Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Being Republican Means Never Having To Say Your Sorry

So, Tom DeLay resigned today. For the good of the party and all, because all those nasty liberals were out to get him and unfairly slandered him by linking him to Jack Abramoff. Tony Rudy, one of his top aides, conducted business out of DeLay's office like it was the back of a truck loaded with hot VCRs. Now, Rudy and Michael Scanlon, another DeLay operative, have both pleaded guilty to corruption charges and they are naming names. It's too early to tell whether they'll actually implicate DeLay or even how involved DeLay is (I know, I know, we all want it to be true - but even he's innocent until proven guilty).

But considering that the State of Texas has a Republican governor, a Republican legislature, and a majority of Republican voters (so far) and considering that the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court are all in Republican hands, it's pretty much a stretch to claim that the Democrats could bring a man as powerful as DeLay down that easily. They had to have some help - like evidence and a good case.

And in the latest bizarre narrative twist, last week in Washington, DC, a group of so-called Christian rightwingers lionized DeLay as a latter-day martyr who was being persecuted by the liberals for his Christian beliefs. According to them and him, his troubles had nothing to do with his own deals with Abramoff, his support for legalized gambling for certain Indian tribes, his trip to London and the very prestigious St. Andrew's golf course (paid for by Abramoff), or the K Street Lobbying Project.

And these are the same people who lecture impoverished black youths in inner-cities, challenged by substandard schools, broken homes, gangs, drug dealers, and drive by shootings, to take personal responsibility for their actions?

It seems if you're young, black, and poor in America, Republicans demand that you to take personal responsibility but if you're old, rich, white and powerful, you never have to say you're sorry.

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