Moral Values Republicans

We have all heard the occasional, okay, maybe not so occasional, stories and anecdotes about various Republican leaders and legislators touting "moral values," while they have engaged in rather less than moral behaviour themselves. James West, former mayor of Seattle, springs to mind; a man who championed his opposition to gay rights and vigourously excoriated America's collapsing moral framework. Despite his avowed opposition to gay rights legislation and promotion of discrmination against gays in the work place, he was discovered to have been trolling gay websites for "relationships with adult men." Even after the discovery, West still maintained that he was not gay and that there was no conflict between his public persona and his private life.

While these various stories popped out once in awhile and a clear sense of the rampant hypocrisy within the ranks of the Republican party regarding their moral values caterwauling was certainly there, their actual behaviour as a group was hard to come by. Until now. Some enterprising researchers at the DU have put together an enormous list of Republican ne'er-do-wells, their public stances and their documented behaviour, including the many resultant convictions. It is a daunting list and crimes range from mere adultery to child pornography to rape and on. One particular creep pops out in this list:

Nicholas Morency, Republican anti-abortion activist, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

Apparently, Morency must have viewed abortion as a threat to his child porn habits. This is one of many, many examples.

This is an interesting reference document, though I can't really advocate reading through the whole thing; beyond the gut-churning it might invoke, it will also infuriated a reader and the next time anyone says that Republicans are the party of moral values, something might just snap.