Are Republicans Poisoning The American Atmosphere?

Ex-Assemblyman Duvall practicing what Republicans call family values

Down at the bottom of this post you'll find a video clip of Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) accurately assessing the political mood in the Congress where Democrats are being forced to contend with a rump of desperate dead-ender obstructionists who would rather see America fail than watch Barack Obama succeed. If it seems shocking to you, just ask yourself a simple question, "Who, in this day and age, would even be a Republican?"

If someone isn't motivated by all-consuming greed and selfishness or isn't too stupid to fall for the 24/7 smear and fear campaign known as Fox News/Hate Talk Radio, what's left? Racists, homophobes and xenophobes? Can anyone else come up with a reason to think of yourself as a Republican?

Maybe I forgot one thing-- if Democrats, or at least the non-corporate variety, are supposed to be the pro-family party, then Republicans fancy themselves the pro-family values party. The pro-family party works towards lightening the load on working families and creating a more balanced power structure between powerful elites and regular folks. The pro-family values people... well, that's an entirely different animal. And this week California got a dose of it full blast in the person of family-values icon and Orange County Republican Assemblyman Mike Duvall.

No one seems to want to talk about the anti-family issue here-- by far the most important aspect of this latest GOP scandal. It's much easier and more lucrative to focus on the sex. Duvall, a 54 year old married man with 2 children who caters to conservative Elmer Gantry type "family values" suckers, was caught on tape bragging about his sexual exploits with a younger woman-- or multiple younger women. He was taped telling another right wing nut case, Assemblyman Jeff Miller of Corona, a whole litany of filth during a legislative session, including "I'm getting into spanking her." More important than any of this is that Duval is the ranking Republican on the Utilities Committee and the young woman he likes spanking, etc, is a lobbyist-- for utilities. That would be anti-family behavior, because Assemblyman Duval, infamous for his overly friendly posture towards utilities and corporations and extraordinarily unconcerned about the hardships of consumers, has always had the special interests in mind of the folks who lobby him the... hardest?

To add a bit more humor to the mix, Duvall came out yesterday and announced he would be resigning-- though not for inappropriate relations with a lobbyist or even inappropriate relations with a younger woman outside of wedlock. He says he decided to resign for inappropriate story telling. I'm not making this up.

"My offense," he said with a straight face, "was engaging in inappropriate storytelling" and that his "decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs." He said he regrets his "language and choice of words." So far Miller, who seems to have been enjoying the inappropriate story telling just a little too much, hasn't resigned due to inappropriate dirty story listening. Miller has been asked to step down removed from the Ethics Committee while the legislature investigates the whole mess. He says he doesn't remember anything. Perhaps connecting to YouTube.com will refresh his memory,

One of the lobbyists named in some media reports works for Sempra Energy, which has interests in legislation that has come before the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. Duvall was vice chairman of that committee.

Sempra, a San Diego-based energy services company that operates San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co., said it is performing its own investigation and that its lobbyist has denied the affair.

Before he resigned, Duvall also sat on the Assembly Rules Committee, which oversees the operations of the Legislature. Part of that committee's responsibility is to create sexual harassment guidelines for lawmakers.

...[Assembly Speaker Karen] Bass, D-Los Angeles, called it "a very sad day."