The Shot!

[Tim Cameron]

The greatest piece of wisdom I received in my education did not come from Aristotle or Socrates, but rather from my high school weightlifting instructor Coach Dodd.

Coach Dodd believed one philosophy governed all things in life. That philosophy was “choices and consequences”. In Coach Dodd class you didn’t have to lift weights or even dress in gym clothes for class. If you wanted to sit in the corner of the weight room at Marietta High School wearing blue jeans and talking to friends, Coach Dodd wouldn’t even say anything to you. But the consequence for that action would be getting a lower grade at the end of semester.

Choices and consequences transcend high school gym class and can be applied to all aspects of life. Let’s just pretend you’re a U.S. Senator from Idaho, who happens to be named Larry Craig, and you choose to illegally solicit some gay sex in public restroom. Well your consequence will be total disgrace, censure from your colleagues, and (hopefully) eventual resignation.

Now imagine you’re Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska and you recently choose to take money under the table funding for an extensive personal home renovation from Veco Corporation, an Alaska-based oil services company that has long been embroiled in bribery investigations involving state legislators, in exchange for using federal tax dollars to fund projects benefiting Veco Corp. Your consequence in this case will be having the FBI invade your home one night, and having federal authorities begin to build an airtight federal indictment. It remains to be seen if Sen. Stevens will get an extended stay at one of our nation’s fine federal prisons, but if authorities act quickly, he might just get to share a cell with Michael Vick.

Most importantly, imagine you’re one of the many great Republican leaders, whose life is both moral and virtuous. But you choose not to do anything about these corrupt officials. Instead you choose to sit back and give them the benefit of the doubt. You say to yourself “I’m going to wait for a conviction” or “but I’ve been friends with him so long”. The consequence for this inaction will take place in November when the voters go to the polls and start to wonder if they should vote for another Republican official who could be just another corrupt Republican like those other officials they’ve read about in the news.

I think it is great to see Senate Republicans seeking the resignation of Sen. Craig, but they shouldn’t stop there. Other Republicans including Sen. Stevens, Rep. Don Young, and Rep. John Doolittle are currently facing pending federal investigations. These men will become the center of the Democrats effort to label the GOP the “party of corruption”. This could result in consequences lasting well beyond 2008. Corruption is a strong label, and if it is attached to the Republican Party, we will likely face electoral losses for the next several cycles.

I realize that asking these men to resign while facing legal trouble might be a little too much to ask. But Sen. Stevens, Rep. Young, and Rep. Doolittle are all up for re-election in 2008. All these men will likely be re-elected, but at what cost? The GOP leadership needs to begin to pressure these men to not seek re-election next year. The party apparatuses (RNC, NRCC, NRSC) need to threaten to pull funding from their re-election efforts and to assist in fundraising efforts for credible primary challengers. The President, Vice-President, and members of Congress should also travel to these primary challengers’ home districts to assist in fundraising efforts if necessary.
Our party can choose not to clean up our act, but the consequence for this inaction will be the voters taking the GOP to the cleaners in 2008. Even more problematic is fact most, if not all, of these allegedly corrupt officials will be re-elected in 2008. This means that we will be dealing with the same problem (and possibly a few federal indictments) next election cycle. This will give the Democrats another two years to cement the “party of corruption” label into the minds of the American voter.

There are choices and consequences, and it is time for the GOP to make a choice. Act now and suffer loosing a few Congressional seats next year, or face the consequence of loosing numerous Congressional seats for years to come. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 5:47 pm and is filed under The Chaser, Top Shelf News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.