The RNC launched their new ad campaign with a lot of PR.  It is an ad (available on their web site which is just pure fearmongering.  The whole point of the ad is There are terrorists who want to kill your family! Boogity Boogity Booooo.....

They never mention their failure to capture these terrorists, or Dubya's flip-flopping on hunting down OBL (dead or alive...don't think about him...on the hunt...it's difficult...we know exactly where he is ...we have no idea where he is...etc.)  They certainly don't mention their role in creating the newest generation of terrorists.  Heck, they have stopped even pretending they are going to capture or kill these terrorists.  After all, why kill a meal ticket?

Why do I say that? Because browsing the rest of the RNC site (down at the bottom of the page on the right) is a poll... and in that poll we learn what REALLY scares Republicans.  The results of this official RNC poll are clear.  Republicans fear accountability more than terrorists.  Details on the flip....

We often talk about the Republican Culture of Corruption, the excessive cronyism that exists between current Halliburton Republicans and the military-industrial complex. In today's Republican party, there is the ultimate fulfillment of what President Eisenhower warned the nation against. But bad though the widespread Republican Culture of Corruption is, there is an even worse side to the modern right wing: the Culture of Intolerance and Violence.

One of the worst examples of this was the Delaware Pogrom.

Hate Crimes have been on the rise in America since 9/11, and, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate groups in America have increased by 33% in the past five years. A peak in attacks on Muslims after 9/11 was rapidly followed by an increase in anti-Semitism in the US and worldwide. There was a slight decline in anti-Semetic incidents in 2005, but incidents are still at disturbingly high levels.

As the Republican 'Culture of Corruption' continues its tumultuous death spiral, conservative apologists are working tirelessly to cloud the lines between their breathtaking, broadly-swept lack of integrity (Abramoff, Iraq, Plame, torture, Cunningham, Delay, and on and on) and isolated individual shortcomings with certain Democrats (Patrick Kennedy). Or, as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi put it:

...Pelosi sought Thursday to differentiate the [William] Jefferson case from what Democrats have labeled the "culture of corruption" linking the Republican majority and special interests represented by disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "The Republicans are all tied together," she said. "Mr. Jefferson is his own behavior, he is responsible for it."

In addition to Pelosi's point, there is one very telling difference between the Democratic and Republican leadership of which all potential voters should be aware.

To illustrate, we'll take two real-life purveyors of alleged corruption within each party.

Disgraced former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay has already proven to be the king of political corruption. That feather-in-hat safely secured, Tom turns to other opportunities.

With Jack Abramoff likely to soon be staring at the far side of prison bars, a throbbing void is bulging in the lobbying world -- one that can only be satisfied by the likes of Tom Delay.

That's right, in an interview with Time Magazine, Delay spills it asserting "he has not ruled out becoming a lobbyist."

You know the saying, 'Do what you know'. If there's anything Delay knows...

In some ways, Ralph Reed is the ultimate poster child for the Republican Party's thermonuclear meltdown over the Jack Abramoff scandal.  You see, Ralph Reed was for many years the chief political officer for the Christian Coalition, an organization whose entire raison d'etre was the promotion of what it characterized as uncompromising moral values.

Well, Reed's shenanigans with Jack Abramoff reveal that the promotion of those so-called moral values was a sham, and the real interests being promoted were those of its high powered corporate contributors.

Today's revelations in the Atlanta Journal Constitution provide another chapter in that story.

I am somewhat amazed that Democrats have not made more of the Duke Cunningham scandal in their campaign to illustrate the Republican Party's "culture of corruption."  Republicans have somehow gotten away with asserting that the Dukestir is a "lone wolf," with no connection whatsoever to any other Republicans.  

"Why the Dukestir might as well have been a Tory from Britain, or a Christian Socialist from Germany," Republicans exclaim, "He has absolutely no connection whatsoever to present-day elected Republicans!"

