A show of hands: Are there any Crap Christian moralizers out there who aren't having affairs or doing other dastardly deeds?

When Chip Pickering announced in August 2007 that he wouldn't run for reelection to Congress (actually, he wound up quitting without even serving out his term), he said he wanted to spend more time with his wife Leisha and their five sons, ages 8-17. How'd that work out, Chip?

by Ken

So now it's former Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering, the latest addition to the parade of C Street sleazebags, along with Nevada Sen. John Ensign and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. The estranged Mrs. Pickering has filed an alienation of affection suit against the Chipster's mistress. And yes, you guessed it, our Chip is another C Streeter -- and indeed, in his new career as (what else?) a lobbyist, part of a phalanx of Family members working a C Street-K Street axis.

So Rachel Maddow had to drag poor Jeff Sharlet away from his intended vacation yet again last night, for another session on the fundamentalist cult he infiltrated, and eventually wrote a book about it, The Family. (Jeff, by the way, while acknowledging that the C Street Family house has the atmosphere of "a fundamentalist frat house," thinks all the philandering is less important than the pipelines to power being established by the morality-be-damned C Street fundies, and that there are still some really explosive stories waiting to explode.)



Isn't there some point at which we have to wonder about what drives a person to enter religious or political service to bully helpless fellow citizens into adhering into moral precepts they don't even think about practicing in their own lives? "Hypocrisy" doesn't begin to cover it. Surely we're talking about some recognized pathology?


MEANWHILE, THINGS AREN'T LOOKING
SO ENCOURAGING FOR SENATOR ENSIGN

Margaret Carlson reported today on The Daily Beast that Senate Republicans, who welcomed Sen. John "My Mommy and Daddy Say You Should Oghtta Stop Being Mean to Me" Ensign back so enthusiastically when he made his triumphant return following his admission that he had, er, strayed, have become a lot less sympathetic in the face of the barrage of subsequent revelations, with no end in sight. Those GOP senators, concerned about holding the Nevada Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Ensign, and they want him to help by doing something -- namely, quit.

GOP Plots Ensign's Ouster

Republican Sen. John Ensign did what any red-blooded American would do upon returning to the floor of the Senate after the revelation that his parents paid off his mistress and her family. He gave a speech about a bill to help families of our wonderful veterans and brought his young son along as a human shield.

But compared to the first time Ensign showed up on the Hill after news broke that he'd had an affair with the spouse of his top aide, the reception was much less fulsome. The earlier attitude was the whole thing would blow over. Members of the Club are never eager to discipline another member of the Club unless the conduct in question is clearly outside the bounds of accepted sexual deviance. Calls for Sen. Larry Craig to quit were immediate and loud.

Ensign, said a colleague, should “leave now so the Republican governor can appoint someone new who has time to get a leg up on holding the seat for the GOP.”

At first, Ensign's case seemed closer to that of Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter, who apologized, wife at his side, for his brush with the "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey and held on—although he could have a rough reelection race in 2010. Now Ensign’s standing is shakier. On the heels of his cameo at the Capitol on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, asked whether Ensign should stay and run for reelection, replied brusquely "Sen. Ensign will have to speak to those issues himself" before walking away from reporters. . . .

Even the strategy of muscling Ensign out of the Senate is far from surefire, as Margaret notes:

While cool heads in the GOP would like Ensign to disappear, the part of the plan where the Republican governor appoints a successor is complicated by the fact that Nevada’s current governor is a media circus all his own. Just last week, a court ruled that the lawsuit filed by a cocktail waitress against [DWT fave] Gov. Jim Gibbons for hitting her outside a Las Vegas nightclub could go forward. Gibbons' wife is suing him for a divorce that gets nastier by the day.

Records came out recently showing that Gibbons had texted a woman not his wife 800 times over six weeks on a state cellphone. He arrives at his office mid-morning, if at all, calls meetings he doesn't show up for, and is ignoring his state's economic freefall now that tourism and housing have cratered.

Meanwhile, the Republican lieutenant governor, Brian Krolicki, is facing prosecution on felony charges that he mishandled a multibillion-dollar college-savings program when he was state treasurer. Unsurprisingly, the nonpartisan National Journal just ranked Nevada the second most dysfunctional state in the country after New York, where all state business has ground to a halt because the legislature locked itself out of the Capitol.

As they say, you can't make this stuff up.


