Taking-Responsibility: What About 9/11, Iraq, New Orleans & Illegal-Surveillance?

'Speaker Hastert is a man of integrity,' Rep. Mike Pence voting record, R-Ind.

'I’m finally broken. I’ve been trying to defend the actions of the GOP to myself for years. I’ve voted mainly Republican since I was old enough to vote (although I couldn’t quite bring myself to vote for Bush in 04.) I’ve mainly held out for the GOP for their position on “family issues”. But this scandal (and the decade-long coverup) has broken me. I can’t in honesty defend my position anymore. I’m a Republican at heart, but my party has abandoned the ideals for which they claim to stand. I’m throwing in my lot with the Democrats this election. Maybe by ‘08 the Republicans will get the message.'

Comment by jjones — October 4, 2006, thinkprogress.com



WASHINGTON--The Wall Street Journal is reporting comments by congressman Ray LaHood about the Foley scandal, and they are illuminating: "We have to do something different, more dramatic," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R., Ill.). "This is a political mess and what we've done so far is not working [ed.-assuming they would continue to do-the-same if it did work]. Somebody has to take responsibility for this. It is on our watch." (WSJ, 10/04/2006) So, is LaHood saying that there are other congressmen he knows-about who are doing what Foley did? Shouldn't we be applying the same-standards to this affair to the attacks on 9/11/2001? Do you have to ask?

After-all, it was on their 'watch,' but maybe they just couldn't blame old Bill Clinton for it. Responsibility. What a shame Americans have lost this concept--or did we ever have it? Adam Smith was correct about the fact that nations have their time as a dominant economic-power on the world stage. Knowing this, all nations and their leaders should begin realizing that the first truly will be last, eventually. When that time comes, a country doesn't want to have a lot of payback coming to it.

The same applies in our domestic political-arena, and the GOP is quaking because they know what they have done better than anyone. Today, the Washington Post is reporting the comments of a former page who states he was warned in 1995 that Mark Foley was 'someone to steer clear of.' If this allegation is true, we have an ongoing criminal-conspiracy here, a major Federal offense. Most of us on the Left knew the GOP was a criminal-institution all-along.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301633_pf.html

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/04/reynolds-chief-of-staff-resigns/