Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Republicans and the Rehab "Remedy"
Audio Transcripts
10/04/06
[Start Program]
(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)
Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.
I want to start off this rant by admitting that I have a problem. It’s a serious problem… or at least it’s serious in regards to the subject at hand… and it has to do with drinking.
My problem is this… I don’t have a drinking problem! In fact, I don’t drink enough to even SUGGEST that I have a drinking problem. I rarely get drunk, I barely finish whatever alcoholic drink I get, and I can say with confidence that I’ve actually gotten LAID more times than I ever got a hangover.
And that’s my problem! It BOTHERS me to know that if I get into any kind of trouble or get caught doing anything inappropriate that I cannot use my drinking as an excuse!
You see, that seems to be the in-thing for politicians and conservative celebrities when they are embroiled in some sort of trouble. The very first words out of their mouths are "I have an alcohol problem!"
Mel Gibson, the Hollywood champion of the con and neo-con factions, gets caught driving while intoxicated and is on record spewing anti-Semitism. He comes out and says "Not my fault! I have a drinking problem!" And then he sends himself over to rehab and sweet-talks his way into a plea deal. He essentially gets away with a crime. The kind of crime that you or I would end up behind bars for!
Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, who admitted to taking bribes in the Jack Abramoff scandal, instantly said that he has a "drinking problem", and he honestly thinks that he should STAY IN OFFICE because he’s going through "treatment".
Then there’s Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who found out his father got caught doing something… sort of embarrassing. Basically he got caught having SEX with a woman in his car. First words out of that politician’s mouth? "My father has a drinking problem." And then off HE goes to rehab!
And now we have former Congressman Mark Foley of Repressive Florida. He gets caught doing something that was the butt of jokes twenty years ago… fooling around with congressional pages. And then he EXCUSES the whole thing by saying that he has a "drinking problem" and checks himself into rehab!
Isn’t that convenient?
Now bear in mind that before his resignation, Congressman Foley was one of those so-called CHAMPIONS of "family values"! He wanted to "PROTECT" children from the evil and vile MONSTERS that are out on the Internet! He should know… he apparently was one of them. He supposedly was doing the very things that he was sponsoring federal laws to prohibit!
Oh, but don’t worry, it’s not HIS fault! After all, he has a "drinking problem"! He wouldn’t be in REHAB if he didn’t have a problem, right?
And you know, maybe that’s what the problem is for some of these liberals! They’re getting wrongly persecuted by conservatives because they just haven’t admitted yet that they have a "drinking problem"! Maybe Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks was right, maybe all she has to do is throw herself into rehab and all of the country stations that blacklisted her group over her anti-Bush stances will welcome her back into their playlists. Hey, if it worked for Mel Gibson, then it can work for her, right?
And, hey, how about House Speaker Dennis Hastert? He’s in some hot water right now over Foley’s little hobby. There are calls for him to step down from the Speaker’s role. Maybe he should just declare he has a "drinking problem" too and run off to rehab. Then everything will be all right with the GOP! If Bob Ney can do it, so can anyone!
Now listen folks… I’m not here to belittle rehab programs or to belittle those with a drinking problem. Quite the contrary. I know full well and first hand the destructive nature of someone with a real, genuine problem with alcohol. Not only did I see my share of people with early drinking problems when I was in college, but I had a family member with a drinking problem.
And what REALLY bothers me with this trend of blaming alcohol – which is certain nothing new – and then going into rehab is that it is being used as a "get out of jail free" card. A quick path to social absolution for all past behaviors, no matter what they are.
It’s like an old Monty Python skit where John Cleese’s character viscously insults another character and then says without missing a beat "I’m sorry, I have a cold." These celebrities and politicians honestly expect us to let the worst of their characteristics come out and then turn around and say, "I’m sorry, I have a drinking problem." And they expect us to BUY it!
Well guess what slapnuts? If you honestly believe that, then you have more than just a drinking problem… you have a REALITY problem!
