HANANIA: GOP Jihadists hypocrites on Spitzer and Bush lies, For Immediate Release, March 12, 2008

Gop Jihadists take Republican party to extreme on Spitzer
By Ray Hanania – Is anyone else besides me sick and tired of listening to the hypocrite Republican extremists – the “GOP Jihadists” –hammer Democrats when they do wrong but remain silent when the offenders are from their own party? Fanatics like TV commentators Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, and their couterie of hypocritical congressional disciples, are beating the drums “moral outrage” demanding that New York’s beleaguered Gov. Eliot Spitzer resign. Yet, these same GOP Jihadists were making excuses when their party’s trash – Sen. Larry Craig, Congressmen Mark Foley and Congressman David Vitter – were discovered wrapped up in even worse sexual scandals.I’m not defending Spitzer. He’s a hypocrite. He should resign. He is a pathetic example of someone who claims the moral high ground in public life but wallows in the slime of his political clout. I can’t believe his wife could find the strength to stand at his side.Spitzer isn’t a poster child for Democratic Party problems. He is an example of the problem that American society has: hypocrisy; double-standards; rising immoral conduct pervasive throughout our society.

But it is a political problem for Republicans who stand by silently and refuse to denounce their extremists. These GOP Jihadists engage in “rhetorical terrorism” and hatred based on the color of a person’s political party all for the purpose of shroign up their own selfish political interests.

Where was the outcry from these GOP Jihadists when Sen. Larry Craig was shuffling his shoes under the divider in an airport bathroom trying to hustle some stranger in the next toilet?

Craig pleaded guilty to “disorderly conduct” after he was arrested last June at a Minneapolis airport restroom when he tried to entice a stranger to have sex who turned out to be an undercover police officer.

The officer arrested him and described how Craig, in a fashion familiar to undercover police arresting sexual deviates in public bathrooms, tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex.

Craig is appealing. Hannity, Beck and the Republican Congressional leadership remain silent. Craig argues that the law which targets sexual deviates in public bathrooms is “invalid.”

And then there was former outgoing Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s pal, Mark Foley, the congressman who was in charge of managing the congressional system to train young male and female Pages.

Apparently, Foley didn’t care too much about the female Pages, but he was consumed with sexual interest in the young boys, sending them sexually cell phone text messages, seeking to have sex with them.

What happened to that scandal?

Hastert resigned from office in the hopes of saving his Republican seat but got his butt whipped when his handpicked successor, gadfly ice cream magnate Jim Oberweis lost to Democrat Bill Foster in the 14th District which is a hugely Republican District. Now the GOP Jihadists are arguing, “Don’t worry. Foster’s win is not a sign of the fate facing the Republican Party. The Republicans will win the seat back.”

Oberweis was rejected because voters just don’t like him. They rejected his negative campaign style, that the GOP Jihadists embraced. They selected someone with better qualifications. And they rejected Hastert’s hypocrisy, something many media downplayed out of their respect for their relationship with a former clout-heavy politician who gave them stories.

Hastert doesn’t deserve any praise in his retirement, although moving as fast as he did to resign was a successful attempt to help minimize the damage to his “legacy.”

But here is Hastert’s legacy: Everyone knows he knew the rumors about Mark Foley and he did nothing about it. Rather than protect the young boys who worked at the Congress as Pages, the focus was on protecting the Republican Party.

Fortunately, the GOP Jihadists lost control of the Congress and it is slowly being reconstructed by the Democrats.

And who can forget David Vitter of Louisiana who acknowledged last July that his Washington phone number was among those called several years ago by an “escort service.” The admission came after Publisher Larry Flynt’s Hustler magazine told the senator that his telephone number was linked to the service.

No one cares about him.

In fact, there is one more important issue about the hypocrisy of the GOP Jihadists here that has to be taken into account.

Their leader, President George W. Bush, the Grand Ayatollah of the GOP Jihadists, lied to the American people about the reasons why we invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003. And as a consequence, we have lost some 4,000 American soldiers and are now mired in a war where al-Qaeda terrorists have grown in strength, not diminished.

Al-Qaeda is stronger today and spread out across more nation’s because of the failed Iraq War.

Why is President Bush still in office and the GOP Jihadists are not calling for his head?

The GOP Jihadists are immoral. Hypocrites. And they don’t care about the public’s well-being. All they care about is their power. And that, more than any other reason, is reason enough to tell these GOP Jihadists to shut up!

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com, or at www.ArabWritersGroup.com.)