Compare and Contrast

(My cat, Clio, is sick -- vet appointment tomorrow -- so, yes, I'm blogging lite stuff because I need to take my mind off things.)

Soon-to-be-Senator Al Franken:


Vs.

The Singing Senators:

And, for a real time waster, check out this video of John Ashcroft singing "Let the Eagle Soar" played backwards and just try and tell me that he doesn't worship Satan! HA!
.

Now THIS Is Funny!

A few days ago the Republicans introduced (yet again) a Constitutional Amendment "protecting" the institution of marriage. Here's the text:

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission by the Congress:

`Article --

`Section 1. This article may be cited as the `Marriage Protection Amendment'.

`Section 2. Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.'.

The amendment was sponsored by Roger Wicker, Senator from Mississippi. Wicker is the guy appointed to fill the vacant seat vacated by our ole pal Trent Lott.

Nothing particularly funny until you get to the cosponsors of the "Marriage Protection Amendment."

On the list: Senator David Vitter, big fan of the world's oldest profession, and Senator Larry Craig, big fan of anonymous airport same-sex fellatio.

Now that's funny!

(Via thinkprogress.org)

A Wise Word About Larry Craig

From Garrison Keillor.

His beginning:

You do not want people to think of the Republican Party every time they step into a public toilet and so the gentleman had to go and why not dispatch him immediately? Why make him stumble through a week of contrition on cable TV and explain himself into an even deeper hole? Nonetheless, it was stunning, the suddenness with which a prominent man can be hurled from his perch by his own friends and with less ceremony than if he were a convenience store clerk caught taking the plastic wrappers off magazines.

What did him in was not his transgression so much as the fact that it was cartoonish and easily worked up into jokes. The next morning on YouTube there was a video of the gentleman endorsing a presidential hopeful, with the title "Senator Craig Taps His Foot for Mitt Romney," and he had become a punch line, like Bill Clinton. ("They're having a Presidents Day sale at the men's store -- pants are half off.")

And the end:

It's an old refrain, but true: In 20 years, the sexual issues and tensions that led to Sen. Craig's downfall will simply not matter anymore. They don't matter much to young people. When enough people my age are gone from the world, the world will change. Calcium supplements will always be with us, and retirement, but a person's sexual interests will not be an issue.

Garrison Keillor's 65, by the way.

Thank you, Arlen Specter!

If Pennsylvania's own Senator Arlen Specter's advice to fellow Republican Senator Larry Craig that he should try to withdraw his guilty plea in the infamous men's room incident has anything to do with Craig's decision to "rethink" his resignation from the Senate, then I say:

THANK YOU, ARLEN!
By all means let's have one more Republican "family values" hypocrite in a scandal that drags on as long as possible.

HA!

You're all in denial on this (and that includes all the C-SPAN callers who seem to overlook the fact that the guy PLEAD GUILTY).

Anyone else in denial here, please view the following and tell me that Crag wasn't thinking of doing more to Clinton than impeaching him:




NASTY!

More Republican Hypocrisy

This time the Senator Craig's part if the story is only periheral.

What about the other recent corruptions in God's Own Party?

The crew at CREW wants to know:

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, expressed surprise that Sen. Larry Craig has been forced to relinquish his committee assignments in light of this week's revelations that he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with an attempted sexual encounter with an undercover officer in a Minneapolis airport restroom.

"Senator Ted Stevens maintains his position on the Appropriations Committee despite being the subject of a major criminal investigation, including an FBI raid on his Alaska home and Senator David Vitter maintains his assignments despite admitting to the crime of soliciting a prostitute."

According to Rawstory, here's the reason:

The key distinction between Craig's case and those of Stevens and Vitter, in the eyes of Republican leaders, is that Craig has been charged with and pleaded guilty to a crime, where the others have not, a leadership source tells RAW STORY.

I have to go with Melanie Sloan of CREW, however:

"A disorderly conduct plea requires a member to give up his committee assignment, but a full-fledged bribery investigation does not," observed Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Apparently, in the view of the Republican conference there is almost nothing more serious than a member attempting to engage in gay sex."

I think she's trying to be sarcastic, but the charge actually works without any hint of it. The FBI can raid your home and put you under corruption investigation and you're safe, but get caught tapping your foot in an airport men's room and your party abandons you quicker than you can say "shock and awe."

Glenn Greenwald has more at salon.

It is hard to remember an incident that more powerfully reveals the true, deeply unprincipled face of the "Traditional Marriage" movement than the completely disparate treatment from the GOP leadership for David Vitter and Larry Craig. As the likes of Mitch McConnell and (the divorced and adulterous) John McCain oh-so-nobly demand Craig's resignation while continuing to embrace David Vitter, the last thing we ought to be hearing is how this demonstrates newfound moral rectitude from the Republican Party. Whatever is driving the party leaders as they keep David Vitter and push out Larry Craig -- and similarly condemn same-sex marriages while saying nothing about (and often engaging in) divorces and multiple marriages -- devotion to "traditional moral values" is not it.

Ah, ain't life grand?

Another Republican Sex Scandal

This time, Admiral, it's a US Senator.

It's Larry Craig Republican Senator from Idaho.

You know the drill - another "family values" guy. Another "family values" guy who's obviously in the closet. Another "family values" guy who's obviously in the closet who pleads guilty after being busted for lewd behaviour in an airport bathroom.

Now all that's left is his hypocrisy.