Republican have to make up lies to smear Stupak

The right-wing smears against U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, are going non-stop after he did the right thing and voted for much-needed health insurance reform.

His stand on abortion was a little confusing because federal funds have long been barred from paying for abortions for a number of years, and this bill did not change that. Still, he held out for an executive order President Obama will sign today reaffirming that fact before he voted yes. Now, right-wingers are calling him a traitor.

But make no mistake about it; it’s because he did the right thing and voted for the bill, not his anti-choice stand on abortion that he is being smeared.

The Republicans are now using long-established procedures to claim the votes of Democrats were bought. Even if that were true, in the end the money would have gone to better the public good, in sharp contrast to scandals like Cunningham and Abramoff where the money went in their and their crony’s pockets.

The latest smear against Stupak is that he voted for the bill in exchange for three airports in his district receiving federal grant money. The only problem with that lie is that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded grants in 47 states -- including one in Minority Leader John Boehner's district -- as part of a decades-old airport improvement program.

In fact, many of the most vocal opponents of the bill are receiving the same grants. Eleven airports in Rep. Don Young’s, R-Al, district received grants totaling more $56 million in FAA grants. Also receiving the grants were Mike Pence, R- Columbus; Steve King, R-NY; and Michele Bachmann, R-batshit crazy.

Stupak already had a primary opponent because he held out so long on the health insurance bill in Connie Saltonstall, a businesswoman and former county commissioner from Charlevoix. But he now has a Republican opponent in some guy named Dan Benishek from Crystal Falls who has never ran for office before.

His web site only has a place to donate money, nothing else, and that appears to be what his campaign is all about. He is getting offers of out of state money on rightwing blogs.

President Obama wins praise for his commitment to ethics

Rightwing Obama haters love to use the catch phrase Obama’s corrupt “Chicago-Style Politics,” but ethics watchdog groups are saying he is a breath of fresh air compared to the last eight years.

According to Washington newspaper “The Hill,” “President Barack Obama scores well among ethics watchdog groups in his first year in office, though they’d still like to see more from the president.”

The paper went on to say, “Obama has wielded the power of the White House to craft an executive order that limited lobbyist hires in his administration, push federal agencies to share more of their data with the public and begin releasing visitor records for the executive complex on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

After eight years of perhaps the most secretive administration in history, and one that dealt in the politics of personal destruction against anyone who opposed them in the slightest way, Obama is a welcome change.

“After the last eight years, it is refreshing to see a president, through his rhetoric and action, who understands the way that the system works is a problem. That just a great place to start with,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center.”

Obama has been criticized for appointing czars, for some unknown reason, but ethics groups praise it.

“Obama wins the most applause for putting senior aides in place whose primary job is better ethics and transparency in the federal government. The appointees include Norm Eisen, Obama’s Harvard Law School classmate and the administration’s ethics czar who is stationed in the White House Counsel’s office; Beth Noveck, the deputy chief technology officer who is leading the Open Government Initiative; and Vivek Kundra, the chief information officer.”

We all remember the Republican K-Street scandals. Lobbyists for the energy industry and other industries were soon running the departments they were once lobbying. Republicans were turned out of power in 2006 and lost control of both the U.S. House and Senate because of their culture of corruption, from the likes of Mark Foley, Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney. Obama has put a stop to that.

“(Norm) Eisen was the author of the tough executive order, signed by Obama on his first full day in office, designed to slow the revolving door between government and K Street. That order also bans ex-Obama administration officials from lobbying their former colleagues. The president has repeatedly targeted K Street, limiting contacts between lobbyists and administration officials on stimulus projects and issuing agency guidance banning lobbyists from serving on advisory boards. That has led to consternation among lobbyists who have pushed back against the measures.”

Another ethically challenged GOP Gubernatorial candidate

The Citizen’s watchdog group Progress Michigan sent a letter last week to the U.S. Attorney for eastern Michigan calling for the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation of allegations that Attorney General Mike Cox and the Detroit police may have obstructed an investigation linked to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the 2003 murder of a Detroit stripper.

“It’s time to clear the air and have, at last, an outside, uncompromised investigation into the events leading up to and surrounding the death of Tamara Greene,” said David Holtz, executive director of Progress Michigan, in a press release. “These longstanding allegations are more than just “gum on the shoe” of Mike Cox, they’re a black eye on a state that can ill afford it.”

