G-O-P Spells B-A-D

Now who's to judge who's a sinner and who's a saint
Who's to say who you can love and who you can't..
..the Lord's too busy tryin' to keep the world on it's feet
He ain't got time to give a damn about what goes on between the sheets
from "Sordid Lives" - Olivia Newton John

Have you ever noticed that people whose lives are rife with moral contradictions are generally the first to pass judgment on others? When these individuals are in charge of passing laws instead of just passing judgments, you can't just shrug it off. We have to be angry and alert. Why should our freedoms be regulated by the conscience of others?

Apparently, politicians and preachers think they have taken over God's mantle. Alas, it's a cast of scoundrels hurling platitudes and holy sound bites from their sloughs of hypocrisy. They like to call themselves The Moral Majority. They are neither.

From their self appointed, high and mighty positions, one after the other, Republican politicians will extol the virtues of religion, heterosexual marriage, family values, proudly waiving their opposition to abortion, gay rights, gay marriage, immigration, evolution and any religious belief that is not Christian based. Ironically, the most virulent anti gay lawmakers, and loudest do-gooders, are the ones often caught in, not-so-family-oriented, sexual scandals. They tend to be right wing Republicans, by a long shot.

Democrats are certainly no saints. Many of them have committed adultery and had sexual liaisons , ( JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Gary Hart, Eliot Spitzer, even "our own" gay governor Jim McGreevey), but at least they do not constantly tell straights or gays how to behave in the privacy and sanctity of the bedroom, dictate how we should go about our private lives or which congregation to worship at.

Readers might argue that the following list is partial to the Democrats and unfair to the Republicans. That it is put together with a bias. The point here is to highlight the sanctimonious claptrap we constantly hear from the Republican morality pulpit, through "fair and balanced" media outlets, churches, right wing coalitions for the defense of something "pure" and "american", (they have, after all, a monopoly on "patriotism"), every day of our lives, especially at elections' time.

Here is the roll call of some, not all, discredited vocal members, past and present,

of the GOnP (Grand Old nasty Party),in no particular order :

HENRY HYDE ( R-Illinois) 1998

Chaired the Judiciary Committee to Impeach President Clinton.Turned out that he had a five-year affair with a married woman.He referred to it as a "youthful indiscretion". He was 45, and married, when the "indiscretion" occurred

NEWT GINGRICH (R -Former House Speaker) 1998

Called Clinton a misogynist. He took the occasion of his wife's hospital stay, while she was recovering from cancer surgery, to talk to her about divorce.

DAN BURTON (R- Indiana) 1998

Called Clinton a scumbag. Turned out that the sanctimonious congressman fathered a child out of wedlock.

HELEN CHENOWETH ( R - Idaho) 1998

Condemned Clinton and his "sordid spectacle". Turned out that she had a six-year affair with a married man.

BOB BARR (R- Georgia),1999

fierce critic of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, member of the Pro-Life Caucus, sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, had several affairs of his own, three marriages (when he sponsored DOMA which marriage of his was he defending?),to top it all he drove one of his wives to a clinic to get an abortion.

KIRK FORDICE ( R- Gov Mississippi) 1999.

The conservative Mississippi governor and a female companion were the last passengers on board a flight from Atlanta in 1999. The companion wasn't his wife, and, unlucky for Fordice, a Memphis television reporter was sitting right behind him and broke the story. After leaving office, Fordice divorced his wife and married the woman -whom he also later divorced.

STEVE JOHNSON (R- Indiana) 1999

married senator, he admitted to an affair with a 21 year old Statehouse intern.

ROBERT PACKWOOD (R- U.S. Senator) 1995

in 1992 The Washington Post published an article airing the grievances of 10 women, mainly former staffers, who said he had made unwanted and aggressive sexual advances starting in 1969.

A Senate inquiry in 1995 found "substantial evidence" Packwood had abused his power, leading to his resignation.

DONALD LUKENS (R- Ohio) 1990

repeatedly charged with sexual involvement with minors, in 1988, he was jailed for paying a 16-year-old girl $40 to have sex with him and, the next year, he was convicted of having sexual relations with a girl, once when she was 14 years old, and again three years later.

Both times he received 30 days in jail. In 1990 he was accused of fondling and propositioning a young woman who worked as an elevator operator at the Capitol.

LARRY CRAIG (R- US Senate) 2007
was arrested by an undercover officer during a sting operation to investigate misconduct in a men's restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Craig sat in the stall next to the officer and began touching his right foot to the officer's left foot. Craig later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He is still a great tap dancer.

