You're Right, Mr. Armey, You Stink

Finally, a GOP mea culpa? Don't believe it.

The Dallas Morning News yesterday published an extensive piece written by former Congressman Dick Armey titled, We Stink . His claim is simple and has a tincture of plausibility, but it;s nothing more than the same old political disingenuousness.

He writes, "How did we go from the big ideas and vision of 1994 to the cheap political point-scoring on meaningless wedge issues of today. . . ? The answer is simple: Republican lawmakers forgot the partys principles, became enamored with power and position, and began putting politics over policy."

Although all of this may be true, it is by no means the whole story. There is no mention in the article of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the lies that led us into them, there is no mention of Mr. Abramoff and his sleazy congressional co-conspirators such as Congressmen Cunningham and Nye, there is no mention of any of the sleaze that has been an attribute of most GOP administrations going back at least to the Presidency of General Grant. There is no mention of Garfield's bribery and complicity in the Crdit Mobiler scandal, there is no mention of McKinley's unjustified Spanish American war (the Spanish didnt blow up the Main), there is no mention of Harding's Teapot Dome and the scandals in the Justice and Veteran's departments, there is no mention of Hoover's inability to deal with the start of the Great Depression, of the vicuna coat that tarnished the Eisenhower administration, of Mr. Nixon's Watergate affair and his infamously corrupt vice president, Spiro Agnew, nor is there any mention of the Iran-Contra scandal of the administration of that GOP's deified B-movie actor, Ronald Reagan. There is no mention of the present Congress' unwillingness to do anything about any of this unethical behavior especially after the initial explosion caused by the Abramoff revelations died down. There is no mention of the GOP's unwillingness to even have the corrupt way billions of American dollars have been doled out in Inaq exposed

Mr. Armey touts his and Newt Gingrich leadership, but fails to mention that Mr. Gingrich, too, had to leave the Congress under a dark cloud and that he, himself, instead of coming back to Texas to earn an honest living after leaving the Congress, joined the ranks of the Great Corruptors, the money changers, the lobbyists of Washington.

Since Lincoln's election in 1860 there have been fifteen GOP administrations; nine have been blackened by major scandals.

So, yes, Mr. Armey, you stink, you really stink. (11/6/2006)

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