The Michigan State Police detectives involved in the investigation said in a deposition last month in the wrongful death civil lawsuit that they believed the DPD was destroying evidence in the case. But one investigator’s testimony also said because of actions by Cox, they were powerless to stop them. They also claimed Cox met with Kilpatrick privately off the record, and that he refused to allow the detective to interview the mayor’s wife.

Cox, a Republican candidate for Michigan governor, has told every news outlet he can that the long rumored party at the Detroit Manoogian Mansion never happened and the detectives are lying. However, he has never gone on record. That will change Dec. 11 when Cox will give a deposition in the federal lawsuit against the City of Detroit brought by Greene’s family.

However, that deposition will be sealed. Cox made the grandstand ploy of asking the judge that his deposition be made in public and his deposition unsealed. But he, as an attorney, knew the answer before he asked, or he would not have asked.

“The common-sense solution here is to have an outside organization take charge of the investigation,” . Holtz said. “With corruption being one of the Justice Department’s top investigative priorities, it seems U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg is the right man for the job.”

Cox has a history of problems with honesty, and he also has a history of only coming clean when busted. In 2005 he called a press conference to tell the state that he cheated on his wife. But it was a preemptive move because he falsely accused high profile Oakland County lawyer Geoffrey Fieger of blackmail, and he believed Fieger would rat him out.

In 2007 Cox tried to build a personal gym in his office at taxpayer expense, but he had to back off only when he got caught.

Progress Michigan’s mission is to provide a strong credible voice that holds public officials and government accountable, assists in the promotion of progressive ideas and uses state-of-the-art web based new media to creatively build grassroots support for progressive ideas.

Republican scandals back in the headlines

Republican scandals have been absent from the headlines for the last couple of years, but a trio of Michigan Republicans have changed that.

I guess they are too busy lying about health care to continue their record of corruption, but the more obvious reason is that they are simply not in power. But last week three Republicans were charged with fraud involving a local housing development.

Facing charges are Joel Westrom, a failed GOP House candidate and the former chair of the Marquette County Democratic Party and the First Congressional District; Brian Swift, former Gov. John Engler's northern Michigan representative for seven years from 1994-2001; and Michael Gokey, Engler's deputy northern Michigan representative.

Two other businessman are charged with the GOP three in the alleged fraud, and each defendant is charged with four counts including fraud, fraudulent use of building contractor funds and conspiracy.

Guys like this give all politicians a bad name. If convicted, I hope they pay the price like former Louisiana Democratic congressman William Jefferson, who was convicted of taking bribes on 11 of 16 counts by a federal jury last week.

Westrom was elected as the First Congressional District GOP Chair in February 2007. To quote former GOP sugar daddy Dick DeVos on Mr. Westrom, “that young man is going places.” Too bad it’s jail.

Scared GOP launches early false smear against SOS candidate

I am impressed with the qualifications of Wayne State University law Professor Jocelyn Benson, a Democratic candidate for Michigan Secretary of State, but I have been reluctant to support her 100 percent until I see what other Democrats enter the race. But, a screechy press release by the Michigan Republican Party (MRP) raised her stock in my eyes.

The press release took her to task for “holding a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, with ACORN-endorsed, and Communist Party U.S.A. approved Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.”

We know ACORN - the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the nation's largest community organization of low-and moderate-income families working for social justice - is the biggest boogieman to right-wingers. They dare to empower the poor by registering them to vote, and we know how Republicans hate to see people vote because they know they are the minority party in this country. The charge is voter fraud, but that is simply not true.

Individual ACORN employees have been accused of fraudulent voter registrations, which has nothing to do with voter fraud, and that was caused by hiring people to collect voter registrations and paying them for each one. Those employees who submitted fraudulent voter registrations have been let go.

But accusing a Democrat of voter suppression and the unwarranted attacks on Ritchie are unbelievable and confusing.

“Holding a vote suppression fundraiser in Washington, D.C. seems almost fitting with all the corruption in that city,” said MRP Chief of Staff Josh Venable in the PR. “Mark Ritchie embodies everything that is un-American about our electoral process—communism and cheating. Michigan does not need the Ritchie/Benson ACRON/Communist-style politics.”

We know Republicans know all about corruption, but Communism? Perhaps Mr. Venable has not watched the news in the lat couple of days and seen all the coverage of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Communism? Please. No where in the press release does it even make a case for that false smear.

The PR claims “Benson is known for partisan electioneering. During the 2004 campaigns she developed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) vote suppression program.”

Say what?