Let’s get brutally honest here… alcohol does not excuse or even begin to justify Mark Foley’s hypocritical actions! Nor does it justify the activities any of the other people mentioned here who tried to excuse their actions by saying they have an "alcohol problem".
In fact I am DISGUSTED by the people who think that they can use that AS a form of social absolution! No, announcing that you have a problem with alcohol DOES NOT absolve you of any wrongdoing! That just means that you have to WORK HARDER to clean up your act.
What makes me even MORE disgusted about this issue with the DISHONORABLE Mark Foley is not just HIS hypocrisy, but the fact that there are those in the Republican Party and in the conservative movement in general that ACTUALY THINK that it is perfectly okay to have that kind of a person stay in office JUST to keep their majority power! The Republicans are SUPPOSED to be the party of "family values"! They’re SUPPOSED to be the party of LAW and ORDER! The GOP hierarchy supposedly KNEW that this guy fancied the male teenaged pages, and yet they allowed him to chair the caucus for Missing and Exploited Children! Before this debacle, they had no problem whatsoever supporting him in his re-election efforts, even though THEY KNEW that if this issue became public that it could cost them that power they so lovingly cherish.
Now WHOSE "family values" are those, huh? I want to know! Who’s demented delusional Machiavellian standards would allow a known predator to operate just to keep their power base going? You know, the last guy who had that particular dysfunction in government was a mustache-wearing narcissistic bastard that went by the last name of "Hussein". You may have heard of him… he was the ruler of Iraq! He’s now standing trial for crimes against humanity. You get the picture?
And guess what? Even Saddam Hussein isn’t STUPID enough to try to excuse his actions by declaring that he has a "drinking problem"!
I’ve got TWO WORDS for you cons and neo-cons who are busy trying to whitewash this whole Mark Foley matter and salvage what little is left of your credibility… see if they sound familiar to you: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
There’s more to the concept of personal responsibility than just admitting that you have a problem and then running out to rehab. It means taking FULL responsibility for the things that you did… or, in the case of Speaker Hastert, didn’t do. It doesn’t mean cutting deals. It means being held FULLY ACCOUNTABLE and not passing the blame on things that have absolutely NOTHING to do with those actions!
And by the way, for all you cons and neo-cons… I didn’t come up with these standards! I’m not the one that campaigned on them and sold the American public a bill of goods. I didn’t go out on the talk show circuit or write a best-selling book preaching these things. YOU DID! YOU’RE the ones that said that you’re better than the liberals! YOU’RE the ones that said that you’re the PREFERRED alternative to the folks that brought us eight years of Bill Clinton. So YOU DO NOT have the luxury of weaseling out and saying "but… but… but… Clinton had sex with an intern!" Irrelevant!
YOU set the standards! YOU campaigned on them. YOU championed them! I’m just the one that is CALLING you on those standards and telling you to either put up or shut up!
And right now… Rush Limbaugh… Ann Coulter… you people have NOTHING worth saying anymore!
(Computer – evil stuff… what do I mean? Well you’ll just have to hear the show to know what it is.)
(Fade Music In – "Mythodea" by Vangelis)
You know what the funny part of this whole Mark Foley debacle is? His name is STILL on the ballot in Florida! Yes, just like Tom Delay, it’s just too damned late for the GOP to get Foley’s name off the ballots. So an admitted predator gets to represent the GOP in November!
Oh can you imagine the kind of fast-talking the GOP in Repressive Florida will have to give for that?
"A vote for Mark Foley is NOT a vote for an admitted predator… it’s a vote for the political party that ALLOWED an admitted predator to run free in the halls of Congress… because it’s better to deal with an admitted hypocritical predator than it is to deal with a fanatical terrorist."
Yeah, I can see THAT kind of spin going over quite well with those repressive bible-thumpers in Florida!
(Pause)
Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!
(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/"End of Recording")
[End of program]
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