GOP chairman is on Big Business' payroll-literally—and—GOP hypocrisy on filibuster

Read this news article about the Oregon Republican Party chairman Kevin Mannix who gets paid to lobby for laws designed to make it harder to sue corporations. Mannix conceded in an interview that he's running for governor in 2006. And it's clear his pushing bills to shield Big Business puts him in a position to enlist support from large corporations for his campaign. This is the face of the New Republican Party. Tom DeLay takes vacations paid for by lobbyists who are taking money from Indians presumably for inner city youths, but funneling the money to Israeli West Bank Settlers to buy military equipment in order to fight their Palestinian neighbors. Republicans change the rules so that DeLay can stay in power while his ethics violations mount. Now the GOP wants to end the filibuster that they have used when they were in the minority. Read the column entitled “Nuking The Filibuster: How the GOP Wants to Put Duct Tape Around Mr. Smith” which describe the classic film Mister Smith Goes to Washington and how the GOP is up to their old tricks but this time removing the mechanism Jimmy Stewart used in the movie to prevent the party in power from abusing that power. You can buy a copy of this classic film here. Recently a Republican Senator (Sen. Isakson R-GA) on the floor of the United States Senate extolled the virtues of the filibuster to protect the rights of the minority from being overrun by the majority. He was talking about allowing the filibuster in Iraq, though. Here in the US the Republicans want to violate the rights of the minority. Here is a video of this Republican Senator telling the entire world how vital to Democracy the filibuster is. He now favors eliminating the filibuster for the US where apparently Democracy is not important. The one bright spot is that Americans oppose eliminating the filibuster by a 2 to 1 margin.

Here is a brief list of some recent instances when the Republican Party used or threatened to use the filibuster against the Democratic Party:

In 2000, Rick Santorum threatened to filibuster against a transplant organ allocation bill.

In 1998, the Republicans filibustered to death a bill to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco.

In 1994 and 1998, Republicans filibustered to death the McCain/Feingold campaign finance legislation.

For a week in 1998, Republicans filibustered Surgeon General nominee David Satcher over his views on late-term abortion.

In 1995, Republicans filibustered to death the nomination of Henry Foster to Surgeon General because he had performed abortions. (Senator Frist actually supported Foster - after he was approved by a Republican-led committee.)

In 1994, Republicans filibustered to death a bill that would have required placed stricter requirements on lobbyists. Tom DeLay anyone?

In 1993, Republicans filibustered the Brady Bill and Clinton's economic stimulus package

In 1992, Republicans filibustered an education spending bill.

These are courtesy of the Rude Pundit. These were all done when the Republicans were in the minority. Now that the Democratic Party is in the minority and might use the filibuster against the Republican Party as the Republican Party has already done against the Democratic Party, the GOP wants to eliminate the filibuster. This is the classic “they can dish it out, but they can’t take it!” The Republicans are known for this and for double standards relaxing the rules that they follow as opposed to others. Witness the Republicans forcing Ethics Rules in 1995 when they weren’t in power, but now relaxing the House Ethics rules in order to allow Tom DeLay to continue as Majority Leader now that they are in power. Typical GOP Hypocrisy! And even if they do eventually investigate him, all five Republicans on the House ethics committee have financial links to Tom DeLay that could raise conflict-of-interest issues. Read this for a list of other prominent Republicans that Tom DeLay has paid off via his Political Action Committee. The Republican Party used to be a respectable party, but they have abandoned that respectability. I can’t tell you how many people who consider themselves Republican now feel betrayed by their party.

Concerned about election fraud in the US? You probably should be. Read Ernest Partridge’s article here.

Update on above: Succumbing to pressure from the American People who are just beginning to wake up to the corrupt syndicate that is the modern Republican Party the House voted to reverse the Republican-written rules to allow Tom DeLay to hold his post. Oh, I forgot to mention when they changed the rules earlier they got rid of any Republican on the House Ethics Committee who actually had ethical values, and replaced them by those who were financially beholden to DeLay. So those 5 will still vote not to investigate DeLay, but the 5 Democrats on the committee will vote to investigate, and now maybe some action can take place. Twenty House Republicans voted to keep the rules that allowed DeLay to continue without being investigated. I'm sure they were all on the list of GOP members who received payouts from Tom.

Joe