Time to Throw Bad Republicans under the Bus
Posted by H-Bomb
Ankle-biting Pundits
Monday, 02 January 2006
I think it is time for conservative to begin piling on the Abramoff thing for a couple of reasons. First, liberals are right in this instance. The fact that this hideous wretch climbed to the heights of power under GOP leadership in Washington, shoot, with the aid and comfort of the GOP leadership, is a scandal in and of itself. I was around in 1994 when we won the House and the Senate for the first time in forty years. I recall distinctly using the phrase “K Street fat cats” in mail pieces against Democrat incumbents who, while not breaking any laws by cozying up to these sleaze ball lobbyists, certainly violated common decency by allowing them to draft their legislation and fund their political operations. The GOP of the Abramoff era behaved no differently, sad to say.
Second, the Abramoff story is not over. Not by a damn sight. If you think this is just a story about a greedy lobbyist who abused his relationship with congressional leaders you better think again. Matthew Continetti’s recent chilling piece in the Weekly Standard, “Money, Mobsters, Murder” ought to disabuse anyone of the idea that this story ends at money laundering.
Remember also that if you were a religious conservative, as I am (more or less) Abramoff had no use for you. Well, that’s not true. He did have a use for you. Abramoff literally used religious conservatives to help him enact policies that protected his casino clients. Consider Abramoff’s protégé Michael Scanlan’s formula for protecting his Indian gaming operation:
<<< "The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." >>>
Finally, we need to understand that the Abramoff rise to power and the GOP’s recent obsession with overspending are symptoms of the same disease: love of government. Abramoff and his cohorts manipulated big government to line their pockets. Big spending Republican members of Congress used big government to protect their political fiefdoms. Genuine political conservatives should recoil at this apostasy and reject the politicians who played this game with or without Abramoff.
I am not advocating for conservatives to begin supporting Democrat candidates for Congress. In my view, that would exacerbate the problem. We are conservative Republicans for good reasons and one of them is because the Democrat Party erased fiscal sanity and good government from their operating philosophy long ago. Sadly, the GOP is following in their wayward path. I am arguing that we get rid of the apostate members of Congress and replace them with genuine conservatives who understand that the only “good government” is small government and the smaller the gooder.
Liberal spending GOP members of Congress, especially those who did business with Abramoff and his ilk, should receive no support from the likes of us.
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