Thursday, June 01, 2006

Culture of Corruption

"O that estates, degrees, and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!"
- William Shakespeare


Republicans.



Democratic Congressman William Jefferson.

A culture of corruption?

Ok. Another opportunity for the Democrats to practice their spin tecniques before the Fall elections. Once again, Democrats. Spin away.

11 comments:

Dan Trabue said...

What's your point? That there are no corrupt Republicans and only one Dem?

Allow me to refresh your memory:

Right off the bat, Bush hired two convicted liars - Poindexter and Abrams. Part of the corrupt Reagan/Bush empire who had 32 criminal convictions (and seven pardons for these crimes by a corrupt Daddy Bush). Not to mention that this dynasty brought the US a WAR CRIME conviction!

That's a bit of background. Now, looking at the record of the last few years:

Illinois Gov. George Ryan convicted for corruption.

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher indicted (after issuing a blanket pardon to several Republican flunkies for the same scandal following their indictments - always look for self-pardoning actions as a sure sign of corruption)

Ohio Gov. Bob Taft indicted.

Tom Delay indicted.

Scooter Libby indicted.

Ohio Republican crony Tom Noe indicted.

Republican Congressman Randall Cunningham sentenced to eight years.

Republican mega-money man Jack Abramoff convicted for several felony corruption charges...

Shall I continue? How about investigations in to likely corruption by folk like Bill Frist or Dennis Hastert....

Please. You truly don't want to delve in to a comparison of Dem and Republican corruption (and that is no defense of the many lame and spineless Dems who are fairly corrupt themselves...)

Mark said...

LOL! I knew some one would bring that up...Guess what? Indictments brought by prosecutors that are in themselves corrupt (like Ronnie Earle) don't prove corruption. Did Tom Delay get caught on video tape taking bribes? Did he hide $90,000 in bribe money in his freezer?

And do you really want to have a contest on how many Democrats are corrupt versus Repubicans? I guarantee the Democrats will lose in that contest.

Dan Trabue said...

I don't want to make any bets on Dems or Republicans because both parties are part of a rather corrupt system. But on a hunch, I'd be willing to bet that there are more indictments, convictions and corruption on the Republican side than on the Dem side.

And where there aren't indictments and convictions, there is often still corruption because the system itself has been corrupted and laws and loopholes have been created that allow for corruption. On both sides.

So, you want to compare the convictions of the Reagan/Bush years to the Clinton/Gore years as a measure? Do you want to measure the severity of the investigations of the Reagan/Bush years to the Clinton years (Clinton investigated for money-related issues and a blow job, Reagan investigated for war crimes, perjury before congress, treasonous actions, aiding and abetting terrorists...do you really want to compare the level of Republican corruption to the Dems'?)

Lone Ranger said...

The point is, Republicans don't defend criminals. Democrats do. Republicans want criminals among them to go to jail. Democrats don't.

Mike's America said...

"Reagan/Bush empire????"

Oh come off it Trabby.

If you were really serious about ethics, or social justice or anything else you would avoid such credibility destroying bits of crap like that.

If only I had the hours and hours and hours it would take just to list out all the Democrat lawbreaking in the Clinton Administration alone.

Not that it would make the slightest dent in the tin foil hat such a transparent partisan socialist like you must wear to protect himself from "inconvenient truths."

Francis Lynn said...

Congressman William Jefferson - hmm - didn't he drop the "Clinton" from his last name? Yeah - about the same time Hillary did. Smell a conspiracy here. And they both happen to be corrupt too. Hmmm.

Poison Pero said...

I agree with Sheila 100%......Only problem is if all the crooked politicos are tossed out, D.C. would be empty.

Which would be just fine with me.

Dan Trabue said...

Mikes Unamerica said:

"If only I had the hours and hours and hours it would take just to list out all the Democrat lawbreaking in the Clinton Administration alone."

Go ahead Mike. List away. As I've said repeatedly, I'm no fan of Clinton. At all. Nonetheless, I'm not sure that there were ANY Clinton Administration convictions (despite millions of tax dollars spent in a desperate effort to get a conviction) beyond the one perjury charge for a blowjob (which was not what he was being investigated for).

If there were, it would just back what I've said already: that the system is corrupt and we end up with less than honorable folk in office oftentimes.

And, as I've said, all the investigations in to Clinton had to do with monetary malfeasance (none of which were proven, I believe) which would have been awful, if true, but would PALE in comparison to the WAR CRIMES committed by Reagan/Bush. WAR CRIMES! SUPPORT OF TERRORISTS! YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME if you want to compare the accusations against Clinton with the convictions against Reagan.

But feel free to list away. There's been several suggestions that Dems would compare unfavorably to the Republicans but no records brought forth. I'm open to being convinced that the Dems are as bad as the Republicans. Give it your best shot.

Dan Trabue said...

And LR said:
"The point is, Republicans don't defend criminals."

You're right. They hire them (Abrams, Poindexter, as a starting point).

Dan Trabue said...

An awful lot of silence out there (or is it just that Mark hasn't had a chance to post your plentiful and well-documented answers).

Here. I'll help you out.

We had Clinton convicted of a blowjob, as you know.

We have this William Jefferson guy under investigation.

NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi publicly apologized Thursday for a "beyond dumb" remark about a fellow Democrat putting "a bullet between the president's eyes."

Harry Reid is being investigated for accepting free boxing tickets.

Al Gore intimated that he invented the internet...

Um...

There was that Kennedy who is in rehab or something...

NC Rep. Frank Ballance was convicted of corruption this year.

Let's see, how many Dems have committed war crimes in the last decade? Treason?...okay, you can loosen the search to include parking tickets if you want...

well, okay. It's a start. Feel free to add to it.

Dan Trabue said...

What? Two days now and no backup of several statements suggesting how "obvious" it is that the Dems are more corrupt than the Republicans?

This is fairly simple, friends. I've already started it for you. Just show the news stories, the convictions, the indictments, even the investigations (which are not proof in and of themselves, but at least it's something) that shows the numerous Dems who are corrupt as you say.

OR, if you can't, then I will also gladly accept an apology on their behalf for your slanderous lies. (You don't have to apologize too much though as they are relatively corrupt - just apparently not as corrupt as the Republicans.)

Mark, you were talking about integrity and admitting when you're wrong in a post (and I know you've done so before), is it time to do so now?