UPDATE: Are ALL Republicans Prostitutes?

It would be wrong for Americans to just think of ugly old white men paying younger women (or boys) for sex when the topic of Republican whores comes up. Sure, the GOP has an astounding record of sexual hypocrisy to live down, but an even more serious problem is that they're all willing to sell themselves to the highest bidder, invariably Big Business. Today Politico broke the latest Republican pay-to-play scandal:

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s support in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s chairman flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors.

Republican Party publicists Michelle Malkin and Erick Erickson are weeping. -- Howie

#

So Much Hatred On The Right-- But On The Same Day As Dr. Tiller's Assassination, Civil Unions Veto Is Overridden In Nevada

Dr. George Tiller, assassinated by right-wing domestic terrorist

When I woke up yesterday I told myself I wouldn't be writing about the barbaric beheading and crucifixion in Saudi Arabia. What more is there to say than that the self-righteous, hypocritical religious fanatics in that country are primitive savages? And then came the reports of the murder of Dr. George Tiller inside the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita-- an act of right-wing terrorism, right wing terrorism countenanced and encouraged by Fox News for ratings points. (Some people think Bill O'Reilly should be charged as an accomplice.)

The anti-Choice, "pro-Life" terrorist-- somehow certain that God is on his side-- was arrested while primitive right-wing barbarians publicly justified it the same way that the Saudi crucifiers did.

I think most Americans were shocked. President Obama released a brief statement:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

There are probably no Republican legislators who will cheer this, at least not publicly; they have their surrogates who will do that for them. In fact, investigators found a post-it note with the phone number of an operative from Operation Rescue-- a Republican Party-connected terrorist front-- in the assassin's car. If you think crowing over this is too barbaric to be real, take a look at the ever-growing tweets of hate from the people Charles Pierce wrote his new book about. Should Bill O'Reilly and Fox News be charged as accessories for the assassination of Dr. George Tiller?



You may not find the vicious, homophobic veto of a domestic partnership bill by Nevada's crooked right-wing governor, Jim Gibbons, related. But it is. It's this kind of self-serving hatred that gives permission to more extreme elements to dehumanize and target groups of people-- with God on their side. Saturday night the Nevada state Senate overrode Gibbon's veto, 14-7, in a rare, and very surprising, show of sanity, humanity and political courage. And then on Sunday night the state Assembly followed suit and voted 28-14 to override Gibbons' veto. Domestic partnerships will be the law in Nevada starting October 1. Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2002 enshrining marriage inequality.

Under the new law, same-sex and opposite-sex couples can go to the secretary of state's office, sign a registry, pay a fee and secure a domestic partnership contract that essentially gives them the same legal rights and responsibilities as married couples [in the eyes of the state]... Employers are not required to offer medical and other benefits to domestic partner couples but may do so if they wish.

Nevada's top employers, the gaming industry, had urged the legislators to override the veto, fearing a boycott from the gay community nationally. 28 of the 29 Democrats in the Assembly did so, as did one Republican (of the 14 in the Assembly). One Democrat and the one Republican changed their votes when the bill was first approved last month, and one Democrat who was absent voted "yes" this time. Those 3 votes made the override possible.

Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight: You mean there was some thought of America's most comical gov, Nevada's Jim Gibbons, running for reelection?!

"Dawn Gibbons is credited with helping to save her husband's 2006 gubernatorial bid when she stood by him amid accusations he had sexually propositioned and assaulted a cocktail waitress in a parking garage outside a Las Vegas restaurant after an evening of drinking with the waitress and other women."

"Just days before the governor filed for divorce, in fact, Dawn Gibbons complained bitterly to a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist that her husband won't speak to her and that she doesn't know why he's divorcing her. She added: 'I can hardly make it through the day.'"

--from Steve Friess's Washington Post report today on the bust-up of America's desert sweethearts

You remember Governor Jim, right? The cocktail-waitress episode was only the start of the parade of hi-jinks that have made his administration a veritable laff riot. And now (sob), the governor and his Dawn are splitsville? It's almost too much to bear.

For Nevada GOP, One Spectacle Too Many
In a State Full of Distractions, Governor's Divorce Is One With Political Implications

By Steve Friess
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; A02

LAS VEGAS, May 5 -- In this state known for quickie divorces, the slow, increasingly acrimonious dissolution of the governor's marriage is becoming a public spectacle nearly as absorbing a show on the Strip but far more politically significant.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, a first-term Republican already under pressure because of his handling of the state's budget crisis, filed Friday for divorce from Dawn Gibbons, his wife of 22 years.

