Republicans break the law... Just in case one of the central themes of this blog hasn't been increasingly evident, I thought it best to spell it out. Republicans lie, cheat and steal, especially since Nixon. They speak about Christian morality because it is pre-packaged, easily understandable and massively appealing, not because they are good Chirstians. They mislead during campaigns to gain political positions and then abuse the offices once in position. They use public policy and the civil service to build careers for themselves and their associates, they hide behind religion and patriotism, and they do this because it is the easy way into office and power.

It is massively more difficult to curry the favor of regular Americans if you wish to do it through speaking the language of policy and personal reflection. In contrast, much less effort is required to get on someone's good side if you tell him, regardless of anything else, that you want to reduce the amount he pays in taxes. If your loyalty once in office is to wealthy campaign donors and your priority is to preserve your position, then your willingness to sacrifice good policies that will benefit a majority or to even encourage market inefficiences will actually give you a political advantage. If you are more dedicated to good policy, then your moral scruples will make political success more difficult to achieve.

Just to let you know where the Republican leadership is at right now:

• The Chief of Staff (I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby) of the Republican Vice-President was indicted and forced to resign on charges of obstruction of justice and for leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent to the press (Judy Miller of the NYTimes). The ostensible reason for burning this government employee was that the Vice President didn't want her husband to get away with questioning the assertion that Saddam Hussein was seeking a nuclear weapons capability.
• The Deputy Chief of Staff (Karl Rove) of the Republican President is also involved with the leaking of this undercover CIA agent's name to the press (either to Matt Cooper of Time, Tim Russert of NBC, or Robert Novak of CNN).
• The National Security Advisor (Stephen Hadley) leaked the name of this same CIA agent to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.
• The Republican Senate Majority Leader (Bill Frist) is being investigated for insider trading through his suspiciously timely dumping of stock in the medical services company owned and operated by his father and brother.
• The Republican House Majority Leader (Tom Delay) has been indicted in Texas on charges of money laundering.

And most recently,

Calif. Congressman Admits Taking Bribes
Calif. Rep. Cunningham Pleaded Guilty and Resigned After Admitting to Taking $2.4M in Bribes
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO - Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges, admitting taking $2.4 million in bribes in a case that grew from an investigation into the sale of his home to a wide-ranging conspiracy involving payments in cash, vacations and antiques.

Cunningham, 63, entered pleas in U.S. District Court to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.

Cunningham answered "yes, Your Honor" when asked by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns if he had accepted bribes from someone in exchange for his performance of official duties.

Cunningham, an eight-term Republican congressman, resigned after his guilty plea. He had announced in July that he wouldn't seek re-election next year.

House Ethics rules say that any lawmaker convicted of a felony no longer should vote or participate in committee work. Under Republican caucus rules, Cunningham also would lose his chairmanship of the House Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism and human intelligence.

The former Vietnam War flying ace is known on Capitol Hill for his interest in defense issues and his occasional temperamental outbursts.

After the hearing, Cunningham was taken away for fingerprinting. He will be released on his own recognizance until a Feb. 27 sentencing hearing. He could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

UPDATE: I failed previously to mention how weak ABC News and American journalists are generally in their reporting of national politics. It is incredibly clear that Republicans show little respect for the law, or at least that they hold loyalty as a higher virtue than upright conduct. This makes sense since, like the Mafia, if no one talks then no one gets indicted. I don't care for comparing Republicans to the Mafia though. Republicans have less style and tact. They also wear tackier suits.

But it is more accurate to say of Republicans that they will respect the letter of the law but not its spirit. I have lawyer friends who would respond, "Well how can anyone really ever intuit the spirit of the law." That is an excessively grand question. When there are campaign finance laws founded to prevent the excessive use of soft money in political campaigns, then clearly it is against the spirit of the law to sell your house with a ridiculous mark up to someone who owns a company which seeks defense contracts and then personally pocket the change.

The same way, John Yoo (now at Berkeley's law school, but who previously wrote policy at the Justice Department and clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas) authored some opinions for the Bush administration on the American adoption of the Geneva Conventions. Essentially, the man authored America's torture policy on behalf of George Bush. His legal opinion, which is considered authoritative by the New York Times, Miami Herald, and Los Angeles Times, is that any military or intelligence interrogators are innocent of torture, regardless of how they treat any detainees, unless they torture for the purpose of pleasure. If they are torturing for information, then it cannot be torture, because according to the letter of the law, i.e. our addendum to the Geneva Conventions, torture is done for the purpose of inflicting pain. Doing it for any other purpose would make it not torture. Does this obey the spirit of the law? No. Does it pass the standard set by the letter of the law? Yes. Who wrote that standard into the law? Republicans. And this is how Republicans destroyed our country. They find ways to skirt the law and make policy based on their own loop holes.

I read these opinions and legal reasoning which Yoo wrote in inter-executive memos which have been publicly available for some time. They were even released in book form. Yet Mr. Yoo is continuously quoted in the articles of numerous journalists. Do these people even know who the man is?

And this is the reason that the American press can't be trusted. On that note, Joshua Marshall at Talking Points Memo is doing the best job on the web of tracking the Cunningham story and the story behind it which is the habit of the press to make excuses for Republicans and attempt to spread the blame and guilt beyond that party.

For the record, I left the Democratic Party in 2000 after Bill Bradley failed to win the nomination. I don't identify with the Dems, but it is obvious to me that they are not Republicans. They just learn from the winning examples which Republicans set.

Aron, one of my best friends has said to me, "I hate Democrats more than I hate Republicans for the same reason that I hate Europeans more than I hate Americans." I find that logic revealing, but coherent. He also claims that there is no difference between the two parties, but I don't think one can believe that and hate one party more than the other.

I'll say this: I am not a Democrat, but I believe first and foremost that the Republicans must be contained in a manner similar to the Soviet Union, though these conservatives are most similar to Wahhabists. I'd like to engineer a political revolution and take over the Democratic Party the same way the evangelicals and neoconservatives did to the Republican Party. But until then, I'm still not a Democrat, I just crush a lot.

from Talking Points Memo

A reasonable person could read this Jeffrey Birnbaum article in the Washington Post and mistake it for an RNC press release. Among the article's assertions:

Corruption affects both parties, not just Republicans

Occasional prosecutions actually illustrate how clean Congress is on the whole

The public distrusts both parties, not just Republicans (this point is made twice in the article)

The public distrusts incumbents in general, not just Republicans

Voters don't care about party affiliations of officials charged with corruption, especially in cases they've heard of (I'm not kidding)
Voters have a general, theoretical dislike of "too much money in politics" rather than a specific dislike of specific (mainly Republican) corrupt politicians

"Happens all the time," "nothing new," and "goes in cycles" are both trotted out as well William Jefferson, William Jefferson, William Jefferson.

Even the headline reads like it was carefully focus-grouped by Frank Luntz: "A Growing Wariness About Money in Politics"

It's sad to watch Birnbaum squirm and dance his way around the central fact that almost all the corruption coming to light now springs from the machinations of Republican politicians, lobbyists, and donors. I hope you find time to comment on this article.