Another Reason Not To Vote Republican (Follow-Up)

As described in this post, you vote Republican at your own risk. The risk seems to be growing larger and larger, as we now see:

Good God. Is [Republican Minnesota Governor] Tim Pawlenty determined to make it impossible to admit to being a Minnesotan?

Let’s see:

There’s his determination to buff up his paleocon credentials (and insure his place as McCain’s VP pick) by shutting down state government by refusing to sign a budget.

There’s his insistence on placating David Strom of the Minnesota (Rich) Taxpayer’s League by keeping his disastrously destructive 2003 tax cuts in place and continuing to shift more of the tax burden from rich people and onto poor people in the form of clever tricks like his infamous “fees”.

Then we find out that his precious tax cuts, which were touted as a way to promote job growth in Minnesota, haven’t done diddly for it: Minnesota’s unemployment average, which under Democratic governors and legislatures was the lowest in the nation, is now, for the first time since records started being kept three decades ago, HIGHER than the national average — a fact that shocks and saddens those of us Minnesotans who remember the prosperity we enjoyed during Wendy Anderson’s time as governor over thirty years ago.

Click the link, there’s a lot more.

Private Conduct, Public Conduct

TChris makes an interesting point, talking about the resignation of a Bush administration official for “receiving massages” from a paid escort: “In Republican world, private conduct that causes only private harm, if any, is a greater reason for disgrace than repeated efforts to undermine the country's legal structure. Go figure.”

Here’s how I figure it: repeated efforts to undermine the country’s legal structure is what Rethuglicans want. It’s their goal. They won’t come out and say it, but their lack of condemnation of such repeated efforts to undermine the country’s legal system speaks volumes. We can clearly see why Rethuglicans think there is no reason for disgrace here.

And further, the reason private conduct can have such huge repercussions in a Rethuglican world is because the worst thing you can do is engage in sexual or “immoral” activities outside of marriage and get caught. That explains the Clinton impeachment, it explains the outrage over the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction”, and it explains this current resignation.