Thoughts about...Money, Politics & Speech

The Party of God, The Party of
[campaign finance] "Reform" and Hypocrisy

by Terry Michael
September 9, 2007

The Party of God, we are shocked to learn, seems to have a libido. And, equally amazing, the Party of Reform apparently covets a little mammon on occasion.

When will self-righteous Republicans and holier-than-thou Democrats learn that hypocrisy, not sex and greed, is the original sin for which voters, and certainly cynical journalists, hold them accountable?

The anti-gay, pro-"family values" party, held captive by its Southern-based, evangelical wing, is repeatedly embarrassed when its David Vitters and Larry Craigs exhibit interest in 'hos and 'mos (translation for Beltway types: "whores" and "homosexuals.")

Likewise, the party of campaign finance "reform," intellectually imprisoned by the Washington ethics industry and its handmaidens in the ivory towers of liberal editorial pages, is caught with its Progressive Era pants down when a big pile of hot Jacksons ends up in William Jefferson's freezer, or when a financial supporter facing a felony indictment ends up on Hillary Clinton's donor list.

There is a solution to the demagogic payback resulting from these self-inflicted shots in the foot.

Republicans might want to review the Democrats' mid-20th Century divorce from their morally bankrupt, also Southern-based, segregationist wing, with which the party's northern liberal branch made a deal with the devil for decades, and which proved a constant embarrassment to its civil libertarian sensibilities.

GOP alignment with the sexual orientation bigots continues to drive millions of gay voters, many of whom share Republican economic values, into the arms of Democratic candidates, just as the party of Lincoln had a lock on poor black voters, who probably would have deserted the GOP sooner had Democrats not cozied up to the Theodore Bilbos and Ross Barnetts of the political underworld.

And Democrats, every time they are tempted to take a cheap shot at big-spending "special interests," would do well to consider that average voters have nothing against being rich and believe both parties succumb equally to the lure of campaign cash.

Democratic efforts to muzzle money with authoritarian "reform" measures carries with it the high price of infringement on First Amendment free speech values, which millions of us share with our party's founder.

Those of us who consider ourselves Jeffersonian Democrats want to gag every time we witness reactionary left-liberal rules junkies who try to legislate morality by suppressing monied speech they find inappropriate to their vision of the public good.

So beware you Republican and Democratic candidates, whenever the phrases "family values" or "special interests" find their way into your talking points. Prepare to cover your behinds, because those words will come back to bite you in the bottom when one of your own is found to value an interest in sex and greed.

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by Terry Michael, February 24, 2007

Dog Ate Gov. Vilsack's Homework

"It was money, and only money," Gov. Tom Vilsack assured me in the sound-bite delivered to my Jeep by NPR as I was driving home from the office Friday.

That's all I heard from his exit press conference, as I steered my way through traffic on the Southeast Expressway past the U.S. Capitol, leaving me to wonder whether he also explained how Spot ate the killer speech he planned for the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines. Or if racking up all those frequent flyer milers was putting a terrible stress on the time he gets to spend with Christie, and sons Jess and Doug.

Give me a break! But, of course, NPR didn't.

Vilsack's "I'm outa' here" was immediately followed by the requisite nonsense "reporting"......

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Abramoff: latest enabler of ethics addicts
and their assault on political free speech
by Terry Michael, Friday, January 13, 2006

Add another entry to Jack Abramoff’s litany of sin: enabler of the Beltway Ethics Industry’s cracked-out addiction to criminalizing political speech.

Stand clear of your mail slots, liberals, progressives and process conservatives. Thanks to Mr. Abramoff, you’re about to get a pile from the folks at Common Cause, Public Citizen, and the other self-appointed guardians of proper public discourse. Your $25 gift will be URGENTLY! NEEDED (and probably underlined, with bold-face italics) to finance the latest legislative scheme to remove – once and for all! - the corrupting influence of money from politics.

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Those Poor Victimized Native Americans
By Terry Michael, Monday, January 9, 2006

from the Washington Post, Jan. 7, 2006, Page 1:  "A Tribe Takes Grim Satisfaction in Abramoff's Fall"....
"It was thievery, tribal members said, that echoes the historic losses of Native Americans to European settlers....'Abramoff and his partner are the contemporary faces of the exploitation of native peoples,' said David Sickey, a member of the tribal council. 'In the 17th and 18th century, native people were exploited for their land. In 2005, they're being exploited for their wealth.'"

Thievery? Exploitation?

How about plain old unethical greed on the part of these modern day noble savages?

This takes identity politics victimology to soaring heights. The members of this tribe were just as slimy as Mr. Abramoff, attempting to purchase the public policy he was trying to peddle.

Both Abramoff and his "clients" were trying to get rich quick at the expense of taxpayers. If he ought to go to jail -- which he obviously should -- are the tribal elders victims, or fully culpable parties to a corrupt bargin?

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