Republicans have opposed every single move to increase voter turnout. The Michigan House has passed no reason absentee voting, allowing 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote and early voting that the current GOP SOS supports, but GOP leadership in the Senate refuses to even hold hearings or allow a vote.

I thought the communism charge may have had something to do with the fact that Ritchie is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), a major party in Minnesota. The party was created in 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party merged. Former Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party boasts some of the most respected liberals in the country, including Humphrey, Vice-President Walter Mondale, Sen. Eugene McCarthy and Sen. Paul Wellstone.

Obviously, the Republicans are scared, and this was the reason for this early, false smear. Benson Spokesman T.J. Bucholz had the best quote in calling out the GOP lies.

"I've watched a lot of Lions' football, so I'm used to seeing desperate plays by losing teams," Bucholz said. "You've got an actual, legitimate party that's resorting to lies in a race that's almost a year away."

Stevens and Siegelman cases very similar: all but the end result

If you needed any proof that it is a new day in the country with the inauguration of President Barack Obama, we have the case of former Republican Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, whose corruption conviction was thrown out on a technicality.

Stevens was convicted of seven felony counts of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from a wealthy oil contractor just a week before he lost his bid for re-election. Apparently, the U.S. Justice Department admitted it never turned over notes from an interview with the oil contractor, so new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made the decision to disregard a jury verdict and not seek another trial. Steven’s lawyer’s praised Holder as "a pillar of integrity."

This is the same U.S. Justice Department that was the most politicized justice department in history, and U.S. attorneys were hand-picked for their Republican partisanship. Under Bush, it functioned much like the IRS did under Nixon. In 2006 U.S. Attorneys were fired if they did not go after Democrats and actually investigated real corruption by Republicans.

One of the most glaring examples was the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Many people believe Bush’s brain and henchman Karl Rove was behind this persecution, and that’s one reason Rove is fighting subpoenas.

Don Siegelman was not in prison because he’s a criminal but because he belonged to the wrong political party in Alabama. Siegelman was the most successful Democrat in that Republican state. But while he was governor, the U.S. Justice Department launched multiple investigations that went on year after year until, finally, a jury convicted Siegelman of bribery.

He was sentenced to seven years in a federal prison camp in Louisiana. Stevens didn’t do a second behind bars. In fact, Siegelman was denied 45 days to report to prison to give him time to put his affairs in order, an opportunity which is commonly granted to other offenders. Siegelman was immediately taken to a maximum security prison. While in prison, Siegelman endured solitary confinement.

The main charge against Siegelman was that he took a bribe, giving a position on a state board to businessman Richard Scrushy, who had made a big donation to Siegelman’s lottery campaign that would benefit public schools. The position on the state hospital regulatory board was an unpaid position, and Scrushy had served on the same board over the past three Republican administrations.

The evidence was thin at best, and the star witness against him was subsequently convicted of extortion; upon being given 10 years in prison he cooperated with prosecutors to lighten his own sentence by testifying against Siegelman. Although the witness engaged in over 70 interviews with the prosecution against Siegelman, none of the notes detailing these interviews were shared with the defense.

That was the very reason the Steven’s conviction was overturned. Why not Siegelman? The judge in Steven’s case said the prosecutors in the case should be investigated. The same should be done in Siegelman’s case. In fact, in November 2008 new documents revealed alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney and other prosecutors in the case. Extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury appears to have occurred.

Like Stevens, Siegelman was running for re-election during his trial.

Real Chicago style politics

No one could miss the disgusting attacks on President Obama with the ridiculous smear, “Chicago style politics.”

Apparently, the smear is meant to imply Obama and Mayor Richard Daley - both father and son - are corrupt. There is no evidence of any corruption, but that doesn’t stop them from saying it. It falls into the GOP strategy of “if you tell a lie often enough people start to believe it.”

But a recent police report concerning former Cook County Republican Chairman Gary Skoien demonstrated the real “Chicago style politics.”

It seems Skoien had two prostitutes in his children’s playroom when his wife walked in on him earlier this month. His 36-year-old, 5-foot-4-inch, 110-pound wife beat him with her fists and an electric guitar, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

It’s also one more case of the real family values from a party that loves to tell us they are the party of family values.

