Gross habitual deception of the public, it seems to us, is a far worse trait to find in a presidential candidate.
It is, of course, exactly the trait the American public has learned to associate with the GOP. Mind you, lies and deception are not exclusive to any one party or era. But it’s hard to top the Republican Party of the past several years.
The Republican president, George W. Bush, has lied his way into war, and into all-time record disapproval ratings. His vice-president, Dick Cheney, makes Bush look like an Honest Abe. Their top advisors — people like Karl Rove and Scooter Libby — have been caught out as liars. Their former secretary of state, Colin Powell, lied to the United Nations; their current secretary of state, Condi Rice, lied to Congress (more than once); their former secretary of defense, Don Rumsfeld, lied; their former attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez, lied.
Republican leaders covered up for Mark Foley, when they knew he was stalking young Congressional pages. And we could go on and on.
As recently as 2006, the Republican Party dominated the national political landscape. The entire executive branch of the federal government, the majority leadership of both houses of Congress, and the governors of nearly all of the country’s largest states were Republicans.
Today, the GOP is in total disrepute and disarray — which is why an undistinguished one-term former governor of a mid-sized state can be a front-runner for the party’s nomination.
Romney has bet his campaign on a belief that he can hoodwink Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire into believing his latest set of self-promotional pablum. We urge those voters to strongly reject his sales pitch, and restore some small amount of dignity to the Grand Old Party.
