"Tubes" Senator Being Investigated For Corruption 613
DragonTHC writes "Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, is being investigated in a federal corruption probe that has implicated his son Ben. Part of the case involves a fishing co-op whose members allegedly paid Ben Stevens $500,000 to get a federal bailout from his father." The other Alaskan senator, also a Republican, is under a cloud as well.
There goes his career, (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There goes his career, (Score:5, Funny)
Could have been avoided if his mother had tied her tubes earlier.
Re:There goes his career, (Score:5, Funny)
Shock horror (Score:5, Insightful)
The only unbelievable thing about this is the number of people who will claim that "this politician can't have done anything wrong, he is a good man", despite the fact he *is* a politician.
Re:Shock horror (Score:4, Interesting)
let's not forget Stevens OTHER inumerable fiascos (Score:5, Informative)
Stevens' case is not particularly odd either; it's symptomatic of Congress' Culture of Corruption (if you want it to be catchier, replace them with "Edgy" Ks) wherein a bunch of fatcats scratch each otheR's back. I know its a cliché - but damn it, it's true and casesd like these and Tom Delay's just shove it down our throats day after day after day. What will it take for the ystem to change, or BE changed (forcefully)?
Re:let's not forget Stevens OTHER inumerable fiasc (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, Ted Stevens may be a cranky old man, but you dissapoint me by blatantly lying.
The city the bridge is being built at has over 7,000 people. The reason it does not have more is there is a land shortage. Much land is available on the island (OCEAN, NOT RIVER). However, understandably, not being able to drive to work in the morning tends to make people not want to live there. There are many locations in many states where development could only take off once a bridge was built so people could drive around. A ferry just isn't the same, and you know it.
Re:let's not forget Stevens OTHER inumerable fiasc (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no way that any kind of growth stimulus among a population of 7000 justifies spending $315 million.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, such as not having been taken from the people that earned it in the first place.
Re:let's not forget Stevens OTHER inumerable fiasc (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:let's not forget Stevens OTHER inumerable fiasc (Score:5, Insightful)
We're talking about Alaska, right?
"There are many locations in many states where development could only take off once a bridge was built so people could drive around."
And this makes it a federal issue why? If Juneau paid back slightly less in their Permanent Fund, they could have paid for their own bridge themselves (maybe even two or three) without having to get a pork earmark in Washington.
Re: (Score:2)
The only unbelievable thing about this is the number of people who will claim that "this politician can't have done anything wrong, he is a good man", despite the fact he *is* a politician.
As opposed to the people who heard the 'series of tubes' gaffe and will argue that he's too STUPID to actually be corrupt. ;)
I don't know, having RTA I see that he has been in power for a long time. He must be pretty smart to have been corrupt and in office that long.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Are these the senators that wanted the bridge? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Are these the senators that wanted the bridge? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Are these the senators that wanted the bridge? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Are these the senators that wanted the bridge? (Score:4, Funny)
For starters (Score:4, Funny)
That's not how corruption works. (Score:2)
Corruption seeps in from the top down ("The fish starts to stink at the head", as other languages might put it). If you find someone at a certain level who is corrupt, it's safe to assume that corruption is already well established at the higher levels.
If your regular street cop is corrupt
Earmarks are good? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a quote FTA from Republican representative, Don Young.
This is the "party of smaller government?"
Re:Earmarks are good? (Score:4, Insightful)
When Republican's mean 'smaller government' they mean 'spend less on social security'.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
but if you want seriously bad, forget congress and look at the paper shufflers around them, they will do ANYTHING to increase their little kingdoms.
Re:Earmarks are good? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Earmarks are good? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You're very stupid (Score:4, Funny)
we need to call BS on "small government" (Score:4, Insightful)
It's the same when they say "we believe in religious freedom!" -- what they mean is "We believe in the right of Christians to discriminate against non-Christians in hiring, housing, and so on," NOT "people should be free to practice their own religion." The phrase you're looking for is "glittering generalities." No one is going to argue against freedom, just as few will argue for big government. When you actually get down to what they really believe, it's pretty repugnant at times. These phrases get thrown around because they sound good and they build a false sense of consensus.
