And the Democrat controlled Congress has an approval rating in the high 20′s. Yeah, they are doing a bang-up job for the people! IF Obama takes his direction from his party, guess where is 75% is going to go. I am definately not an Obama fan, but I think the guy is smart enough to remain a centrist and not follow his party into the abyss.

Uh, no, dissent. The Dems, along with their publicists in the big papers and the newsies, have spent the past eight years telling Americans that the economy was in the toilet, that everything was about to crash, and that “everyone is fearful.”

It wasn’t – they were lying – but not surprisingly, the public did eventually become fearful, and stopped spending money, and, when one combines this intentional torpedoing of the economy for political gain with the final death throes of the Fergy May and Bernie Mack “we doan’ need no steenkin’ collateral” Democrat pocket-filling-fest, one ends up with a cowed, decieved populace who still haven’t figured out that the life preserver they think they just elected is actually filled with lead.

I pity those who don’t have a financial cushion right now for the next two years – but it’s those people who mostly drove this choice, so my pity is fairly shallow.

When I first became politically aware, I was watching TV reports on the Iran-Contra scandal, which included a cocaine for arms program as weapons trades with Iran involving Republicans in high office. What happened next? The Savings and Loan Scandals (“S&L”) in ’88, which even involved a member of the Bush family, Neil Bush (who should have served time in jail). (As a note, Democrats, such as former rep. St. Germain were not immune from this scandal either.)

Jeb Bush, another Bush family member in politics, may be involved with a money market scam in Florida that took place, and after the state, under Republican guiding hands, completely mismanaged billions of dollars in a state pension funds which involved shares in Enron stock. Like his brother, Neil, Bush guided hundreds of millions of public dollars into the hands of his friends and business associates, and, again, we’ve seen scandal as a result of that.

And this is a person that some have suggested as a future Presidential candidate? His family has direct ties with Enron, Jeb Bush uses his position in the state of Florida to purchase Enron stock, and when that company goes under, Floridians suffer as a result of that?

The fact that someone question WHY Enron was even mentioned earlier demonstrates that some Republican supporters aren’t even aware of ties between Enron, the Bush family (who were good friends with Ken Lay), and the Republican party.

And this isn’t even to bring up “Tricky Dick” Nixon, which is a name that most Republicans would rather avoid when discussing the subject of political corruption and scandals. But even his scandals are overshadowed by the level of corruption we have seen from Republicans.

These events have been seemingly FLUSHED DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE, which is why criminal Oliver North is a conservative, Republican hero. It’s the same reason why individuals such as Richard Armitage, who was busted for gambling and prostitutes (and connected with heroin smuggling) during the Reagan years, is a member of Bush administration. Richard has also been connected with the outing of Valerie Plame, which apparently wasn’t an issue with Republicans.

And the Republicans talk about Left-wing propaganda? Apparently their propaganda functions so well that their party members aren’t even aware of most of their scandals. Either they aren’t aware or they just don’t care: take your pick.

Since that time, we have seen Republicans involved in many scandals, both personal, financial, and legal. This list just goes on, and on, and on.

Let’s have a little reminder.

This page was created which shows the Republicans scandals from the first eight months of ONE YEAR:

http://senate2008guru.blogspot.com/2007/08/republican-culture-of-corruption-2007.html

And this is a list which demonstrates even more familiar names:

http://vaguelylogical.blogspot.com/2006/10/handy-dandy-list-of-republican.html

Oh., and sex scandals, from the party of morality?

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Republican_Sex_Scandals

What about President Cheney and his connections to Halliburton, who won several no-bid contracts AND bilked and overcharged the US government for millions of dollars? This has been met with complete Republican silence, who apparently see little issues with Cheney’s connections, let alone the war profiteering that’s taken place in the Middle East.

Continuing with Cheney, who’s also connected with Ted Stevens, became personally involved in pushing for Alaskan pipelines which would benefit members of his Energy Task Force (which was a so super-secret that the US STILL does not know what took place behind closed doors). But nope, nothing improper about a former oil man pushing for action which would benefit his connections in that industry.

Suddenly, though, Republican supporters are worried about “honesty in government” and accusing the Democrats as being the party of “corruption”? It’s as amusing as watching the Republicans suddenly worry about “liberty,” in regard to the Fairness Doctrine, when “liberty” was the last issue on their mind over the last eight years and their support of domestic surveillance programs (or, as an side, the War on Drugs, which ensnares millions of Americans).

Liberty – yeah, right! That is a foreign concept that’s connected with the Republicans. Who do they think they are – the Libertarian party?

It’s as if the lot of you started to pay attention to politics just this last year. “Oh yes, we want honesty in government…as long as we’re in power!” The last thing we need are the crocked and corrupt Republicans to continue their hold on our government.

So, for all you Republicans who are agitating and making noise about Obama and the Democrats, you need to READ HISTORY, clean up your own party, and actually pay attention to what’s been happening under the leadership of your Republicans.

The Democrats have certainly not been the party of complete honesty and virtue, and they have been involved with “back door” politics which appear to plague the American system, but the Democrats level of corruption, for all their faults, no where NEAR reaches the level of Republican party corruption.

Republican party hurts Americans, in billions of dollars of their tax payer money, and in damaging our system of checks and balances, government oversight, and a transfer of money from us…to them and their friends.

THAT’s wealth redistribution, by both criminal and legal means.

And suggesting that the Democrats should be “destroyed” isn’t a fix for the problem. We don’t need more Republican one-party rule: We have see the results of that.

Now, the Democrats obviously have to resolve some of their own issues, but those problems pale in comparison to what I have observed over the last two decades.

You have not shown how the Democrats are not on track. I imagine that they would laugh at your premise, coming just before they take over the entire government.

Scandal has not affected them much and I see no reason why it will in the future.

That Truman rose after 30 years of disgrace therefore means Bush will rise too – is a silly non sequiter.
Plenty of others despised by the public – Benedict Arnold, Andrew Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Hitler, OJ Simpson…never regained their popularity.
The only other Presidential exception is Nixon, who has slowly risen in historian minds from the sheer magnitude and durability of his accomplishments and his later work as a trusted world statesman and advisor to 4 subsequent US Presidents and key Congressional leaders of both parties.

Dubya is no Truman or Nixon.

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I would be very cautious about wishing that peripheral Democratic scandals will somehow redeem decades of bad Republican decisions and policies as well as make people forget Bush II’s abysmal leadership. We have seen America’s significant decline as an economic, diplomatic, technological, and financial world leader. Even our military is diminished in comparison what we had available in the 60s and 70s. Our JDAMs rely on foreign made components, and we have actually sweated getting Swiss and Japanese permissions to use their components in war.

Bush and the Republicans failed to leave almost any aspect of America and its sources of influence better off than where they found it, over the last 14 years.
Die hards can oooo and ahhh about little scandals, but the bottom line is Republicans failed, and failed in a squalid way…and the public has turned to Democrats to see if they can run America and the government better…and will give them years and years to have their fair shot..

Even Reagan and failed elements of Reaganomics (supply side, widening income gaps, failed “trickledown” and failed dereg of financial and corporate America) are now part of the legacy problem Republicans need to get past or seriously rethink along with the theocrats of the Religious Right…not just Bush…all the screwups of the Neocons, Bremer, Hastert, Frist, Phil Gramm, Enron…

Said as a Republican who wants a top to bottom cleaning and reconsideration of Republican objectives past small gov’t, fiscal responsibility, a strong military. Everything else, from favoring Wall Streeters to the “special friendship” with Israel, to abortion politics should be coldly rescrutinized.