I just spotted this appeal at the Truth Laid Bear blog:
An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers
We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street. … Read all
The signers include Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit.com, John Hinderaker, Power Line, and Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com. What do you think? (I’d advise reading it all before commenting.)
I’ve mentioned something like this a few times recently but I had not seen this before. I think there’s a genuine risk that the thunder can be stolen from the Democrats on this issue. I’ll never join up with them but I’ll bet a bunch do.
Yup. Sigh.
What I wondered was this: Over the last several years, I have read many posts in the progressive blogosphere about the corruption of the lobby culture in American politics and how dangerous this was for American democracy. But did a single one of those so-called “centre-right” bloggers ever post a single word about this problem before now? Or did the horror of K Street only become clear to them AFTER they realized that the hog-wild display of greed and swagger displayed by Delay and his gang might just make it a tad more difficult to convince people to vote Republican?
As Lily Tomlin said, “No matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up.”
Up ’til now everything was running well. Now it has been exposed, and the signers of that document are running scared.
That was basically a statement that “Hey! I (we) didn’t do it! We’re just poor, innocent powerless bloggers who were cheering from the sidelines.
“Time to fire the coach! Otherwise we might start losing because of this stuff. Get it away from us!”
I just had to come back to the computer before I shut it down, and add that that’s a really sharp observation on your part … you have that ability. Thanks, Rumi.
but,…but,…but….I don’t wanna be right. I wanna be a Democrat!
;>)
thunder as they calmly go back to money laundering and power grabbing.
I’ve read most of the 340 comments and — beyond the near (self-righteous) unanimous support of the statement — quite a few believe their Republican elected officials have “turned to adopting Democrat or Liberal practices,” by which they mean and cite big spending, boondoggles, and corruption.
I thought this line was interesting:
Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.
It matches up with George Will’s piece the other day where he starts out oh-so-offended about the lobbying scandal, and at the very end tried to turn it into a discussion of pork, which they think (perhaps rightly) is a brush that tars both parties, and thus neither party.
If we want to play the same game, we should turn the discussion to campaign finance reform (although I expect the incumbent Democrats don’t really want that) or term limits (which I also expect they don’t want, but which would point out the number of Republican congresspersons that came to office with Newt promising to only stay for 1 or 2 terms and who are still around).
Given that I expect neither of these side issues will be palatable to the Democrats, their best strategy is to keep demonstrating how this is a 99% (or higher) Republican scandal.
Yup, all good points. It will become obvious that it’s a GOP scandal unless there is a coverup of historical proportions. The opportunity is best for the voter to seize as many reforms as we can before any of them catch their balance.
Let ’em all try to outdo each other on reforms. If this plays out the way it’s been going it will be at least a 10:1 ratio of GOP to Dem losses on the criminal portion of it.
<strike>i wouldn’t believe a single word that Michelle Malkin signed</strike>
SUSAN! Honestly! (Talking to myself again)
(I’m off for my guilty pleasure — the dancing show — shut up! And then I’m going to read another 100 pages or so of Charlie Wilson’s War.)
P.S. Dammit. I don’t understand why some HTML doesn’t work in comments. Oh well …
I agree and I don’t believe a word of what she says either but damn, somehow those folks can spin it out to where the regular public just eats it up.
They are depending on the fact that the public that hears/reads their protestations has no memory beyond yesterday.
The right wing has depended on that for as long as I have observed them, and it seems to be a good bet. Not just the public, either. Even the media simply reports what they say and fails to relate it to what they said or did in the past.
This is where the Democrats could gain an advantage if the political leaders would quit playing along in the game. They’ll have to take the risk to uncover years of bullshit and even face their own shortcomings from the past but it’s the only way.
The GOP leaders know that Democrats have near as much to hide in some aspects and have been complicit in duping the public in others. It’s a sort of mutual blackmail that honors a code of secrecy.
