrum have long seen the monsters hiding behind their masks. It is time for the Capito's and Republicans of her ilk to recognize them for what they are and stop turning a blind eye to them now that they have been unmasked.
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