1115.org

After reflecting on the no doubt chastening experience of the midterm election, after introspecting about how to put their best foot forward, here’s the bold new strategy the Republican Party has come up with: “It’s broke, but hey why fix it?”

(No doubt, when they were debating this in their internal conclaves, the clincher was a silver tongued orator going: “After all, the same strategy’s working so well in Iraq!”)

“Why fix it?” certainly seems to be the prevailing philosophy reflected in their new House leadership slate:
• House Minority Leader: John Boehner
• House Minority Whip: Roy Blunt
• House Republican Conference Chairman: Adam Putnam
• House Republican Policy Committee Chairman: Thad McCotter

Some old faces, some new; but it still adds up the same old gang of liars, crooks, bigots and spineless henchmen, the running dogs of Bush’s fascism.

Boehner, of course, had a starring role in the Mark Foley scandal, a role which perfectly exemplified the depth of his commitment to telling whatever lies may be expedient for the sake of his party, his party leadership and his own sorry ass. First:

Boehner said he told House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and that Hastert assured him “we’re taking care of it.”

Then (presumably after Hastert went: “Are you effing crazy?), Boehner dutifully changed his story:

Boehner later contacted The Post and said he could not remember whether he talked to Hastert.

Just to keep the circle of lies unbroken, he later switched back to his original story:

ABC News reports that, in a radio interview with 700 WLW radio in Cincinnati, House Majority Leader John Boehner has changed his story once again. In fact, he’s come full circle:
“I believe I talked to the Speaker and he told me it had been taken care of,” said Boehner. “And, and, and my position is it’s in his corner, it’s his responsibility.”

Boehner has also been one of the loudest and proudest mouthpieces for the lies, damned lies, statistics and Bushisms we have been fed about Iraq. He gave us not only this fervid praise of Donald Rumsfeld: “I think Donald Rumsfeld is the best thing that’s happened to the Pentagon in 25 years”, but also this outstanding example of responsibility evasion: “Let’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld (since) the fact is the generals on the ground are in charge”.

Roy Blunt, a Tom DeLay loyalist in the Tom DeLay mould, has often received less than his fair share of attention due to DeLay’s reflected glare. But he is no lightweight himself when it comes to ethically questionable behavior.

One of the things he was caught red-handed doing: trying to sneak a provision benefiting Philip Morris into the bill that created the Homeland Security Department at a time when he was romantically involved with Abigail Perlman, the head of government affairs for the parent company of Philip Morris. And, oh yes, one of his Blunt-lets (Andrew B., to be precise) also worked for Philip Morris at the time. Two birds with one stone; a pretty impressive feat of synergistic corruption!

And that’s only one line in his crooks-and-liars resume. The full monty is available to the admiring public at a website dedicated to Roy Blunt scandals, bluntfacts.com.

Adam Putnam, of course, has been in the limelight recently enough with his “white rednecks” remark:

Examining the 2006 midterms, Putnam blamed the GOP defeat on “the independent vote, the women vote, the suburban vote.” He said that “heck, even the white rednecks who go to church on Sunday didn’t come out to vote for us.”

Putnam is also on record as protesting that the $50 limit on gifts to Representatives is too restrictive. Apparently, the limit cramps his personal style; our Adam had not been able to accept many gifts he would have liked to keep. (Of course, this last tidbit could be just a Stephen Colbert plot, seeing as how it’s from Wikipedia, and Wikipedia alone.)

Thad McCotter (Thaddeus to you) has managed to largely hide his light under a bushel so far. But he took money from Tom DeLay’s ARMPAC ($20,000), Duke Cunningham ($5,000) and Bob Ney ($1,000). He is also exactly what we need more of in the Republican camp in Congress—a team player who’s loyal to a fault. He voted with Tom DeLay 92% of the time (through March 2006).

It’s possible these guys are not the four sleaziest Republicans left in the House. Still, between them they manage to embody a very impressive quantity of sleaze.