Looking for the Last Honest Republican

I am sincere in that headline. I used to vote for Republicans on those occasions where either: A) they were the incumbent and had served well, or B) someone I regarded as having integrity and ideas that their Democratic opponent lacked.

Where will I find such a candidate today? Not that all the Dem candidates are paragons of virtue, either, but I'm having trouble finding a major GOP figure these days who just does not repulse me.

Once upon a time, I liked John McCain. He spoke some hard truths about his own party and the nation as a whole back in the 80's and early 90's.  But since 2008, he has become a mealy-mouthed, duplicitous puppet of what he thinks is the GOP power base, diluting or reversing everything he said he stood for in previous decades (while denying that he was doing that!).

And that was about the time that Diogenes just hung up his lamp in despair for the whole GOP. Saddam Hussein's WMDs, domestic surveillance executive orders that use the constitution as a car floormat, Birthers, "Obamacare" boogymen, a VP candidate who couldn't tell you the policies of the president from her own party...


And then came the Wisconsin (and Ohio, and...) Disinformation-of-the-Week club that gives tax cuts to businesses, then blames teachers, nurses, and DMV employees for the state's budget deficit. One week, the measure to strip public sector unions of collective bargaining is a non-negotiable, vital "fiscal policy", then it isn't "fiscal" after all, so it can be approved by GOPs who can't even consider changing the bill. That approval came in a hastily called meeting that judges have twice ruled as a violation of Wisconsin law (which the responsible parties knew at the time, but ignored).  While Republican governor Walker gives lip service to obeying the judge's order, GOP Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald seeks to bypass the judge's order by intimidating the office responsible for publishing the bill. When they cave to the "request" by their boss, Fitzgerald announces that the law is in effect and the provisions effecting public employees' paychecks will begin in mid-April. As closely as these two worked together on enacting the legislation, it seems absurd to suggest that one Republican hand did not know what the other was doing. GOP Leader Fitzgerald leans on agency to publish bill despite judge's order

The despair continues as a sitting WI supreme court justice, a Republican facing re-election, knowingly distorts his opponent's record and inflates his own. When called on his utterly false and fiery rhetoric--delivered with disdain and anger in the debate--he said it was an attempt at "levity"...a "joke" no one laughed at in the hall, according to reports of those present. David Prosser ,Wisconsin supreme court justice says opponent's record limited

Ultimately, this judge will likely rule on the legal case about the union-weakening bill passed by his party cronies.

With the accumulating pile of falsehoods and duplicity, can the organizations currently allied with Badger State Republicans completely escape the nagging fear that, someday, their day will come, too?  Fire and Police unions did not oppose Walker in 2010 and were exempted from the legislation this time around. But the actions of members of these unions' actions in the first few months of 2011 indicate they may suspect their loyalty will not be rewarded for long.

Loyalty: I have been a loyal liberal for all my adult life, and when candidates of the party that generally stood for liberalism failed to earn my trust, I was willing to vote for others outside that party. Loyalty is a good thing, but not at the expense of faithfulness to law, fairness, honesty, and integrity. I hope my loyal conservative friends will consider the limits of loyalty, too.

Then maybe we won't be looking for the last honest politician of any party: they will step out of the shadows of their ideologue leaders and become our elected representatives. Regardless of party, when they step up I will vote for them.