Yes, there is nothing new under the sun but you sure never get used to the smell.
Check it:
Rep. Mark Souder, the Indiana Republican who resigned today over an affair with a staff member, said he doesn’t want his “mistake” to be used “as a political football in a partisan attempt to undermine the cause for which I have labored all my adult life.”
…Souder then touts his efforts to prevent Indiana schools from being forced to hire “transvestite teachers.”
Just two weeks ago, Souder won a competitive primary with a classic anti-Washington, family-values campaign.
My first, instinctual response, was predictable as it was obligatory: political football? You mean like running campaigns based on fear-mongering, “family values” intolerance? By constructing bogus or hysterical strawmen (tranvesite teachers, in Indiana? Really?) in order to trumpet one’s implied moral superiority? Et cetera: at this point in time, this shit just writes itself. Indeed, it’s practically gotten to the point where if a Republican protests too loudly about preserving marriage, you know they have had, or will have, an affair. And the more they talk about the evils of homosexuality, (or use words like tranvestite) the more certain we can be that they will be caught with a male escort, I mean luggage handler.
But here’s the thing: how upset can we (or should we) really get with these imbeciles? They are, after all, being who they are, doing what they do. For the umpteenth time, we should focus on the real problem, which is that people actually elect these assholes. Let me repeat that. The people being pandered to in order to extract votes are endorsing what they want to hear, they are hearing what they want to know, and they know what they want to need. These are the people whose kids can’t read, worried about transvestite teachers talking about evolution. It is, of course, outrageous, but it’s mostly embarrassing.
For us, not them. This will work out to be a great career move for Souder. He’ll inevitably write a book (discussing how this experience made him closer with God and God gave him this opportunity to help others heal) and the same simpletons who voted him into office will put his boilerplate “redemption story” on the bestseller list. Book it.
