Well, M. Keller, I’ll respond, even though I know how these things always go. Waste of our time, both of us, since neither of us is going to concede anything to the other, but whatever.
First: astrology, Jimmy Carter the scumbag.
Now, those two items fell under the category of “joke.” A difficult concept for your typical Reaganista, but then perhaps the delivery was flawed. So to be magnanimous, I’ll take half the heat.
Second: that pesky Democratic Congress back in the 80s.
Here’s the deal. Reagan won big. Remember? Had what is called a mandate. That Democratic Congress pretty much had to roll with Reagan’s economic fantasy punches. Sure, they had Congress, but America had such a love affair with Grampaw Ronnie that they had to pick their battles. Personally, I’d have loved them to be pissier about it, but they weren’t. The nutcase economic policy direction still came from Raygun and his plutocratic cronies (or, plutocratic puppet masters, some would contend). Either way, the insane deficits, the tax trick (in which income and capital gains taxes were lowered while payroll taxes increased), the loss of U.S. jobs to other nations, the increase in the wealth gap – all have to be laid at Raygun’s feet. But at least he made us feel good while he stuck us in the backside.
Third: Clinton’s perjury.
Yup. Happened. Bad thing that. But if you read my first post, you’ll see that my real point was a question of perspective. Clinton did a bad thing. But he did it for an even worse reason – years of unsupported vilification by conservatives (something I never really understood, since for many issues the man is a pretty good Republican). What the man was guilty of was having a libido and not wanting to get busted for it. He should have just 'fessed up and left it at that. But, people have this weird thing about not wanting to get caught, even at something as trivial as what he was being chased for. (Trivial on a national level, not on a personal private level.)
Now let’s just look at Iran-Contra. Let’s see, selling arms to Iran. At the time, Iran was a declared enemy of the U.S. So what does that mean? Treason. You wanna figure out a way to rationalize that, fine. But it’s still treason. Now, did Ronnie “know?” Hard to say for sure, since he used the “I don’t remember” defense, but it was his stinking Cabinet and administration that did know and did do it, and they were his responsbility. Verdict: He’s scum.
What else? Providing funds to murderous insurgents in Central America, something explicitly against the law of the United States. Once again, did he know? See above. But with this one, his people not only admitted it, but knew it was wrong to the entent of frantically trying to cover it up, then using the “But I’m a Patriot!” defense. The amazing thing is that the Patriot defense actually worked. Well, maybe not so amazing, since you repeat something loud enough and often enough and nitwits start to believe it must be true. (“He said right there on the TeeVee, Ma!”) Once again, Ronnie was responsible for his people, whatever he “remembered.” Verdict: He’s scum. Even worse, he’s scum who supported the murder of men, women, and children all because of the crime of maybe possibly having an inconvenient political philosophy.
But, I’ll give him this: he’s personable, warm, cuddly scum.
I don’t condone infidelity. I don’t condone lying about it. But the standard Clinton is held to is so far above that which people like, say, either George Bush or the venerable Raygun is held to, it’s not even funny. It’s tragic.
Fourth: Mark Rich.
I’ll grant you that Clinton was still President. What I won’t grant you is that Raygun, GHW Bush, and Dubya haven’t taken advantage of their positions, in and out of office, to take care of their friends, and in turn be taken care of. But, whatever. You look out for friends and contributors. That’s called national politics. And yet, Bush Sr’s convenient pardon of Weinberger and related cronies certainly helped ensure that his own name wouldn’t come up, so very inconveniently, in testimony. Now, Clinton or the Democrats MIGHT have gotten some cash outa the Mark Rich thing, but that’s hardly on the level of escaping potential prosecution the way Bush Sr. did in the Weinberger thing.
The funny thing is that before Raygun, I thought that Republicans were pretty much just people who worshipped money. Occasionally one got corrupt like Nixon, but Democrats were hardly immune to corruption. I could work with Republicans, even if I disagreed with them.
But after the debable of the 80s Republicans, and over-reaching rage and hate of the 90s Republicans, I’ve come to have the same reaction to the word “Republican” as I have to words “child molester” – vomitous, shuddering horror.
Sad, too, because there are still some decent Republicans out there. Bob Dole has always seemed like a really good guy to me – unfortunate politics, but a good guy.