Re:we need to call BS on "small government" (Score:5, Interesting)
I think we're way beyond the point of ever having "small government" (God bless Ron Paul just the same). I'm in favor of more limited and fiscally disciplined government, like we had under Clinton. I'm not against safety nets and some forms of social welfare and I'm not against public sector spending. Some public infrastructure projects can (and have) increase wealth for a larger amount of people rather than lining a few pockets. (I'm thinking of proposals for public access wifi and broadband expansion.) Some regulation of industry is necessary if history is any basis for judgement. OTOH, regulation of morals is overstepping the proper bounds of government. (Fuck you, Christian Right.)
It's not just Bush/Cheney. It's the whole national apparatus of the GOP that has been corrupted. I'd rather that we were a weak minority party acting as a brake on the Dems than to do what the GOP has done over the past 12 years.
Note: Other then Arnold for Gov., I haven't voted for a Republican for national office since 1999. I've even donated to Democrat campaigns. But I don't think I could ever consider myself a Democrat. I'm too much of a liberal in the old school sense. Really old school.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I really do think this split is inevitable, I just can't tell if it is going to happen by 2012 or 2020.
When the GOP can't count on the suburban doctor's vote because he feels some strange loyalty to Regan, then they might wake up and at least make an attempt at applying logic to their fiscal policies.
I think we
Re:we need to call BS on "small government" (Score:5, Funny)
Has the guy changed his nationality to Irish?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It sometimes seems to me that the rational voter should vote "against" the presidential candidate that espouses his values... Once in office there are powerful temptations pushing presidents to pursue policies that are the opposite of their party's positions. They will face withering criticism for being an "extremist" or "radical" if they govern according to their stated principles. They dare not go too far. On th
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:we need to call BS on "small government" (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet to hear it, Christians are a persecuted minority, defiantly worshiping God despite the oppression of the secular authorities. When 85% of the population is Christian, who discriminates against Christians? What you may have meant is that proseletyzing and evangelizing aren't welcomed in schools because many Americans, including many Christian Americans, don't want those things in schools--they think that spiritual matters belong at home or in the church, not in the building kids go to to learn the three Rs. Many American's don't want the school to push a particular faith, because they know that they may not share that faith, at least in the finer points. But instead of saying "evangelizing has been made unwelcome in schools," we hear "Christians are under attack!"
I do think that some schools went overboard in defanging the evangelicals by keeping all Christian matters out of the school. I too think that the treatment needs to be more even-handed. I'd love to see more taught about the religious aspects of American history--how Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, and other Baptists were key in formulating the separation of church and state that modern Baptists want to abandon (or deny the existence of altogether), or how Protestant Ministers were so active in the KKK, for a couple of examples. That stuff would be controversial, but people might have more perspective if they knew about it.
Even as an atheist, I do think that we have gone too far in taking historical aspects of the impact of religion on American life out of schools. But frankly the problem is, as in all countries, the fundamentalists. If that term is too broad, I do apologize. I'm aiming squarely at the biblical literalists, the ones whose worldviews are threatened by modern biology, geology, physics, cosmology, and basically everything from the Enlightenment on down. I don't mind at all if my neighbor believes that Jesus died for their sins, but I do mind if they want the school curriculum changed because they don't think that evolution or the heliocentric solar system can be reconciled with the bible. So if it makes you happy, you can blame the ACLU or a handful of atheists for taking Christianity out of the schools, but it was the nutjob minority within the Christian population that made that possible. Similarly, it's the nutjobs in the Islamic community that is making life so complicated for so many people. Personal faith is never the issue, and "being Christian" was never under attack. No one cares if you have a personal relationship with Jesus, or with Allah or anyone else.
It's just the new bigotry propaganda (Score:4, Interesting)
You can see it applied verbatim to almost any kind of bigotry. The white supremacists say they're oppressed by the blacks. The most mysoginist nuts say they're oppressed by any woman who even tries to have more perspectives in life than cooking, washing and raising kids. The religious nuts say they're oppressed by anyone who refuses to listen to their preaching, or, god forbid, manages to get a job without giving endless thanks to the Jesus for it. Rabid homophobes say they're oppressed by homosexuals. Etc.