JOHN ENSIGN (R-US Senate) 2009
called for Bill Clinton's head in 1998. Between December 2007 and August 2008, Ensign carried on a relationship with one of his female campaign staffers, who happened to be married to an employee in his Senate office. He remains under investigation for allegedly trying to find lobbying work for the mistress's husband.

JIM GIBBONS (R -Nevada) 2006
a Las Vegas cocktail waitress accused Gibbons of sexual assault in a parking garage.

He was elected Nevada's governor, setting the stage for another sex scandal in 2009. After filing for divorce, Gibbons came under fire from his wife who, in court papers, accused him of having extramarital affairs with a former Playboy magazine model.

MARK FOLEY (R - Florida) 2006. ABC News released salacious and inappropriate virtual messages between Foley and a string of male pages, more of Foley's former pages came forward with stories of the congressman's unsolicited virtual advances. His record in the House shows he voted against every gay-rights measure.

MARK SANFORD (R - Gov. South Carolina) 2009

called for Bill Clinton to resign and voted for three of the four articles of Clinton's impeachment. As governor of South Carolina in 2009, he admitted carrying on an affair with a woman in Buenos Aires and had his staff tell media outlets that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

KEVIN GARN (R-Utah) 2010

a woman went public with a story about a nude encounter in a hot tub with Garn in 1985, while she was still a teenager.

JIM WEST (R- Mayor- Spokane Washington) 2005

accused of preying on young boys by abusing his power as a Sheriff and Boy Scout leader, and of trolling gay chat rooms to offer male teenagers internships at his mayor's office. West, who had sponsored legislation banning gays from teaching in schools, was recalled from office and ended up in political exile.

DAVID VITTER (R -US Senator -Louisiana) 2009
admitted to the New Orleans bureau of the Associated Press he had been a client of the infamous D.C. Madam. The greatest irony: Vitter first won a seat in the House of Representatives after it was vacated by Robert Livingston-after Hustler threatened to expose Livingston's own adulterous affairs.

ROBERT LIVINGSTON (R-Speaker Elect) 1998
was one of the loudest critics of President Clinton's indiscretions in the lead up to the impeachment, which is why his fellow Republicans were shocked when he admitted he had "strayed" from his marriage. Republicans had hoped Livingston would make a lower-profile speaker than scandal-prone Newt Gingrich, he resigned the post after admitting his affairs.

RICHARD CURTIS (R-Washington State) 2007
A firm opponent of gay rights, he became entangled in a gay sex scandal when a man he slept with at a GOP retreat allegedly tried to blackmail him. Curtis resigned defending his heterosexuality.

MARK SOUDER (R-Indiana) 2010

family values conservative admitted to an extramarital affair with a staffer. Souder resigned his seat so that his "mistake would not be used as a political football".

ROD JETTON (R -Speaker of the house - Missouri) 2009

accused of felony assault for an S&M session gone wrong, in which he allegedly beat and strangled a woman to the point of unconsciousness. He is the son of a Baptist minister and a staunch conservative. Jetton is also facing an investigation into allegations that bribes from a strip-club owner caused him to slow legislation of a 2005 bill regarding adult entertainment.

JERRY THOMAS (R-US Sen. Louisiana) 2003
was busted in a sting operation at a local adult video and bookstore for lewd behavior while engaging in what police called "sexual activity" with another man. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and got six months probation and a $350 fine. His 24 years in elected office ended in February 2003 when he announced he wouldn't run again so he could spend time with his family.

VITO FOSSELLA (R- Staten Island) 2009
married, he admitted to an affair with a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and being the father of their 3-year-old.

BOB ALLEN (R-Florida) 2007
sponsored legislation to crack down on public sex, but in 2007 he was caught offering to pay an undercover cop $20 and perform oral sex on him in a park.

ED SCHROCK (R - Nebraska) 2004

His political career came to a halt when a gay activist outed him and he abruptly resigned. He had allegedly used a phone service to arrange a sexual liaison with another man. Schrock was a staunch conservative and leading opponent of gay rights.

ROY ASHBURN (R-California State Senator) 2010

a divorced father of four, was arrested for drunk driving in a state-owned vehicle with a companion after leaving a gay nightclub in Sacramento. Ashburn voted against every gay-rights measure in California since taking office. He finally came out on a local radio show on March 8, and said he will not run again for public office.

NIKKI HALEY, a state legislator from South Carolina and Republican candidate for governor, is denying allegations by a conservative blogger (Will Folks) that the two of them had an affair.

DO NOT FORGET: THIS IS THE PARTY THAT HAS A PROBLEM FOR EVERY SOLUTION.