Palin shares abuse of power gene with Bush Administration

If we need any more proof that a Grampy McSame administration will be nothing but a repeat of the crooked, secretive and incompetent Bush Administration, we now have the results of the investigation of the Alaska Legislative Council that found that Sarah “Spiro” Palin violated state ethics laws and abused her power by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

Like Bush, Palin ignored the Constitution and did whatever it took to get what she wanted, and we see the absolute vindictiveness against people she and her husband perceived as wronged them. Granted, this is not illegal wiretapping, torture of prisoners or starting an illegal and unnecessary war, but given how small Alaska is, this is the best - or worse - Palin could do.

Could you imagine the havoc Palin and her husband Todd would cause with the power of the IRS and the already politicized Department of Justice in their hands? It’s as scary as having a totally inexperienced person like Palin as the Commander-in-chief.

Palin is also following the example of the incompetent Bush Administration by releasing a much anticipated report on a Friday when it’s hoped not as many people are paying attention and news rooms only have skeleton crews.

According to the Associated Press, the report said the inquiry looked into Palin's dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who was fired because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce and custody battle with the governor's sister. The retired prosecutor hired to conduct the investigation, said Monegan's firing was lawful. But the pressure Palin and her husband put on him was not.

According to the report, it was her husband, Todd, who led the charge. “Todd Palin had extraordinary access to the governor's office and her closest advisers and he used that access to try to get Wooten fired Gov. Palin knowingly "permitted Todd to use the Governor's office and the resources of the Governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired," Branchflower's report reads.

It’s kind of funny, Palin is McSame’s attack dog spreading hateful lies and whipping the crowds up into a frenzy of hatred, and apparently Todd Palin is the attack dog for his wife.

The McSame campaign failed in its attempt to block the report until after the election, but they immediately tried to spin it as politically motivated and an attempt to tarnish the GOP VP candidate. That ignores, of course, the fact that the investigation began when no one had any idea Palin was even being considered as a VP candidate.

This is just more proof that conservatives cannot govern. I’m reading a great book by John Dean, the former Richard Nixon legal counsel, called “Broken Government.” The gist of the book is how Republican rule has destroyed the three branches of government.

This report shatters the farce that Palin is a reformer, and what she really is, is the queen of earmarks, and Dean’s book highlights how the Grand Oil Party used earmarks as bribes.

In the book, Dean talks about how earmarks increased under GOP rule and how it was used to pay off lobbyists for their role in the K Street scandal. Dean says over the past 50 years there have been 9,242 earmarks in highway bills. Of those, 8,505 or 92 percent have been inserted in the three highway bills enacted since Republicans took the House 10 years ago prior to 2007. That’s how we got the infamous bridge to nowhere that Palin lied about when she said she said, “Thanks but no thanks” failing to revel she took the money anyway.

Republicans cheer for Gov. Eliot Spitzer

The news today that New York Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer was picked up on a federal wiretap arranging to meet in a prostitute disturbed me, and I knew right-wingers were going to have some fun with it.

That is until I began to think about it. The Democrats have a long way to go before they can equal the scandals of the Republicans. In light of what we learned what the Bush administration will do to go after political foes after the Federal attorney firings, it seems suspect that it was a federal wiretap that brought him down.

I just wonder if Spitzer will get the same reception as U.S. Sen. David Vitter got after his involvement with prostitutes was revealed. The Louisiana Republican got a standing ovation from the Republicans in the Senate when he returned. I guess after Sen. Larry Craig’s troubles Republicans were so happy Vitter’s troubles were with females they just had to break out in cheers. When the so-called party of family values is involved in a sex scandal instead of the usual money and bribery scandals it’s news, but when the sex scandals do occur they usually involve sex with underage boys.

At any rate, Spitzer will be welcomed on Faux News. It welcomes criminals with open arms, such as prostitute toe-sucker Dock Morris, convicted felon Oliver North and racist cop Mark Furman. But in truth, he probably will not be welcomed there. They already have their token non-conservative in Alan Colmes. Maybe if he hated the Clinton’s like Morris does Spitzer will be welcomed at faux.

The Republican hits just keep on coming in 2007

One of the main reason Republicans were turned out of power in 2006 and lost control of both the U.S. House and Senate was because of their culture of corruption. Republicans vowed that would end after the scandal-filled 2006 that saw scandals like Mark Foley, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney and Jack Abramoff just to name a few. That has not happened, and even though 2007 is not even over yet, we have seen plenty of GOP scandals in 2007. This list, although not complete, was first compiled - for the most part - by a fellow blogging guru, Senate 2008 Guru. Here is the list so far:

January 23, 2007: Republican radio personality Scott Eller Cortelyou of Denver arrested on suspicion of using the Internet to lure a child into a sexual relationship.