It's pretty much the standard recipe for begging for some attention and compassion to what otherwise would be an abject and repulsive appeal to discriminate against someone else for personal advantages. Just fill in the details and you have your very own propaganda piece: Group X wants equal Y (rights, pay, education oportunities, etc). From there, you can:
A) Pretend that they were already equal, if not outright advantaged there. Statistics be damned. (Why, they already had more jobs as janitors, receptionists and nurses than us.) Hence any asking for more must be some unashamed grab for more power over the rest of us.
B) Find some disadvantaged low-pay/low-power/low-whatever niche into which that minority has been pushed, pretend that it's some enviable position and they're there just for the sake of pushing out poor white/christian/male/whatever folks who always wanted that job. (E.g., surely the only reason why women are nurses while guys are high paid doctors is that those evil women pushed off all the guys who wanted to be nurses.) Present it as some beach head and some trend that will obviously continue until none of us whites/christians/males/whatever have no place left.
C) If you somehow can't deny that they _are_ at a disadvantage and just want to become more equal, present it as some kind of slippery slope or a thing where the brakes don't exist. Once we start moving in that direction, surely there is no stopping until they've become hideously more advantaged than us! And they know it! That's their whole agenda in fact!
D) All the above.
So basically it's not as much that someone genuinely believes they're persecuted. (Unless they're paranoid schizophrenic, but then there's no point in arguing with someone driven by delusions anyway.) It's that they think they're extra smart if they present it as persecution instead of the "give me power over someone else" appeal that it really is. Surely noone will figure it out.
In other words, to put it nastier, that's your clue that they're not only bigotted fucks, but dishonest as well.
"just as bad" (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately (Score:5, Insightful)
Now of course there are exceptions to these rules, and if you are voting for someone in the major parties that's what you have to look at, is their politics not the party politics because BOTH parties are for big government and BOTH are for restricting personal freedom. You can also vote libertarian, at least assuming they'll run a candidate that isn't a complete nutjob in your area.
Sorry but you are pulling the same thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Earmarks are good? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Earmarks are good? (Score:5, Informative)
Young is a representative, not a senator (Score:5, Informative)
A little balance Keith? (Score:3, Insightful)
How about slashdot go back to, oh, I dunno... technology instead of hiring editors who are nothing but partisan shills?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A little balance Keith? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why isn't Al Gore covered more given his connection with the nerd community if that is the standard? Where is the story on the indictment Congressman Jefferson's bribes involving telecommunications [washingtonpost.com] in Nigeria if the standard is hit pieces on Congressmen who've said/done something regarding technology?
Is this really what Slashdot wants to become, just another group think site that promotes the propaganda of one political party? The National Enquirer of tech news? I stopped going to kuroshin when it turned more into a political group think site than a site about technology. I've never used digg or reddit but I've heard they've gone that route as well. How I miss the old Slashdot way, way back before it was sold to Andover and then passed to VA Research. It actually used to be a site about computers, technology, Linux and the internet. Kdawson even makes me miss Jon Katz, michael, etc.
Re:A little balance Keith? (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh dammit I gave it away... Somebody silence me next time.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Who are these guys? (Score:2, Insightful)
Reading the article would suggest that the two in question are beyond what would be considered a normal retirement age.
ZombieEngineer
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
The only thing I can think of is kdawson saw "corruption" and "Republican" in the same post and got all excited. Especially since he made a point of making his own comment about some other random Republican.
I'm all for bashing politicians but lets not start flooding the front page with even more unrelated trash
Re:Who are these guys? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Who are these guys? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, it's only $350 million instead of $500 million? That's OK then!
$350 million for a bridge that will service an island, Gravina, that only has 50 or so residents. That's only, what, $7 million per resident who'll use it? A veritable bargain!
Yep, one heck of a good deal, especially when you consider the incredible inconvenience of a seven minute ferry ride that the residents currently have to endure.
I wonder how much of that $350 million would find its way back to the Senator and his friends in terms of campaign donations and other kickbacks?
Here's an idea. Take that $350 million, give the 50 Gravina residents $100,000 each to put a smile as big as the Joker's on their faces and then spend the other $345 million on something more worthwhile.
It's people like this guy who'll hammer the poor and the infirm for every possible penny, denounce their political opponents for wasteful spending plans and then spend 9-figure sums on white elephants like this bridge.