On Monday, the governor won a court ruling to have the proceedings sealed under a state law that allows either party in a divorce to do so.

Were that all, it might be a blip. But the governor is also seeking a legal ruling -- which would certainly become public -- to force his wife to move out of the governor's mansion, where she, and not he, has been living since they officially separated last month.

"Today, on behalf of our client Governor Jim Gibbons, our firm filed various legal documents pertaining to the dissolution of his marriage and requesting a court ruling concerning the living arrangements of Governor and Mrs. Gibbons," the governor's attorney, Gary Silverman, said in a statement.

Silverman indicated that the governor would not comment, and Dawn Gibbons, who did not return calls for comment, was believed to have spent the weekend in California with the couple's 20-year-old son, Jimmy, who is a sophomore at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.

Sealing the case may keep journalists out of the courtroom, but there is no gag order on the first lady, whose attorney, Cal Dunlap, told the Associated Press she wants the case open to the public. Just days before the governor filed for divorce, in fact, Dawn Gibbons complained bitterly to a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist that her husband won't speak to her and that she doesn't know why he's divorcing her. She added: "I can hardly make it through the day."

The sordid spectacle alarms Nevada Republicans fearful that the governor, whose election rested largely on his appeal to rural, socially conservative voters, could damage his 2010 reelection bid should the couple's marital woes continue to play out as publicly and dramatically as they have thus far.

"It is a political problem for him anytime you have this type of situation, because within the Republican Party, some are going to take the first lady's side and some going to take the governor's side," said Chuck Muth, a GOP political strategist. "It's already a terrible distraction."

The matter comes on the heels of a rocky 17 months in office during which the governor has been the subject of a still-unresolved FBI public corruption investigation and at a time when his administration is struggling to cope with a $914 million tax revenue shortfall. Top gaming company executives, including staunch Republicans such as MGM Mirage chief executive Terry Lanni, have called on him to reconsider his no-new-taxes pledge and to alter the state's taxing structure so it doesn't rely so heavily on gambling, hotel and sales taxes.

A divorce would end the marriage of Nevada's most politically ambitious duo, who served in various elected offices. Indeed, Dawn Gibbons is credited with helping to save her husband's 2006 gubernatorial bid when she stood by him amid accusations he had sexually propositioned and assaulted a cocktail waitress in a parking garage outside a Las Vegas restaurant after an evening of drinking with the waitress and other women. Surveillance video in the garage did not show either person in the garage and no charges were filed, but Jim Gibbons never denied having been out drinking with the women.

"That story had legs primarily because you had him at a tableful of women and they're all drinking and all talking dirty in a very public place," said Review-Journal political columnist Erin Neff. "He was elected anyway in no small part because of her standing by her man. I think she thinks he owes her one."

The governor moved into the couple's Reno home last month, leaving Dawn Gibbons in the official Carson City residence in a move reminiscent of when New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani left his then-wife Donna Hanover in Gracie Mansion during his second term in office.

Yet Gibbons's decision to move out also raised legal questions because an 1866 state law states that he must "keep his office and reside at the seat of government" and a 1907 law that states he must live in the official residence provided him by the state.

Political rivals say they find the matter unseemly. State Sen. Dina Titus, who lost the governor's race to Gibbons in 2006, wondered whether it's "a distraction from the governor's ability to make decisions."

"It doesn't look good when you have a soap opera taking place in the governor's mansion, and that's supposed be a respected place visited by tours of schoolchildren and all that," Titus said.

We get a certain whiff of reporter Friess writing about the circus as if it were a dialogue of Plato, but when you read between the lines, well, like they say, you can't make this stuff up.

#

THE FBI DOES MORE THAN JUST INVESTIGATE CROOKED REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN

Gibbons is the (male) party animal in the back row

The FBI also investigates crooked Republican ex-congressmen who are now governors... of Nevada. It was just 6 weeks ago last time we checked in on the loony and corrupt Jim Gibbons. He certainly seemed destined for the pokey then. And today... well his next home seems to be beckoning more loudly. Today MSNBC is reporting more bad news for Governor Gibbons.

