I can clearly recall how the Republicans and George W. Bush rode some sort of higher moral and ethical standard horse into Washington, DC. Oh, the corruption and lies of the Clinton administration! How ever did the nation survive? And of course the Republicans did the same type of thing during their laughable "Contract with American" in the mid-90s, impugning the actions of Democrats and promising truth, justice and the American Way if only the American populace would give control to the Republicans.

Then, of course, when Tom DeLay was investigated for misusing campaign funds, the sanctimonious Republican leadership, in direct contravention of standards they applied to Democrats, changed the unofficial policy to allow DeLay to retain his position as Speaker of the House even while under criminal investigation. The appearance of impropriety was a standard that was pointedly not applied to Tom DeLay. It was only after he was indicted that the administration reluctantly made him surrender the speakership.

Next, despite repeated assurances by the administration, it turns out that the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, did indeed illegally leak the identity of a covert CIA agent in reprisal for her husband's actions in revealing that the White House lied when it said it was not aware the claim Iraq was buying uranium from Niger was false. White House spokesman Scott McClellan repeatedly and emphatically denied Libby was involved. Even now, the administration is not commenting one way or the other, so it is not clear whether the White House knew of his involvement and lied or was duped when he assured them he wasn't involved. It seems hard to believe no one in the White House was aware of Lewis' actions.

Now, there are calls that Bush fire Karl Rove because he was also involved in the CIA agent's identity leak. He is still under investigation and while there is little doubt he leaked the name, it may be he may get off because he wasn't the first. That's splitting some mighty thin hairs. It's okay to leak an agent's identity as long as someone else did it first? Questionable ethics at best.

As if to add insult to injury, while Tom DeLay was not removed from his speakership because of the appearance of impropriety in his campoaign financing dealings, his lawyer successfully argued to remove the Democratic judge who was to hear his case because of an appearance of impropriety. The judge was a Democrat, so that's reason to disqualify him? Under that cirteria, shouldn't all Republican judges be removed or recuse themselves because of the appearance of impropriety? Is the absurdity of the situation clear yet?

So it seems that the Bush administration is the most corrupt and lying administration in a very long time. This is probably why they enjoy so much support from the "Christian" Right, whose own hypocrisy rivals the White House. Birds of a feather.

I am amazed that anyone who pays any attention at all to the news still believes George W. Bush or anyone in or associated with his administration. I wouldn't believe them if they told me the sky was blue--I would look for myself just to be sure. What's going on? Surely not everyone is watching FOX News. Someone must still be, you know, exercising critical reasoning skills.