Re:Who are these guys? (Score:5, Informative)
The bridge would service Ketchikan, population 7,500 or thereabouts. It would also service tens of thousands of tourists each year.
The bridge is to connect Ketchikan with its airport, which is on Gravina island. Ketchikan has been trying to get enough money to build the bridge for as long as I can remember (at least 30 years). Right now, transport to and from the airport is via a couple of small ferries. There *is* a valid reason for this bridge. It's *not* a bridge to nowhere.
It's still a farce that the federal government porked up the money, though.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Why was that money going to go elsewhere? Hurricane Katrina. It was going to go to be used in the disaster recovery effort and play a part in helping the millions of people affected.
Imagine that you were a parent and you promised Timmy, one of your kids, a toy. While you're looking around the store, Molly, your
Re:Who are these guys? (Score:4, Funny)
Let's Compare! (Score:5, Insightful)
Linked article: He's a Republican with many years of experience who is running for reelection.
Slashdot summary: Senator is being investigated in a federal corruption probe
Linked article: Senator is "facing scrutiny" from federal investigators. He is thriving on the setbacks, and political analysts say nothing has happened that would cause him to "lose his perch" yet.
Slashdot summary: The investigation has implicated his son, Ben.
Linked article: Ben's office was raided by the FBI in an entirely separate incident over a year ago, and he hasn't been charged with a crime. (Sounds like something Slashdotters would condemn...like when accused software/music pirates get raided, but are never charged with a crime.)
Slashdot summary: A fishing co-op allegedly paid $500,000 to get a federal bailout from Ben and his father.
Linked article: No mention of anything about a fishing co-op or a federal bailout.
Slashdot summary: The other Alaskan senator is also "under a cloud". It doesn't mention what this cloud is, or even give her name, but it's sure to mention that she's a Republican.
Linked article: The only mention of the other Alaskan senator is that her party welcomes the challenge from Democrats, who were unable to unseat her. There is no mention of her being under any kind of "cloud" in either this article, or her Wikipedia article.
here is the fishy part (Score:2)
Not surprised (Score:5, Informative)
A Better Way..... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
They're called elections.
No, just kidding! That would require an informed public, which would result from an inquisitive media that is independent of the political system and advocates for the people.
Mod +1 funny.
Re: (Score:2)
*joins IHC Navistar in his protest*
How were the bribes delivered? (Score:5, Funny)
Politicians are corrupt? (Score:4, Insightful)
Rep. Don Young is not a Senator (Score:3, Informative)
Politicians are Corrupt! (Score:4, Insightful)
But is an example of that fact going to lead to an interesting discussion on Slashdot?
Tubes aside, why do we got nothing but crooks? (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, it may be selective journalism (ya know, you only hear about the bad ones), but why do we have corrupt politicians? Hell, don't we pay them more than enough? Why the corruption? I can see why a politician in Roman times had to be corrupt. Politics was a sport for the upper class because it was unpaid.
Today we're far from that. They usually have paychecks that make the average person go green in envy. Still that's appearantly not enough and they want more, more, more. And don't think it's an US phenomenon, you have the same greedy, bribable bastards all over the planet.
Why, I ask? Are politicians getting worse or do we just hear about it more often today?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I think we just hear about it more often. Remember, we now have a series of tubes that can be used to instantly transmit any negative information around the planet.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
We get crooks because we want crooks. We consistently vote for politicians who promise and shamelessly deliver all the pork earmarks they can get their hands on. Our biggest question on election day is "How much money can you get me?"
When you get right down to it, it's not that Stevens took a kickback, it's that he didn't share this one with the rest of the district.
Campaign financing laws (Score:3, Insightful)
Wit
Stuff that matters? (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this of interest to the Slashdot community?
zero tolerance: its about time (Score:5, Interesting)
why not POLITICS?!
really, they (the ominous 'they') need to taste a dose of their own medicine. see how it feels to make one mistake and be out on your arse.
