Senate GOP Leadership Shows Party True Colors
Bonehead Move by Southern Cro-Mag Trent Lott Undermines Campaign Platitudes

by Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000 -- WASHINGTON (AmpolNS) -- The two things that The Doc most remembers about Little George's presidential campaign were his constant recitation of the mantra that he's "a uniter, not a divider" -- and that appallingly disingenuous demonstration of "inclusiveness" on the first night of the GOP convention where practically the only minorities visible were on the stage, with the rich, mostly male, overwhelmingly white attendees gritting their teeth as they tried to kick their applause a notch or two above lukewarm.

Well, if one needs evidence that this was nothing less than The Big Lie made manifest, one only need look at two pieces of news out of the Senate.

The first involves Majority Leader Trent Lott -- the foppish Mississippian recently sighted on the Bush Ranch where he was nearly shot in the head when one of the locals confused the ten-gallon hat with the ten-foot turkey feather stuck in the brim for some kind of game fowl -- who has sent a signal to his fellow GOP Senators: bipartisanship is dead on arrival. 

Lott, who -- along with the single meanest man in government, House Majority Whip Tom "I Love Sweatshops and Whips" DeLay -- is a strong supporter and close ally of Little George, managed to push his sizable political weight around in an effort to keep the Senate's GOP leadership as hard-right as possible -- and marginalize more moderate Republicans.  Of course, this should come as no shock -- after all, this is a Senator who is an honorary member of (and who has even spoken as an honored guest of) the Council of Conservative Citizens, a segregationist organization which is nothing more than the White Citizen's Council with a more politically acceptable name.  Yes, they are still very active in the more regressive regions of the Ole' South, and an embarrassment to our nation.  

But again I digress.

According to the Washington Post, Lott was quoted as saying "Somebody has to be in charge."

We know, Trent -- and God forbid it be someone as popular and respected as, say, John McCain -- who is no liberal but commands more respect among Democrats than most of his fellow Republicans ever will. 

Lott's new Z-Team of Senate party leaders includes Larry Craig (R-Idaho Militia), who was re-elected chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee over Pete Domenici (R-NM), who is too much of a "uniter, not a divider" for Lott -- and Team Shrub; Rick Santorum (R-PA), one of the so-called "class of 1994", who beat Kit Bond (R-MO) to lead the Senate Republican Conference, and who succeeds retiring Sen. Connie Mack (R-FL), who was elected in 1988 in a race that has many disturbing parallels to the present election fraud in Florida; Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), a favorite paleo-conservative on the pundit circuit, is secretary of the Republican Conference.  About the only thing resembling a moderate Republican in the leadership is Bill Frist (R-TN), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The message to Republicans who might contemplate crossing over and joining Democrats on key issues is clear: you will not get any political support from the Senate leadership unless you toe the line.

Meanwhile, Big Time Cheney met with a group of conservative GOP Senators Tuesday.  The main topic of conversation: which Clinton Administration  executive orders to overturn.  A Capitol Hill aide familiar with the situation told The Doc that the likely targets will be orders that deem ecologically sensitive areas national monuments, require more openness and accountability in federal law enforcement and intelligence organizations, and prohibit discrimination based on sexual preference.

The Doc feels their pain -- all that big government getting in the way of all varieties of greed, hate, and unaccountability.

 Interestingly, the Washington Post reported  that "one Republican said they advised Mr. Cheney to be 'aggressive' about overturning Clinton administration policies."

Well, of course, they "advised Mr. Cheney!"  The concepts involved in these issues are well above Little George's head.  Well, at least the brownshirts in Congress know who's in charge.

On another note -- thanks to the readers who sent The Doc the link to Al Kamen's Washington Post article on the now-notorious Miami-Dade White Riot that threw a ditto-monkey wrench in the recount works a couple weeks back.

For those of you who missed the story, Kamen named names and provided occupations of a few of the rioters featured in a Reuters photo.  Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Steven Brophy, former aide to Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-TN.) and presently with consulting firm KPMG (5)

Rory Cooper, political division staff member at the National Republican Congressional Committee (3)

Duane Gibson, aide to Chairman Don Young (R-AK) of the House Resources Committee (8)

Garry Malphrus, majority chief counsel and staff director, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice. (2)

Layna McConkey, former legislative assistant to former Rep. Jim Lightfoot (R-IA), currently with Steelman Health Strategies  (10)

Roger Morse, aide to Rep. Van Hilleary (R-TN) (7)

Tom Pyle, policy analyst, office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX.) -- speaking of Dixie Cro-Mags (1)

Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim DeMint (R-SC) (9)

Kevin Smith, former House Republican conference analyst and more recently with Voter.com (4)

Matt Schlapp, former chief of staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), at the time with the Bush campaign staff in Austin (6)

And to think that the press wanted us to believe this was some kind of grassroots uprising of nice, wholesome, disadvantaged, white button-down shirt wearing Miamians out to protect the integrity of a completely inaccurate vote count.

By the way -- aren't there federal laws against government employees tampering with the proceedings of a federal election?

DATELINE: The Web -- a tip of The Doc's toupee to the savvy Jerry Politex, who was early to point out an interesting sidelight in the present lawsuit in Seminole County that seeks to throw out absentee ballots as a result of corrupt and arguably felonious conduct on the part of Republican activists who doctored GOP absentee ballot applications -- which, The Doc suspects, is not the only chicanery these enemies of democracy engaged in.

Politex rewound to the Lewinsky flap and a post to the notorious, neo-fascist Free Republic web site by one Michael Leach, who posted an essay en titled It's The Law, Stupid (http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a367d6bb821af.htm).  In the course of his diatribe, he writes, "A felony is a felony" (weakly claiming that Clinton somehow committed perjury and should go to jail).

Well, guess whose name has surfaced in the Seminole County lawsuit?

You guessed it, politics fans -- Michael Leach -- who turns out to be one of the GOP operatives who added voter identification numbers to ballot applications!

During the course of Leach's deposition, he responded -- under the sort of oath that Henry Hyde and Kenneth Starr never seemed to tire of reminding us about -- that he did nothing wrong, that he was simply "correcting the ballots."

Politex, who also pointed out that Leach claimed he was only following the instructions of others, quoted the end of Leach's attempt at coherent commentary:  "Will we ever see leaders with the common sense to think on their own, or take responsibility for their actions, instead of passing the buck...?"

And will we never see an end to hypocrites who preach the Gospel of the Rule of Law while seeking to undermine it in an arguably felonious matter?  After all, leech, it's the law -- stupid! 

'Nuff said.