How Low Can They Go?

Why am I quoting a Chubby Checker song about limbo? Because after watching a roundup of Sunday talk shows, I am amazed at how low the Republicans have gone in trying to defend themselves in the Mark Foley cover-up. It was clear from Republican Congressman Adam Putnam's performance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulous," for instance, that the Republicans are out of ideas. All Putnam and his ilk can muster is "death tax," "Democrat party," etc. Their attempt to pin the Foley scandal on the Democrats--I still am unclear what their reasoning is here--would be rankling if it weren't so laughably predictable. What can a party that has survived on fear and lies possibly do other than try to demonize the other side?

My hope is that a more civil, truthful politics will come from the likely Democratic wins in November. The fundamental inability of the Republicans to take responsibility I believe has crept into the toxic equation that our country turns to when a problem comes up: blame someone else, obfuscate, fail to revise priorities. In Adminsitration-fueled problemes as evident as Hurricane Katrina and the War in Iraq and as less immediately evident as our country's crumbling infrastructure, under-funded education system, and wageless economic recovery the Republican way of dealing with these problems has been to deflect blame and to lie about facts, all the while trying to change the focus to issues that have less impact on most Americans such as gay marriage and flag burning. It will be a relief if, come November, this venomous politics that we have become so accustomed to is swept out with the detritus of the Mark Foley scandal and the lies about Iraq.