I think this would be great to see - you get 1 chance as a politician (or law enforcement person) and once you screw up, you're out - period. and your record is permanently ruined (like what happens to normal regular people).
do you think that if the guys in office are NOT above the law, they'd maybe start following them better? or maybe make BETTER laws if they, themselves, are held to the same standards?
lets also include widespread wiretapping and 'tube monitoring' (ha!) in that, for all folks in office. afterall, they all work for US - we should see and hear how they run their jobs, down to the tiniest details of their lives. just like they are trying to do to us.
you think that would go over well? no? really? (why is that?)
the fact that our gov goes unchecked for so long before something bubbles up means we are not watching them enough. we should install cams in their offices and tap their lines, just so we can ensure we have an honest politician.
(yeah, I expect a LOT of support on this idea. yeah.)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
5 year olds suspended from school for carrying a plastic fireman's ax as part of a Halloween costume.
Kids spending serious time in jail (at your expense) for having a little bit of dope.
If it's a brainless idea in those cases why continue to spread it? You may see it as turn-about being fair play but I'd rather stop the endless retaliations and let cooler heads prevail.
Subject (Score:5, Funny)
also a Republican ... (Score:4, Insightful)
When are the stories of democratic corruption coming to
BTW - Stevens is scum and should be tarred and feathered. But then again, so should a lot of politicians. All I know is that
OT: "Pipes" vs "Tubes" (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a Democrat. I can't stand Ted Stevens. But, seriously, why is everyone so upset over his comparing the Internet to a series of tubes?
I refer to my Internet connection as a "pipe". I really, really don't believe the Internet is at all like a truck. I agree that there is a limited amount of data that can fit on an internet pipe. I would like it if someone pointed out the vast amounts of dark fiber to Mr. Stevens (compare it to a really huge tube with only a trickle of water running through it, if you think it'd help), but his analogy was *correct*.
But, I think it's a bit ridiculous to be making fun of him for using "tubes" instead of "pipes". Are we really upset with him because he's uncomfortable and bad with words? Isn't our problem with him that he's nerdy?
Bad news: so am I.
Prison is not something you just dump on... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Louisiana corruption runs awful deep - especially among diaper-wearing legislators.
Here's an interesting post about Mr. Vitter [wonkette.com]that he seems to wish he could hide.
Louisiana politics won't be rid of it's ghosts until the Metairie racialists are flushed from the experience.
Re:This will end well.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This will end well.. (Score:4, Insightful)
You won't find me in the libertarian corner, though. Still, what he does in his spare time is his business, not mine. I don't care about a politicians personal preferences. I care about his actions towards and for the country.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem isn't that he indulges himself in sexual peculiarities. The problem is that he does it himself but wants to deny the same rights to other people.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
To quote Robin Williams, "British Parliament is like Congress with a two drink minimum."
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason is, oddly, very free market. I've seen it more than once that large corporations can have a decisive edge over startups because they can negotiate better terms for those basic production resources (yes, even public transport), thus crippling rising competition.
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Even without considering the failure modes of the free market, Pareto efficiency is a regressive measurement. One person owning everything and the rest of us owning nothing is still Pareto optimal. And that is the limit towards which all unregulated free markets tend. The more money one has, the more power one has to influence the workings of the market, allowing one to acquire more money, and more power in an unregulated positive feedback loop. Government operates as a negative feedback loop, keeping the market from becoming dominated by the largest players.
Libertarianism is merely disguised propaganda for the status quo. Libertarians do not want a free, fair, and equitable world, they want an oligarchy or feudal state with themselves as the landed gentry.
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Interesting)
More often than not, talk of "free trade" seems to be cover for little more than "protect what I support, but not what you support."
When I saw this article, my first thought was, "again"? This is the same guy who is already under investigation for bribes on the remodelling of his home [adn.com]. This guy is one big ball of scandal and jokes. Threatening to resign over the Bridge to Nowhere money being diverted to Katrina relief, the Series of Tubes comment, bribes, kickbacks, you name it. He crashed a jet at an airport and got the airport named after him. He runs the Ted Stevens Foundation, a "nonpartisan and nonpolitical" nonprofit run by his campaign treasurer whose purpose is " to assist in educating and informing the public about Senator Ted Stevens". He even plugs the Incredible Hulk for Marvel.
It goes on and on.
