THE GOP´S "MORALITY BUCKET" HAS A HOLE IN IT

At 25% approval, the Republican party is less popular than Dick Cheney, and conservative talker, Rush Limbaugh, is even less popular with a 21% approval rating.

Apparently, for the Republicans today, "the hits just keep on coming".

Unfortunately for them, instead of big hit songs, its more like the GOP is dealing with the effects of an amateur boxer spending his time sparring with a heavy-weight champion. Needless to say, it´s not a pretty sight.

For a party that had their most recent resurgence coming from the support of the deeply religious South, which has grown the party´s strength on the basis of their support for "High Morals and Family Values", this latest "fall-from-grace" for adulterous sex by South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, is just another large rock on a very big pile.

I am in no way trying to say that the Democrats are the "party of virtues", as can be determined by the past circumstance with John Edwards, Elliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton and others before them.

But I think that in today´s high-tech era, where it´s almost impossible for anyone with a high public profile, to successfully hide these "affairs of the heart" or of the libido; what were these people thinking?

Here is the latest list of the Republicans that have fallen from grace for sexual scandals or other illegal activities. The numbers for the GOP seems to be about 4 to 1 as compared to the Democrats, and that´s just for the past 10 years:

Disgraced Elected GOP Officials:

Mark Sanford

John Ensign

Larry Craig

Mark Foley

David Vitter

Ted Stevens

Scooter Lobby

Newt Gingrich

Tom DeLay

Ed Schrock (R-VA)

Helen Chenowith (R-ID)

Bob Allen (R-FL)

High Profile-GOP Supporters – w/ Past illegal activity, indiscretions or "Family Value" Issues

Bill O´Reilly

Ted Haggard

Rush Limbaugh

Jack Abramoff

Dr. Laura Schlessenger

If you question any of those on these lists, just Google their name with the word "scandal" after their name and you will find out what their issues were all about.

FYI: Virtually all of those elected officials listed above, that were involved with their own sexual scandals, were also the strongest supporters in calling for Bill Clinton to resign due to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The point I´m trying to make is that the "holier than thou" attitude that the GOP has been selling themselves as, continues to not ring true, especially when their leaders don´t seem to have any problems in lying about their own personal indiscretions.

Now, coming a week after Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted to an extramarital affair, this latest scandal will now impact the Republicans in a number of ways.

Initially, it further damages the GOP brand, which will probably drive away more voters. It will also make it more difficult to win back some of those who abandoned the party in the past two elections.

It might finally disillusion social and religious conservatives, which are a critically important part of the Republican coalition. And finally, the latest Sanford situation removes one more potential, new-generational GOP leader from a small field of prospective 2012 candidates.

Per Peter Wehner, a former Bush White House adviser, "It's bad news", regarding the back-to-back confessions by Sanford and Ensign. "It reflects on them individually, but it reflects on the party. The Democrats are vulnerable on a number of areas. They've had their own [scandals] on a range of issues. But if you accept as I do that the Republican brand is hurt, this does more damage to it."

A GOP strategist, John Weaver, stated: "The voters have chosen new management [in the White House] for a reason, and this just reinforces it. It just makes the hill a little steeper for us."

I would say it is not a "little steeper", it´s now a whole lot steeper.

Copyright G.Ater 2009

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