This unspeakable sleaze is repulsive to be sure, but it should not really be in any way surprising. Given that the Dems pretty much told everyone they were going to do this, this should not be at all shocking, but in fairness to Murdoc, it still stings.
That many of us (including myself) strongly advocated (and still do) things like Porkbusters , which fed the Dems "culture of corruption" slogans, makes it all the more painful. Pointing out the failings of our own who failed to live up to their promises and ideals is one of the things that I actually like about the Republicans...we are much better at policing our own assholes. We do have standards beyond blind lust for power and given that the Republicans were elected in '94 specifically to deal with pork, sleaze and corruption, the shenanigans of a pork happy Republican Congress bloating the budget with their pet projects and nepotism quite rightly pissed off a lot of us and disillusioned the base.
We demanded that those that carry our standard live up to our standards regards smaller and cleaner government.
We did not stand in lock step with Cunningham, Abramoff, and on a far less sinister noteTubemeister Ted, the Seller of Bridges, we said " this must not stand...this is what the Dems do and we are not them and will not be represented by those who have only power as their goal".
Now, despite what my friend Bob says, this is not perfidy, this is good and proper. It is honest debate and open governance. It is what many of us on the right aspire to. It is also necessary to keep our team relatively clean and relevant...to the extent that is possible in politics. I think that keeping our own teams feat to the fire is an important thing for our side to do and if we cease to do it, then there really won't be much difference between us and the Democrats.
But, there is no doubt we got played this time.
Many of us, even those like me who gave little more than lip service and the occasional signature to the Porkbusters cause, were filled with pride when the media noticed us and began to rail against this. NZ Bear and the rest made a difference! Yay!
Of course it was a ploy.
Thanks to quite justified disgust with a Republican led congress that was presiding over discretionary spending that was swelling like a dead pig in the August sun, the base stayed home. Just enough....the '06 elections were a close run thing...just enough to tip the scales.
Actually, the sheer cynicism and arrogance of the Democrats and their media gophers is astonishing.
In 2006 the NYT was all about the evils of Republican Pork. Now of course, with a majority of congress-critters having "D" behind their name...what was pork is just "pet projects", part of the way good government works.
...earmarks, when dispensed fairly and openly, are an important way of addressing local needs...
Well...that's nice to know....
Porkbusters was able to track pork and embarrass people in part because of the Congressional research office, which for 12 years has been tracking congressional spending and making it available to the public. 12 years...yeah, that sounds like one of those Republican contract with America thingies....well, anyway, they are discontinuing the service now...no need to...the Dems are in charge.
The Democrats have bought congressional bills that are intended to undermine our troops and bring about our defeat. They've done so with with bribes that, as a result of their fiat, are now much harder to track. Of course, like wars and nation building the difference between good and bad or newsworthieness is the presence of a "D" or "R" behind ones name. Yes, Feinstein is in as deep or deeper than Cunningham was....yet hardly a peep about the culture of corruption.
So what the hell does the title of this post have to do with this rant?
Well it's not griping about being held to higher standards than the Dems, for that is as it always is and frankly is as it should be.
It's about the repercussions of what they want to do...this time in the north, where we made and broke promises before and through that realpolitick meddling and fecklessness caused terrible death and suffering.
Wretchard explains.....
If the U.S. leaves early and does not protect the Kurds, it will be the third time in a little more than three decades the ethnic group will have been betrayed by the United States, Qubad Jalal Talabany said during an afternoon sit-down interview with the Herald/Review. Earlier Thursday morning, Talabany spoke to nearly 350 people during the last day of a three-day Training and Doctrine Command Cultural Awareness Summit.
Not much to add to his pithiness...
...except these pictures from another part of the world that we broke promises to left to the tender mercies of our enemies the last time people like this got their way.
Keep in mind that for a lefty of a certain social strata and age....the protests and activism that led both directly and indirectly to the above pictures are hands down their proudest moments. Perhaps because of self image preservation they can make no connection between cause and effect...
Damned harsh, but true.
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