Any claim the Republicans might possibly have that they are committed to cleaning up Washington just flew out the window, as they put one of their most corrupt members, the disgraced Tom Delay, on the friggen Appropriations Committee -- the very committee with power to direct the spending of US Taxpapers' dollars whereever its members see fit:

One of the great frustrations of those of us who inhabit the Reality-Based Community over the past five to ten years is just how much better the Right and its powerful media allies are at sticking to a script than our guys seem to be.  They pick a point, blast fax it out to all outlets, and hammer it home again and again.  However off base or factually incorrect, it becomes part of the common consciousness; it acquries, as Stephen Colbert has noted, a certain "truthiness" (or becomes "factesque") which is more powerful than truth.  Thus the Mighty Wurlitzer at work.

So it has been extremely encouraging to this observer how well the Democrats seem to be doing in sticking with the "Culture of Corruption" theme in this election year.   (John Kerry's remarks on This Week are the latest example.)  The Democratic Party even has an entire (well-designed) page on their website about it.   Unlike most of the GOP's truthy lies, it is based on fundamental truths, and if repeated enough, it might be that rarest of beasts, both true and truthy.

Now that Tom DeLay has been set-up as a scapegoat by and for the GOP -- which is guilty of engaging in the same corrupt practices as the Texas legislator -- expect Congressional Republicans to offer a "major" "reform" package (yes, the separate quotes are deliberate).

When such legislation is offered, ask your representatives and senators and local newspaper editors the following questions:

Good news:

Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay decided Saturday to give up his post as House majority leader, clearing the way for new leadership elections among House Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal, two officials said.

Of course, the GOP's sudden push to oust DeLay is really just a P.R. move, a means of scapegoating him for doing what the rest of his putrescent party has been doing... the same party that has defended him lo these many years from ethics charge after ethics charge.

Who knew that it would only take a few dozen polls and an election year for the GOP to pretend to be interested in "reform" again after ten years of corruption?

Illinois congressman Ray LaHood wants DeLay out, and other House Republicans share his sentiment:

"We need to clean up our House here very quickly or a year from now we'll be the minority party," said LaHood...

Oh, that's a great reason to finally do the right thing after eleven years of participating in your party's corruption. "Quick, we have to show voters that we're sorry and we'll be good, so they won't put us in minority-status time-out for another four decades!" Yeah, don't do the right thing because it's the right thing, do it so that you can be rewarded.

What an asshole.

...sums up perfectly how much the Republican Party hates America:

Not so long ago the talk was all about the self-perpetuating machine the Republicans were constructing in Washington.

The image was of links in a chain of power that the Democrats could never break. The GOP, having captured both houses of Congress and the White House, could press lobbyists to hire only Republicans and give money only to Republicans. The money would guarantee dominance in state legislatures. The legislatures would redraw congressional districts so that Democrats could never win. And if anyone objected, too bad; Republican-appointed judges could be counted on to slap down any complainers.

In other words, the GOP has tried to establish a political monopoly at all levels of government that would deprive millions of voters of their right to be represented.

The 2006 election may be the last chance America has of reviving its ailing two-party system, a system that guarantees that political consumers have a choice, and a chance at having their needs heard and responded to.

It's a good thing the executives of the pharmaceutical industry have unfettered access to cholesterol-fighting drugs, because the Republican-controlled Congress just handed their companies enough Medicaid-related pork to give the bastards heart conditions.

What am I saying? Those sociopathic f**ks don't have hearts.

As part of a House budget bill that reduces spending on Medicaid prescription drugs, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. and other businesses secured a provision ensuring that their mental health drugs continue to fetch top price at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the states.

The provision -- inserted by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), whose district flanks Lilly's Indianapolis headquarters -- would largely exempt antipsychotic and antidepressant medications from a larger measure designed to steer Medicaid patients to the least expensive treatment options.

At a time when states are seeing less federal dollars due to the Bush Junta's tax cuts for the wealthy, a time when many people on Medicaid have to choose between buying food or buying medication, after five years of medication costs not just rising but skyrocketing past inflation, the GOP decides to show "compassion" to a multi-billion dollar industry, wrecking millions of live in the process.

How is it that Congressional Republicans haven't been lynched yet?

Break out the champagne: Uber-corrupt Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is expected to plead guilty today to charges stemming from his bribery scandal.

...the Republican Party has left Tom DeLay.