The Abramoff scandal is not lobbying gone bad. It’s a network that thrived on taxpayer money, bribery, global influence and covert insurgencies political and physical. It’s the same that was allowed to survive from the Iran-Contra scandal and it will keep going with new faces if the Democrats don’t work now to stop it. The troubling aspect is that in watching the Dems bend over so often in the past few years, it seems they want it to continue.
You are absolutely correct. It is not just lobbying gone bad. This is using the forms of lobbying to create slush funds to support a takeover of the government and a rejection of the Constitution.
Harry Reid is correct. The Republican Party, its’ lobbying associates, a few wealthy right-wingers who have bought their own media and the right wing religious organizations have joined together into an evil alliance.
It is way beyond just a problem of lobbyists getting out of control. They aren’t. They are tightly controlled by the Republican politicians who object to the restrictions placed on them by the Constitution and the system of checks-and-balances it put into place.
I can’t get any code that does a strike-thru to work either. Frustrating. But it’s not on the list below the comment block, so I guess that’s why.
I don’t know wtf to believe anymore!!! There’s just too much shit going on at once, I can hardly keep track of all of it…
a lot of the money went to arm settlers to help them kill Palestinians. That should take care of any negative connotations that may be attached to him in the public opinion.
But since we are talking about a public does not read a lot of blogs, know who Abramoff is, and confuses Palestine with Pakistan, they probably don’t need to worry about it at all.
Faux honor, faux integrity, faux ethical posturing, faux concern for the welfare of their fellow citizens, and an attempt at a strategic outmaneuvering of the Dems. The latter might have some success, given the appalling performance of the “media Dems”, (i.e. Biden,Shrum, Lanny Davis, et.al)these days, but real honor, integrity and ethical behavior will remain out of reach of these viciius, lying wingnut hacks.
I saw him on TV the other day commenting on one of those “missing husband” cases. Seems like he has indeed turned into just another of those “I’ll talk about anything for money” media whores.
He has become more even more pathetic than most of his cohorts, that’s for sure!
Also, conspicuously missing in this artful paean is any direct mention of the traits of honesty, sincerity, or respectfulness of one’s fellow man, (3 of the biggest character flaws in the very creatures who authored this nifty little bit of rhetoric).
The words don’t have to be sincere to be effective in ‘perception management’.
“Perception management”! Josef Goebbels would be proud!
I’m sure he would be. Look at what the Republicans have accomplished through perception management. It will be huge if they succeed in convincing the public that the corruption is equal and the conservative center took the initiative to address it.
They’ve succeeded in invading a country on false pretenses, promoting the medicare reform, support for illegal wiretapping, the unbelievable contradictions of 9/11, the 9/11 commission…..
If they want a House cleansed of Abramhoff type influences they had best stop voting for Republicans and Democrats have some cleaning up of their own to do.
Look, during the time when Gingrich was Speaker the lobbyists were passing out checks on the house floor immediately after votes and they were also writing legislation. Now even the vile Newtster is trying to capitalize on and present himself as squeaky clean as is Lindsey Graham and John McCain and Joseph Lieberman and they’re trying to do so by focusing the public’s attention on lobbyists and, even worse, on Indian tribes. The problem isn’t lobbyists.
The problem is that they take bribes from lobbyists and let them write legislation.
The GOP is trying to present the Abramhoff scandal as some sort of anomaly rather than the manner in which business has been conducted in the nation’s capital for a long time. Instapundit and Malkin are pathetic human beings on a good day and today isn’t a good day.
“center-right.”
Enough said.
on their thread:
(And I think I might have provided a fake e-mail addy to do so.)
Or that of someone you are pissed at! (I got a mean streak, don’t I?)
Now that they find their party stuck in a situation from which it will likely suffer heavily (deservedly so), they feel the need to separate from the corruption. What about all the prior scandals? I must assume that those were acceptable, and probably only for the reason that the party suffered no long term ill effects. Selective ethics.
