Stinkbomb politics

When you were a kid, were you ever around stinkbombs or that yellow stuff that smell like rotten eggs? What happened when it went off what happens? Everybody scatters. No body wants to be in the area of the blast either. The same is true of politics. If you smell up the room, suddenly all of your friend are Poof! Gone! C'ya wouldn't want to be ya! Later! Pick your favorite phrase.

These past two years have been a banner year for stinkbomb politics, especially if you're a Republican. You've got Trent Lott, congratulating Strom Thurmond and losing his Senate leadership post. You have Randy Duke Cunningham, the posterboy for bribery in my area. You've got Mark, "Talk dirty to me" Foley with his antics. And now you have the closet Ku Klux Tan Nguyen up in Orange county with probably the DUMBEST letter he could have released before an election. It really calls into question if this was the best candidate that Republicans had to offer in this race or just the guy who signed up. Now Tan Nguyen is saying he didn't know about the letter. Come on now. Either you said it and you regret it or you have no idea what your underlings are doing. The latter makes you too freakin dangerous to hold the office. But, the stinkbomb has already gone off and who wants to be in the room after that. Frankly, I'd rather he sacked up, decided to be a man and defended his letter. That way at least you can say he went down swinging.


What do all three of these things have in common, besides the Republican party shooting itself in the foot, knee and thigh with a mid term election races less than a month away? The fact that everybody in the Republican party immediately lost that person's phone number and let them twist in the political wind. Still the stench is incredible. Don't be surprised if the stink holds up through November and we end up with a new speaker in the House. Gridlock will be the word of the day in Washington until Bush is out of office. If the Republicans lose the House, they only have this past year's stinkbombs to blame.

This is not to say that I'm looking forward to Democrats taking over the house. As a former union guy (Comm Workers of America), I can tell you that the Democratic party is pretty much whored out to the union management. The average guy would get nothing out of Speaker Pelosi taking over the House. What I wouldn't give for a viable 3rd party right now.