The Do-EVERYTHING Congress Gets Caught Again



It's impossible (almost!) to keep up with the Naked Republicans.





When the White House and the GOP congressional leadership look at their poll numbers and ask their advisers, “why do they hate us?” here’s a clue: they don’t hate you for your freedom (except for Tom DeLay, and Bob Ney, of course. But the courts should take care of that).

No, it’s not your freedom—it’s your arrogance and hypocrisy. You guys weren’t the Do-Nothing Congress, you were the Do-Everything Congress. Everything you could get away with.



We’ve all had a chance to digest the spectacular hypocrisy of discovering that ex-Representative Mark Foley, chairman of the House caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, was a cyber-stalker of young men, and kept that post even after his activities became known to the House leadership.

That was bad enough. But what’s even more galling is to watch the arrogance of the House leadership, who thought that the remedy for a scandal was a cover-up, and the remedy for being caught in a coverup was to lie about it. But this time, they’re busted.

Let’s say you’re Denny Hastert. (Right, I know it’s unpleasant, but go with me here). Some of your closest lieutenants come to you and tell you that another member of your crew is sending creepy/dirty/cybersexual IMs to high school pages.

Would you forget that conversation?

Neither would Denny, I’m sure, but that’s what he wants us to believe. He pretended to be surprised by the whole story, until Rep. Thomas Reynolds refused to take the fall for him. Reynolds told reporters that he had talked to Hastert and Majority Leader Boehner about Foley’s emails last year. Hastert then said he didn’t recall the conversation but hey, if Reynolds says it happened, then maybe it did. Boehner, too, barely remembered discussing the matter with the kid’s Congressman, Rodney Alexander of Louisiana.

No kidding? The old Sergeant Schultz (I know nnnnothing) defense worked on Hogan’s Heroes, but my guess is that the public ain’t going to buy it this time.

I’m assuming that the Republican congress did virtually nothing to clean up the lobbying rules after the Abramoff scandal because they thought the voters couldn’t understand the details of that one.

Guess what? We all understand, “what are you wearing? Wish I could slip those off of you and grab the one eyed trouser snake.”

"I don't think it will be just conservative voters that will shake their heads when they hear about this," Rep. Jim McCrery told the Washington Post.

Ya think?


The fact is, the Republican leadership doesn’t care much about the sexual behavior of its members (no pun intended), or they wouldn’t have poured big bucks into the campaign of Don Sherwood. As chronicled in detail in Naked Republicans, A Full Frontal Exposure of Right-Wing Hypocrisy and Greed, he’s the Pennsylvania congressman whose most recent term was highlighted by an out of court settlement with a former girlfriend who had accused him of choking her during their five year extramarital affair. Rick Santorum, Mr. “It takes a Family” has campaigned for Sherwood, too.

A Vermont Republican candidate for the House had the decency to return a one thousand dollar campaign check from Sherwood, citing her commitment to ending domestic violence against women. Her name is Martha Rainville. She’s currently trailing Democrat Peter Welch in the polls. It’s just as well for her if she loses. She’d obviously never fit in.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s three Republican members of congress who’ve resigned in disgrace this year, and one who remained in office while disgraced, Bob Ney, confessed Abramoff bribe taker.

The House leadership is braying now about Foley’s “obscene breach of trust,” which might be a perfect way to characterize the corrupted Congress.

Fits pretty well on a bumper sticker, too.