1998-11-17
Karacter
What is character? The Republican's keep trotting out the word "character" because they think it's something they have and Clinton doesn't. Someone with "character" doesn't cheat on his wife. Oops. Bob Dole left his first wife to shack up with Elizabeth at the Watergate hotel. Where's your first wife, Newt? The one that had cancer?
How about that fling of yours, Henry Hyde? Well, a "character" has principles. Oops. Gingrich has been charged with more than 60 violations of various ethics rules for House members. George Bush refused to intervene to prevent slaughter in Bosnia because he was afraid he would lose the next election.
Well, a "character" doesn't give in to cheap temptations. Oops. The Republicans, eager for campaign money, keep granting all the wishes of corporate America so the money keeps pouring into those PACS. Oops, oops, oops.
Well, a "character" doesn't sneak around recording conversations illegally, doesn't cheat in order to get his way, doesn't blow things out of proportion or sensationalize, and knows the value of discretion and honor. Kenneth Starr, anyone? Linda Tripp? A "character" doesn't preach one thing and practice another. Henry Hyde, are you there?
It's weird how this group of self-serving, conniving, dishonest hypocrites seems to have succeeded in hi-jacking the term "character". Most people know pretty well what is meant by "character". Honesty and integrity. Above all else, a willingness to put principles ahead of expediency. Clinton failed in regard to Monica Lewinsky, but he hasn't done all that badly in almost every other area of government. Henry Hyde and his fellow leaders of the holy jihad, currently conducting show-trials in Congress, have demonstrated over and over again a willingness to sell their votes to whichever corporate lobbyist carries the fattest check.
This isn't mere hypocrisy. You have to understand that while this show trial continues, Congress has been writing laws that take money away from middle-class and poor voters and hands it over to the rich as quickly as possible. Disney and Citibank are only two of the beneficiaries. Archer Daniels Midland. Microsoft. RCA. Boeing. Line up boys: the pork barrel's full and nobody's looking!
Copyright © 1998 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.