Not since I read of the Dirty Tricks Department of Richard Nixon's Administration have I considered this exists in politics today. But what is disturbing is that Governor Eliot Spitzer (D-N.Y.) has become the latest target of a Republican inspired Coup D'Etat.
First consider the fact that in Republican philosophy advanced since their much vaunted "1994 Revolution" that there was a move to return more power to the states. Ever since the 1960's and the press for Civil Rights, the Republicans have shamefully used code words like "State's Rights" and "Local Authority" and other words that are against a more inclusive society. Is it any accident that Ronald Reagan went to Neshoba County, Mississippi in 1980 to reemphasize his commitment to "State's Rights". The same area where civil rights advocates and more importantly college kids were savagely murdered in the 1960's? Wouldn't there be an outcry if a candidate for President stood in Dealy Plaza, in Dallas, Texas, or the lobby of the old Ambassodor Hotel in Los Angeles, California and reemphasized their commitment to the 2nd Amendment?
Don't think I am apologizing for Eliot Spitzer's behavior. But he should not even consider resignation till Senator Dave Vitter of Louisiana (REPUBLICAN), Senator Larry Craig of Idaho (REPUBLICAN), and others who committed greater or similar acts of public mistrust resign. This double standard by Republicans is insulting, heinous, and I am beginning to think its planned.
So we have seen the recall of Gray Davis in California in 2003, not to mention the targetting of Don Siegelman in Alabama in 2002 and then jailing in 2003. Now Eliot Spitzer in New York. Not to mention in Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker was targetted in the Whitewater boondoggle that left my state with the hillbilly antics of Mike Huckabee for an entire decade before term limits rid us of him!
I hate conspiracy theorists because it doesn't seem reasonable. But I hate those that take something so sacred as our democracy and abuse it for power and the sake of power.
Theres a famous Cromwellian Quote that goes something like, "You have been here for too long for you to do any good. By God be gone with you!" That should be our mantra to the Republican Party.
Allen Raymond wrote a book where he is not ashamed and capitalizes on the dirty tricks from the Republican Party entitled fittingly, "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative"
Raymond committed this act against my very own cousin in 1996. She was a Democrat running for governor of West Virginia in 1996. In fact the first woman nominated for Governor in that state. In the State Senate, Pritt had supported a bill to teach sex education in middle schools, mainly 6th grade. Raymond turned those "innocent facts," he writes, into a 30-second ad that screamed: "Charlotte Pritt proposed teaching first-graders about condoms!"
When will these dirty tricks stop???
Please feel free to contact Senator Jon Bruno (R) online at :
http://www.senatorbruno.com/...
or at :
Albany Office
Room 909 Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
(518) 455-3191
District Office
368 Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
(518)-583-1001
To remind him if he calls for Spitzer's resignation and pushes for impeachment than he should take similar efforts to call for the resignations of :
* Senator Dave Vitter (R-La.)
* Senator Larry Craig (R-Id.)
* Congressman Rick Renzi (R-Az.)
Otherwise this call for Spitzer's resignation is falling on hollow ears. Spitzer has to answer to his wife, family, and his G-d, but he owes his office to no one till a proper precedent has been set by both sides!