Afraid To Work

Once again, congressional Republicans are giving us a brilliant demonstration of why they lost power, and why their party has become the standard-bearer of sloth and hypocrisy.

Republican Representatives have become outraged by a five-day work week recently mandated by the Democratic Leadership. They claim Democrats are anti-family because the new rule will keep them from their kids—and whatever else they want to do in their free time. No wonder nothing meaningful got done on Capitol Hill in the past five years. No wonder, when asked by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart to point to one good thing Congress had done in that time, Senator Lincoln Chafee couldn't muster a single answer. Those poor Republicans. What a disgrace.

So are Republicans becoming Socialists? Do they feel entitled to Government pay regardless of the quantity or quality of their work? Or instead, do they feel entitled to their positions because they see themselves as the wealthy elite? Or are they anti-capitalism? Or are they anti work? Do they not understand that most Americans—often both parents—work five days or more per week to support their families? Do they think voters put them into office to write flag-burning amendments?

Until they get off their fat, lazy wallets and try to solve the problems facing this nation (many of which they bear responsibility for), they will continue to lose elections. Until they stop listening to their CEO buddies in their private clubs and listen, instead, to the millions living without health insurance, without stable jobs, without pensions and without hope, they deserve nothing less than the boot.

Which brings me to Tom DeLay, poster boy for everything corrupt and unethical about the Bush Congress. Tom still thinks he has a future in politics and maybe he’s right. Maybe there are enough gullible people in Texas or wherever he claims to be living nowadays to fool with his phony-pious "I was a victim of the media" nonsense.

But like other politicians whose egos drive them into big trouble, DeLay still doesn’t get the joke. He doesn't grasp that he's become a disgraced laughing stock. In fact, his newly introduced Blog had to be taken down because it received a massive flood of negative comments from Americans disgusted and horrified by his scandalous Congressional conduct.

So Republicans, both those in office and those who have resigned in disgrace, can keep kicking and screaming and pretending the world has done them wrong. And in the process, they’ll keep losing elections and losing ground in American politics. Given their recent history, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

- JT Compton