The new governor of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, is being investigated by the FBI because of alleged gifts and payments from Warren Trepp, a defense contractor whose Nevada firm received tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

The FBI wants to know if Gibbons, while a member of Congress, improperly used his influence to help Trepp get those contracts.

On one "lavish week-long Caribbean cruise" in 2005 Trepp bribed Gibbons with $60,000 worth of goodies-- plus an undisclosed amount of cash and casino chips "close to $100,000." And then Trepp got a very lucrative government contract with Gibbons kind assistance. I'm sure it was a coincidence. "Gibbons, a Republican, says he would help any Nevada company, and strongly denies all wrongdoing." Would you call stating that someone is "a Republican" and in the very same sentence stating that they "strongly deny all wrongdoing" somewhat redundant?

NBC News says that there is some evidence and some testimony-- from Trepp's ex-partner, Dennis Montgomery (also a Republican) -- that doesn't quote fit with Gibbons' account:

Montgomery: He took a hundred thousand out of his desk, two $50,000 bundles, and asked me to get a briefcase, which I did. 15 minutes later, Jim came in, picked it up and left.
NBC: Did you see the Congressman with the briefcase?
Montgomery: Yes.
NBC: And you're sure the money was in there?
Montgomery: Yes
NBC: Why didn't you go to the police?
Montgomery: Because I've been informed, because of the nature of the work that we do, this is the only person I am to go to.
NBC: Because you do classified work for the government?
Montgomery: We do work for the government.
NBC: Did you raise the possibility that this was improper?
Montgomery: Yes.
NBC: And he said?
Montgomery: Stay out of it.
NBC: Some people are going to look at this and say, "'This is just one angry, disgruntled man.  Why should we believe him?'"
Montgomery: Because I know what happened for the last five years and I can prove it.

Even before this broke today, there had been discussion in Nevada about impeaching the hapless, drunken and unpopular Gibbons.

JIM GIBBONS, ONCE CONSIDERED A CORRUPTION-TAINTED CONGRESSMAN, IS UNDER INVESTIGATION AGAIN-- AS NEVADA'S GOVERNOR

The stench of corruption has long been part of Jim Gibbons political makeup. He's never been able to get out from under it; in fact, it just gets more and more pungent. Yesterday's Washington Post pointed out that while he was campaigning for governor of Nevada last year "the five-term Republican congressman ricocheted from scandal to scandal and from gaffe to gaffe. When he squeaked to a narrow victory with 48 percent of the vote, he hoped to be able to focus on his legislative agenda and put his problems behind him. Things have not turned out that way."

They certainly haven't. If anything, it's more likely that Governor Gibbons will be in a prison cell than it ever was that Congressman Gobbons would have been. It's just come out that the FBI is onto one of the characters who was bribing Gibbons for years. And that's right on top of last week's revelations that Gibbon's wife was getting business for a company that was paying her very well in return for her husband's patronage.

He's established a legal defense fund, hiring Jack Abramoff's lawyer. He refuses to talk to the press and just cowers in the governor's mansion with the shades drawn while the local media laughs at what a boob he's turned out to be as governor-- suggesting, for example, that Nevada could manufacture energy from coal (until someone asked him where he would get the coal, since Nevada doesn't produce any). He identified his new energy chief, whose name he didn't recall, as "someone from India." She's actually from Turkey. He wishes he had Bush's approval ratings; his own are down in Cheney/Paris Hilton territory: 29% approval.

Is that a recall you hear in the distance?


UPDATE: IS GIBBONS PREPARING FOR AN INSANITY DEFENSE?

I can't remember from my school days; which drugs make you paranoid? It does like Gibbons is ingesting one of them-- or more maybe. His behavior has been erratic... to say the least. And now he's accusing the right-wing oriented Wall Street Journal of conspiring with Democrats against him. People in Nevada think he's flipped his wig.

Gov. Jim Gibbons said on Monday he's heard a rumor that Democrats paid the Wall Street Journal to publish stories about his relations with a defense contractor and that the coverage is designed to help Democrats in the 2008 election.

Asked about rumors of a conspiracy among Democrats against him, Gibbons said he heard the same thing but did not name a source.

"I have heard that the Democrats have paid to have these Wall Street Journal articles written," Gibbons said. The Journal has reported that Gibbons is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly accepting unreported gifts or payments from a Reno company that was awarded secret military contracts when Gibbons was in the U.S. House.