"Criminal" Is Not Just Rhetoric

My wife sometimes patiently listens to my rants and then calmly replies with a comment that one day is going to cause me to have a stroke: "Really, Olaf, I think you're overstating things."

Now that's not to say she isn't right--after all, I enjoy putting the "hype" in hyperbole. But one bone of contention between us (no smutty jokes, please) is my frequent use of the word "criminal" in discussions of the Chimpie administration and Republican (and a lot of Democratic, let's face it) politicians.

Well, I'm standing by the term. At the top of the list, of course, is the whole Rove/Plame affair, in which a bulldog of a prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, is sure to hand down indictments for what? Criminal activity. And isn't Judith "Kneepads" Miller sitting in the slammer for contempt of court in that investigation and facing criminal contempt charges?

And then there's Ohio, as reported in the Toledo Blade:

As Gov. Bob Taft yesterday became Ohio’s first governor to be convicted on criminal charges, he apologized for embarrassing the state he’s sworn to lead, but dismissed the ethical misdeeds as an inadvertent “mistake.

Jesus Christ. Talk about rhetoric. What the state calls "criminal" charges, gets the label "ethical misdeeds." And some of the continuing investigation into these "ethical misdeeds" shows it's not some "Oh, I got drunk and fucked-up" moment.

Even before yesterday’s court proceedings, the Taft administration was already immersed in a scandal stemming from the state’s failed $50 million rare-coin venture with Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe, who is facing multiple investigations and allegations that he stole millions of dollars.

Misdeeds indeed.

Next we go to Illinois where someone did a very un-Republican thing and trashed his party pals. Why? Well, there seem to have been a few more of those "ethical misdeeds":

The Illinois Republican Party is trying to come back from the political wilderness after losing nearly all of the clout and power in the wake of the massive corruption scandal. The scandal resulted in dozens of indictments, including the former Republican Governor George Ryan.

To be fair, I'd like to point out that George Ryan was the man who placed a moratorium on death penalty executions when it became clear how badly the law was working in that area, which is something that simply enraged sociopathic elements in the party (Chimpie, anyone think?) who think that frying a few innocent people now and then is a bearable cost of serving their sadistic pleasures.

Oh, and that reminds me of another Republican stalwart, our old friend the Hillbilly Heroin Homeboy who is struggling down in Florida to avoid his own criminal charges for massive drug acquisition.

The search warrants were obtained after investigators showed a judge Limbaugh's extensive prescription records from pharmacies near his $24 million Palm Beach mansion.

The warrants included a prescription list from one pharmacy, which showed Limbaugh obtained 2,130 pain and anti-anxiety pills under the brand names Norco, OxyContin, Lorcet and others in a five-month period. On June 3, a prescription was filled for 240 tablets of Norco, a mixture of the painkiller hydrocodone and acetaminophen. On June 18, he filled a prescription for another 100 pills of Norco.

This story is now over two years old, because the Vulgar Pigboy is claiming that the investigation is an invasion of privacy, which is especially ironic given his support of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts who doesn't believe, along with Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in any Constitutional guarantee of a right to privacy. Crime makes strange justapositions, no?

Meanwhile, in Texas, Tom "Giant Flying Cockroach" DeLay may be feeling the heat:

Jim Ellis, who runs DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority, and John Colyandro, the executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, were indicted last year by a Travis County grand jury on charges of violating state election law and money laundering.

And then we have the big fish, related to DeLay also, in the person of Jack Abramoff, arrested for fraud, who is now cooperating as a witness in a mob hit investigation, wherein a fellow he did business with turned up dead with a bullet to the head.

Abramoff has close ties to several influential GOP leaders, among them House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Americans for Tax Reform director Grover Norquist, and former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed.

DeLay, Norquist, Reed, and on up the chain.

So, my dear, do I overstate when I speak of "criminal enterprise"?