Republicans on C-SPAN

I've been listening to C-SPAN radio. I was stunned by how rude the Republican callers have been. They've all been assholes. But then, thinking back, it seems to me that every asshole I know is a Republican. I'd never thought of that before. Hmmm ...

Anyway, every Republican who called in was angry and confrontational. You'd have thought they were calling into Air America or something. It's C-SPAN, people. They're not known for their bias. But most of the Republican callers acted like they had unearthed a Liberal plot. Several dressed down the guest reporter because she wasn't familiar with the details of a recently released report on the investigation into the activities of Rep. John Conyers. And I mean haughty, condescending rhetoric.

I supposed the Republicans have reason to be angry in general. They had their asses handed to them in the last election. I know the Conservative spin is that the Democrats hardly routed the Republicans, that they only have a majority in Congress by a few seats. But the truth of the matter is that the Democrats picked up 30 seats in Congress. However Republicans spin it, that's a hell of a comeback, and it's got to hurt.

I found the obsession with John Conyers to be a bit unhinged, as well. One caller tried to compare the Conyers investigation (in which, to her mind, Conyers got off) with the ethics investigation into Newt Gingrich's $4.5 million book deal (which I assume she thought was a witch-hunt), essentially asking how it was fair that Conyers got off light and poor old Newt had to give his book advance back.

Good Lord, people. Conyers was investigated for mis-use of his staffers; expecting some of them to babysit his children and to work on his campaign while on duty. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, accepted a $4.5 million advance on a book he hadn't written yet while still Speaker of the House! Ummm ... hello?

One asked staffers to wrangle his children when he brought them to work. The other accepted millions of dollars. If Republicans see the former as criminal activity and the latter as perfectly fine, it's no wonder the election handed them what the President called “a whupping.”

Republicans are just whining because they got caught in the cookie jar and got their hands slapped. I noticed that at no time during their hand-wringing about John Conyers did the names Tom Delay, Ken Lay, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, etcetera, ever come up. Do they ever?