It’s called CYA before you go down with the sieve of state.
starts reporting on this gallant effort?
I’m starting to wonder how many more gifts the Repubs will have to give the Dems before they can take advantage of just one of them.
fuck them.
Center my ass. They are modern-day brownshirts. They worry about this shit b/c it threatens their political prospects.
“Center right”, my ass.
Thanks! You brought me back to reality!
I would not give any of them the chance to give me the breathe of life! Not EVER!!!!! I have really become cynical of any republican, for I see them with altermotives all the time. And to boot this, I have republican friends. This is what is so sad. This administration has caused family and friends to be torn apart. I have never seen anything like this in my life. I do not trust anymore…This is so sad to have this in my life. I would not trust any of them to do anything constructive….I might go as far as to say this about some of the democrats too. It seems as if they are going right along for the ride too…God, I am so sick to my stomach..this is happening on every day basis now and I am so veyr worried about our world. It is everything..not just one damn thing..it is everything!
I took this morning to do some reading on other blogs and I have found them quite interesting, to say the least, on what they think about issues, we discuss here. firedoglake and james willcott to name a few. TPM has some good things too. I find some humorous at the most.
To gibe what I have learned in a rundown is that the democrats in the Alito hearings were really trying to educate the public on issues…well, well, well, I did not come away with this..Did you? If they actually were doing such a thing, then I really did miss out on the impressions of this, all the way around.
I found that they took issue with mrs. alito doing the onion thing to bring forth the tears of humanity. That when they left the room that day, the judge left without even seeing to her and her position. I agree, that said millions to me too..I noted that, as well.
They are advocating that the democrats are not giving much of a fight as to the things going on inside the beltway these days…NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK??!!
The lobbing scandal is truly a republican solely holding issue! I have to say I have to agree to a degree, especially this thing with abramoff; however, I think, personally, they are all on the he take in one fashion or the other.
I read that Fritz was in Chi town this week to get thru the aspect of bribery in that state/town. I heard him give a response that no matter how small the bribe, this time being $500/month, by the purp., it is still considered a bribe, no matter the size or amount of the bribe. I am so glad to have him on our side…aren’t you? I do think he has intel/honest bones in his body! This alone gives me hope for the future in some areas, anyhow.
He did convene the GJ on Wed. and is still making the one and only turdblossom sweat! Can this really be???!! God I truly hope so. I hope he alone can bring out all the fraud of this administration for what they truly are! Bless his little heart! For we all know that one thing leads to another with this adm. and their dirty deeds. It is an ongoing flow of dirty feces that each is connected to the other…
I suppose I need to stop here…I want to get more learning under my belt…hugs and have a great morning..love to ya all….
The Democrats are again in a position to make substantial changes for the future and the Republicans are ready to usurp that position. So far, both parties have been claiming strength by stressing the similarities of the two parties. The Dems have done this to take a stand on the war, military, security, the myth of the GWoT and several others. Dem officials have bent themselves into the oddest shapes to show they can be Republicans and now the smart GOPrs are poised to once again exploit that.
The Democrats need to address the GWoT with intelligence and honesty. The only reason BushCo and GOP is still around is because the public thinks those folks keep America and the world safe. Get to the truth that the GWoT is a hyped marketing ploy, the truth behind 9/11, the wrongfull prosecutions and the roles of intelligence agencies in all of this and the Democrats would be an unbeatable force. It would stress the difference between Dems and Reps…that we Democrats are smart enough to figure out the underlying forces and stand up for the principles our country was formed from.
Take the GWoT away from BushCo and they are nothing. Their minions will fall away or follow the Democrats into a safer future.
Now that was the most honest and most intelligent summary I have read! I applaud you for this, rumi…
Thanks…;)..think we can get 51 million more on board?
Center-Right???
I think Malkin bases that position on the complete destruction of the left.
That and her total disregard for the truth.