LETTER: It’s OK if you’re a Republican

To the Telegram:

Much of my letter will be about voter fraud and other Republican “difficulties,” but first I have to keep alerting people to go to alecexposed.org to see how the former Republican party has been subsumed by corporate America. The voter restriction laws in effect in many states were written by the American Legislative Exchange Council and simply adopted as theirs by various Republican legislatures throughout the United States. Gov. Scott Walker, ever the good boy, and his cronies adopted this template, and pushed it through with little debate or fail-safes in place, for voters who have fallen through the cracks due to its limited acceptable ID’s. I actually don’t see anything wrong with asking for reasonable ID’s, which don’t have to be photo, but ALEC insisted that certain types of voters need to be discouraged so we’ve gotten what we have.

Let’s talk fraud: First, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., sort of “lied” about his residency, needing a local court to work out a settlement allowing him to change his address.

You and I would be fined but quoting an excellent acronym from the Rachel Maddow show — IOKIYAR. (It’s OK if you’re a Republican.)

Secondly, Charlie White, Indiana GOP Secretary of State, sort of listed the wrong address of his residence. He didn’t want to give up his Town Council salary after moving out of his district. He says he didn’t do it intentionally, and based his defense on being a good family man. Here we go again, IOKIYAR. The court didn’t buy it.

Republicans base their campaigns on how they are morally superior and believe in the sanctity of family life. Well, why is Sen. David Vitter, R-La., still in office? He was caught frequenting prostitutes but his colleagues never pressed for his resignation. IOKIYAR. Can you imagine if the prostitute would have been male? Now that would have been a dilemma for the old boy network. Then there’s Republican ex-governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, who refused to resign his office after it was discovered he was cheating on his wife.

Now to Gov. Scott Walker and Walkergate. He has established a legal defense fund before any charges have been made. He said he didn’t know any of his aides were doing illegal things 25 feet away from him. (Six associates and multiple felonies.) I guess IOKIYAR. This is the party of Nixon (Watergate) and Reagan (Iran-Contra). Just as Walker is saying now, Reagan said he didn’t know anything about Iran-Contra. I myself noticed Reagan’s gaffes and sometimes confusion during his second term. Maybe Reagan was oblivious, but Walker?

I hope that Walkergate will continue to unfold in a timely matter.

I will end with a quote by Gov. Walker from March 13, 2012, to conservative activists as he was out collecting his $12 million for his fight against his recall’s $2 million (talk about David vs. Goliath, and by the way, it’s the corporate America party (former Republican that is Goliath.) He was commenting on his job saying “not that this job is that important, because frankly my wife in some ways would like it if I’d go back to the private sector and make some real money.” Then he laughed. You know, $140,000 is peanuts to a rich Republican. Rep. Sean Duffy, too, said he could barely make it on his salary. (Both guys get insurance and retirement benefits in addition to the salary.) I wish they would return to the private sector and make some real money. Thank you for listening.

Marge Kaptonak,

Superior

Tags: opinion, letters