Elephants Never Forget

Happy Friday.

Who honestly can be surprised? It's Halloween, and the skeletons are coming out of the closets. The concern is whether the voting public will remember the current scandals a year from now in November of 2006--when it matters. Sadly, Americans seem to have short memories.

Fortunately, the so-called "conservative base" seems to be as outraged as anyone; and with good reason. The recently passed transportation bill contains 6,371 "earmarks" -- a.k.a. pork -- at a cost of $24 billion. The total cost of the bill is $286 billion which is more, in inflation adjusted dollars, than the costs of the Marshall Plan and the entire interstate highway system, combined. Small government indeed.

Plus, this time volume is in our favor. All of the scandals and lies can't go away by next year. To be sure, here are just a few:

• Jack Abramoff, republican lobbyist indicted for bank fraud, under investigation by the Justice Department for influence peddling among House members (see below), and his swindling of Indian tribes.
  
• Rep. Tom DeLay, indicted for his complicity in the same (see above).
  
• Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, under investigation for insider trading of shares in his family's company and the revelation that he was not "blind" to the affairs of his blind trust.
  
• Conrad Black, neoconservative strategist sued by the SEC for illicitly looting Hollinger Inc., the Republican-friendly media conglomerate he controlled until his ouster by shareholders.
  
• Richard Perle, right-wing publisher and former Bush advisor also sued by the SEC for illicitly looting Hollinger Inc.
  
• Former Gov. George Ryan of Illinois, whose trial on bribery charges began last week.
  
• Gov. Robert Taft of Ohio, who pleaded no contest last month to charges of accepting illegal gifts from a state contractor.
  
• Thomas Noe, a Bush "Pioneer" responsible for raising at least $100,000 for the president last year, who is accused of stealing $12 million from the Ohio Workers Compensation Fund and then laundering the money to various Republican politicians, including the Bush-Cheney campaign.
  
• Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a prominent Republican representative from San Diego with a senior position on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, who is under investigation for taking bribes from a defense contractor.
  
• Robert Kjellander, the Republican National Committee's new treasurer, under investigation for his dealings with the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, a state pension fund, and the Carlyle Group. Federal prosecutors are looking into alleged corruption at the fund, and have asked Kjellander to provide information about a $4.5 million fee he received from Carlyle for his role in arranging investments by the fund with the huge private equity fund.
  
• James Tobin, Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign chairman for New England, indicted for four felonies accusing him of conspiring with a state GOP official and a GOP consultant in Virginia to jam Democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks in November 2002.
  
• Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, ______, ______, and ______, [stay tuned].
  

If there is such a thing as an honest conservative, or at least some remnant of sincerity for the conservative ideology, for how long can the right-wing look the other way? If elephants never forget, does that mean they'll look beyond partisanship next year and actually stand on the principles they so arrogantly espouse? In comparison to the above, a blowjob really can't be all that bad...