Republican "Values"

After the events of the past few weeks, not to mention the events of the past few months and years, I do not want to hear one word from Republicans about “values.”

The word “values” has been thoroughly devalued and trod into a misshapen clump by a drunken herd of rogue elephants.

To begin, there was the ongoing shell game about weapons of mass destruction and mushroom clouds from a smoking gun which, at a command from Supreme Wizard Karl Rove’s occult wand and a number of mumbled curses, was transformed into “democracy” for the Middle East.

I felt that the Iraqi invasion was quite enough, and I did not think that the thing known as “values” could get any more murkier and deformed.

But, alas, we have just been exposed to the follies of Mark Foley, which passed through a phase of denial to blaming it on alcoholism (although no one could ever remember Foley with an alcoholic beverage in his hand), through a childhood molestation experience with a priest.

And, unfortunately, Foley’s sins pale to insignificance beside the ongoing efforts of those who should know better — Republican leaders such as House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Congressmen John Shimkus of Illinois, John Boehner of Ohio, Rodney Alexander of Lousiana and Tom Reynolds of New York — to keep the Foley situation under wraps.

Of course, the reputation of the legislative branch of our federal government, already low, sank even lower.

The media performed no better in this charade of “values.”

Fox News — famously known as Faux News — falsely labeled Foley as a Democrat, hoping to blunt the public’s ongoing disenchantment with Republican “values.”

Various right-wing pundits blamed the pages for inciting Foley’s lust, as well as leftist liberals for setting poor dear Mr. Foley up and making more of the matter than need be made.

Never mind that Democratic members of the various ethics committees were never privy to the shenanigans of poor little persecuted Congressman Foley.

Frankly, this leftist liberal was utterly dumbfoundedly speechless. I must confess that I was even slack-jawed in shock at all the goings-on of the right wing of our federal legislative body.

Added to this is the fury of Christian fundamentalists. They, of course, are not very happy about the behavior of Congressman Foley.

And, in the course of the media frenzy over congressional pages and congressmen, David Kuo, who was part of President Bush’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, released his new book “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction” published just this month.
According to Kuo, some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as “the nuts.”

These leaders were greeted with hugs and kisses, but behind their backs they were described as “ridiculous,” “out of control” and just plain “goofy.”

Kuo goes on to charge Ken Mehlman, who headed White House political affairs, with a scheme to use Kuo’s office and taxpayer funds to create supposedly “nonpartisan” events that had a very partisan goal of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.

Nineteen of the 20 of these races were won by the Republicans.

Some of the other books making note of the Republican religious hypocrisy include titles such as:

• Jesus Rode a Donkey: Why Republicans Don’t Have the Corner on Christ by Dr. Linda Seger

• The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right by Rabbi Michael Lerner

• Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America - an Evangelical’s Lament by Randall Herbert Balmer, Ph.D.

• Blowing the Whistle on the Christian Church in America: The Hypocrisy and Double Standards Exposed by Pastor Henry L. Bechtold

One could not go wrong in placing several of these volumes under various Christmas trees in the coming season.

Books by Rush Limbaugh’s brother and Charles Colson are to be shunned, by the way.

This was published in the Federal Way Mirror on October 26, 2006.