Re:BZZZT thankyourforplaying... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:BZZZT thankyourforplaying... (Score:4, Informative)
The funniest (saddest) part of the whole thing is that the so-called "greenway" (which is the new land area above the tunnel that was formerly the elevated highway "eyesore") is now just an open sore construction area - sand, barrels, etc. Meanwhile all the entrenched interest groups fight over how it should be finished and how to get other people to pay for that work. Uggggh.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:BZZZT thankyourforplaying... (Score:5, Insightful)
I was using "bridges to nowhere" as a metaphor for pork barrel spending in general.
Anyone who has been to the area of the proposed bridge will agree that it needs to be built. It is in Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is completely out of space. Land prices have skyrocketed because there is no land. On the other side of the proposed bridge is land just waiting to be developed. Oh, and the AIRPORT is on the other side of the "bridge to nowhere". Do you think it might be nice if they could drive to the airport instead of having to take a ferry?
Oh, I'm sure it would be nice. I'm sure the people there would LOVE it. It would also be nice if we had a great new museum in Poughkeepsie, or a soil enrichment program in Hicksville, Alabama, or the job traning center in Bethesda. Everyone thinks their own little pork project is ABSOLUTELY vital to the health of the nation. I heard the military thinks we need more military spending too. I'm sure it would make sense to ANYONE with a remote understanding of the facts.
But it's because everyone has their little corner of the world that NEEDS more free money that spending gets out of control.
A billion here, a billion there
Re:BZZZT thankyourforplaying... (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who has been to the area of the proposed bridge will agree that it needs to be built. It is in Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan is completely out of space. Land prices have skyrocketed because there is no land. On the other side of the proposed bridge is land just waiting to be developed. Oh, and the AIRPORT is on the other side of the "bridge to nowhere". Do you think it might be nice if they could drive to the airport instead of having to take a ferry?
Based on your post, I now know that Ketchikan, Alaska has a local land development problem of their own making that they need to solve with their own money. Thanks for clearing that up.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Agreed. But that isn't the problem. The problem is he was trying to build it with taxpayers money! Just as he does with all his pork projects.
Ketchikan is completely out of space. Land prices have skyrocketed because there is no land. On the other side of the proposed bridge is land just waiting to be developed.
Here's a brilliant idea, why don't we make the people that are going to benefit from the bridge pay for it!
Re:BZZZT thankyourforplaying... (Score:4, Informative)
Even among supporters of the project, though, few really believe in the urgent need for a bridge. Mostly what the supporters believe in is the need for an infusion of construction dollars in Ketchikan. Try asking the community to tax itself to pay for 5% of the bridge costs and you will see how tenuous support for the bridge project really is. If you're not willing to buy something even when it's marked down 95%, it's hardly a necessity now, is it?
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nonsense. That's like saying that people who advocate morality are hypocrites unless they themselves are perfect. If he believed that prostitution was a good thing, but tried to outlaw it anyway, he would be a hypocrite. If he thought it was a bad thing, and tried to outlaw it anyway, but succumbed to it anyway, he would not be a hypocrite. But he probably never expressed an opinion on prostitution, as it's not really the subject of federal law. The idea that someone is a hypocrite because they hire a prostitute while simultaneously being against prenatal murder and homosexual marriage is convoluted at best.
The human mind is fortunately so divided that it can contemplate the ideal and the true before it itself embodies those things.
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Insightful)
How about if he got elected by deluding a specific segment of voters into thinking he stood with them on "family values"?
Actually, the word is not hypocrite but demagogue -- a man who promotes principles he considers false to people he considers fools.
rj
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So you see nothing wrong with being the standard bearer for "family values" and the "sanctity of marriage" and cheating on your wife? You don't see anything particularly hypocritical about wanting Clinton to resign over an extramarital affair but doing the usual "I've been forgiven, so stay out of my family's business" tap dance when he's cau
Re:This will end well.. (Score:5, Funny)
I choose the latter. I will be dead one day, and I would like someone to represent me.
Personally, I find your lack of sensitivity towards the special needs of the metabolically interrupted people... Disturbing.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But you knew that, didn't you?
I am, unlike you, actually quite interested in the corruption of this government and our supposed "civil servants." Feel free to bury your head in the sand of ignorance, but don't drag me down with you.
(Sorry for feeding the troll)