Republicans Are History's Whiniest Fascists

The Politico recently reported that the U. S. Department of Justice had dropped its direct legal defense of Bush Administration officials Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz from lawsuits by Jose Padilla, the Al Qaeda operative accused of plotting to set off a dirty bomb.

The DoJ hasn't left Rummy and the Wolfman twisting in the wind, mind you. Justice, rather U.S. taxpayers, is coughing up $200 an hour toward private legal counsel for the former Secretary of Defense and his neo-con minion.

It turns out that Republicans and their pundits are outraged that the Justice Department hasn't thrown its entire arsenal into defending two people regarded by many to be war criminals.  They're whining that $200 an hour isn't enough to buy Rummy and Wolfman the high-priced mouthpieces they deserve. Despite demanding $60 billion in cuts to the current budget for services to the sick and elderly, education, and protecting the environment, the Republicans are demanding that no expense, no resource, no effort be spared to defend the Bush babies from a civil action arising from Padilla's detention and torture.

K-12 education? Eliminate it. Social Security? Abolish it and give the money to Wall Street cronies. Medicare? Disband it and let people buy private insurance on the open market. Spend unlimited amounts to defend GOP thugs? Priceless.

Padilla wasn't even convicted of the dirty bomb plot, as the info about the plot was obtained by torture and had to be thrown out as inadmissible.  This is often an inconvenient consequence of suspending the rule of law and violating every tenant of civilized behavior.  Because the Bushies acted badly, we weren't even able to secure a conviction on the terror plot. Instead, Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was tossed into military confinement for two years as an enemy combatant and finally convicted of "conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country." Many would point out those charges could apply equally to Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.

Once again, Republicans behaved badly, and are livid that the whole world won't stop to kiss their owie. Inflate a rampant financial balloon then crash a global economy?  Republicans demand more money and free reign to crash it again. Bankrupt a nation while enriching themselves with egregious tax subsidies?  Republicans demand another portion equal to all the loot they've already stolen, plus another $60 billion on top of it.

Kidnap, torture, and imprison citizens according to Moammar Khadafy's "Dictatorship for Dummies" book? Republicans want the country to toss dump truck loads of cash into a bottomless pit to defend their actions.

Republicans often said torturing people was necessary in a "ticking time bomb" scenario when, to save lives, any means were justified. Republicans don't seem to understand that implies there should be some sort of accounting afterward. If you used torture to save lives, then your reward is the lives saved, not immunity from prosecution.

All of which, of course, should serve as a cautionary tale for any Republican who wants to suspend people's civil rights and blunder ahead in a mindless rampage: Mussolini didn't end up on a meat hook because he was a procedure wonk. But Republicans don't see it that way. Republicans consider themselves above the rule of law. Because they are plutocrats, they believe their wealth entitles them to omnipotence and universal fealty.

Republicans are rich brats who've never been told "no." They expect their every demand to be met, and they expect everyone should be happy to shoulder the consequences of their outrages.  That the Justice Department told these Republican thugs, "no," has brought on a shrieking, howling, kicking tantrum that says, "But, I want to torture! I want to torture! I want to torture!"

Considering the ruthlessness of their attacks on the sick and elderly and on children all over the world, considering the single-minded fervor of their drive to subvert justice and the Constitution, considering the rapacity with which they plundered the nation's wealth, the Republicans are the whiniest, most over-sensitive shrieking lilies in human experience.

Not only must no one deny their rants and rampages, they demand that everyone fawn over their every noxious effluent as the wisest, kindest, most brilliant thoughts and utterances in human experience. 

Republicans howl about Barack Obama being a foreign-born Muslim, then complain they're being ridiculed and made to look stupid for doing so. In just the past few days, Sarah Palin complained that comedians make fun of her, and Colin Powell complained people were unfair to Mike Huckabee just because he made outrageous claims that Obama had no U.S. college record and grew up in Kenya during the Mao-Mao rebellion.

President Obama edited the Harvard Law Review from Kenya? Using snailmail? During a civil war? Could we promote him to double-President?

There, I made Colin Powell cry again.

No matter how outrageously and inexcusably Republicans behave, no matter how wrecklessly they destroy an economy, a Constitution, or a nation, Republicans believe they are God's chosen golden children whose every whim must be indulged.

I realize most people believe you have to coddle these thugs with loving and nurturing.  It is time to realize that loving and nurturing doesn't work with every child, let alone every spoiled Republican plutocrat with visions of godhood.  Save the loving and nurturing for the kids who respond to loving and nurturing. Take these guys out to the woodshed and whup 'em.