The Phony Mahoney Democrats
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Hypocrisy: Disgraced Rep. Tim Mahoney is the perfect Democratic Party mascot. Barack Obama's promises today of tax cuts and Speaker Pelosi's promises of ethics ring just as hollow as Mahoney's "family values."
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All Americans should listen to the audiotape on ABC News' Web site of Tim Mahoney's phone call firing one of his alleged mistresses. It will make their hearts go out to Mahoney's suffering wife, daughter and the unfortunate souls who work for this boss from hell.
Tim Mahoney's Wife Terry joined him Tuesday while the congressman made a brief statement in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He did not take questions. After one television reporter asked the congressman if he had an affair, a staff member from the Mahoney campaign advised her that her channel would no longer be allowed to attend future Mahoney press conference.
Mahoney is heard telling Patricia Allen, the staffer to whom he allegedly paid $121,000 in hush money, that "the only person that matters is: guess who? Me."
Mahoney told her, "You're fired," then threatened her with this: "If I find out you say anything else, you won't get your last paycheck."
Allen's response to the Florida Democrat was that "you're firing me for other reasons and you're not man enough to say it."
Fortunately for the beleaguered constituents of Florida's 16th congressional district, there is a man running against Mahoney. He's Tom Rooney, an Army captain who served for more than four years, taught constitutional and criminal law at West Point, was an Army base criminal prosecutor, and directed a shelter caring for hundreds of abused children. (Of course, even a lukewarm corpse could beat Mahoney now.)
The last holder of the seat was Republican Mark Foley, ousted after the discovery of lewd computer messages to teenage male congressional pages, so Mahoney's constituents could use a breath of fresh ethical air.
In the meantime, there is the question of whether campaign funds were used in the payoff to Allen, which a House ethics committee investigation would not be able to discover until long after next month's election.
And that make's Mahoney's call for such a congressional investigation entirely self-serving.
As National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole, an Oklahoma congressman, pointed out, "Quite frankly, we're not going to know the answers in three weeks unless Congressman Mahoney literally sits down, goes over with the media his version of events and answers the questions."
Don't hold your breath. Mahoney wouldn't even take questions after his Tuesday statement, and Mahoney's staff apparently told a reporter for the local ABC-TV affiliate that the station would be banned from future Mahoney events because she dared to ask him about the affair.
Moreover, current and former Mahoney aides say that during the Allen affair he was having yet another extra-marital affair with a county official — while he was trying to secure her a $3.4 million federal grant. (Who knew "pork" could be a noun and a verb at the same time?)
There is a myth that the reason the national media's top dogs only cover Republican sex scandals is because Democrats involved in sex scandals are not hypocrites.
But when he ran against Foley in 2006, Mahoney's commercials stressed his "faith, family and personal responsibility." This is clearly one of the most hypocritical breaches of trust ever seen from a congressman in his first term of office. Yet news outlets that never let up on Foley are burying this story.
Mahoney is no less duplicitous than his party's national leaders. In February, when Barack Obama was running against Hillary Clinton, he called her plan for a home foreclosure moratorium "disastrous."
Now, with mortgage holders squeezed, he has embraced the same idea. He promises 95% of Americans a tax cut, but he really plans welfare disguised as tax credits for those who don't pay taxes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised the most ethical Congress in history, but the Rangel, Jefferson, and now Mahoney scandals — all involving shady cash deals — are all mushrooming on her watch.
In a time of world financial crisis and the ongoing global war on terror, voters will regret it if they place this mob into full power over both the White House and Congress. |