January 29, 2007: Republican former Jefferson County, Colorado, Treasurer Mark Paschall indicted on two felony charges "in connection with an allegation that Paschall solicited a kickback from a bonus he awarded one of his employees."

January 31, 2007: Republican Congressman Gary Miller is named by Republicans as ranking member of oversight subcommittee of House Financial Services Committee despite the FBI's investigation into his land deals.

February 14, 2007: Major Republican fundraiser Brent Wilkes and former CIA executive director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo are indicted by a grand jury for corrupting CIA contracts,

February 16, 2007: Major Republican donor Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, aka Michael Mixon, is indicted in federal court on charges of providing material support to terrorists. He was a donor to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and among the Republicans accepting the tainted money were U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton.

March 5, 2007: Ethics complaint filed against Republican Senator Pete Domenici for his role in the Attorney Purge scandal.

March 6, 2007: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury.

March 8, 2007: Republican former U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich admits to extramarital affairs.

March 23, 2007: Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became an architect of George W. Bush's energy policies, pleads guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate committee.

March 27, 2007: Criminal charges filed against Republican Pennsylvania State Senator Robert Regola in connection with the death of a teenage neighbor who was shot with the senator's gun; he is accused of three counts of perjury, allowing possession of a firearm by a minor, recklessly endangering another person and false swearing.

March 27, 2007: Ronald Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, "indicted on charges of defrauding investors and banks of $1.6 billion while chairman of Collins & Aikman Corp., an auto parts maker that collapsed days after he quit."

March 28, 2007: Robert Vellanoweth, a Republican activist and appointee of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and felony driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, after a crash that killed three adults and one child.

March 29, 2007: Rep. John Garfield, R- Rochester Hills, was arrested in the East Lansing area by Michigan State University campus police on suspicion of drunk driving. Despite registering a .14 – almost twice the legal limit of blood-alcohol limit – the charges were later dismissed because the police improperly pulled him over, and he avoided his second drunk driving conviction.

April 18, 2007: The FBI raids the home of Republican Congressman John Doolittle, investigating his ties to Jack Abramoff.

April 19, 2007: The FBI raids a business tied to the family of Republican Congressman Rick Renzi, as part of an investigation into his business dealings.

April 23, 2007: The FBI questions Republican Congressman Tom Feeney about his dealings with Jack Abramoff.

April 23, 2007: Federal auditors find repeat violations of federal election law from the 2004 Senate campaign of Republican Senator Mel Martinez.

April 24, 2007: Charles "Tony" Baltimore, a senior staff member in Congressman Mike Rogers' Lansing office, was arrested on domestic assault charges. Baltimore was arrested at a downtown Lansing club after what police described as an "altercation with a female companion.”

April 26, 2007: David Huckabee, son of Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, is arrested at an Arkansas airport after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded gun in his carry-on luggage.

May 4, 2007: Bruce Weyhrauch and Pete Kott, former Alaska state Republican legislators, were arrested and accused of soliciting and accepting bribes from the corrupt VECO Corporation.

May 4, 2007: Republican state Assemblyman Michael Cole is censured and stripped of his leadership position after the married father of two spent the night at a 21-year-old intern's apartment.

May 11, 2007: A field coordinator for Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry is indicted for voter fraud in North Carolina.

May 12, 2007: NBC News breaks the story that the FBI is investigating Republican Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons for suspicion of accepting bribes in exchange for securing government contracts.

May 15, 2007: Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy is arrested for drunk driving (he pled no contest on June 1, but didn't publicly disclose the event until June 11).

May 18, 2007: Republican former South Dakota State Representative Ted Klaudt is charged with eight counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of sexual contact with a child younger than 16, two counts of witness tampering and one count of stalking against two foster children in his care.

May 21, 2007: Republican state Senate candidate Mark Tate is indicted on nine counts of perjury and two counts of election fraud by a grand jury.

June 11, 2007: Republican Senator Larry Craig is arrested for lewd conduct in the men's bathroom of an airport.

June 19, 2007: South Carolina Republican state Treasurer and South Carolina Chairman of Giuliani for President Thomas Ravenel is indicted by a grand jury on cocaine distribution charges.

July 2, 2007: President George W. Bush commutes the sentence of former Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby following Libby's conviction on obstruction of justice and perjury.

July 3, 2007: A grand jury report declares that the sale of public land to Republican Congressman Ken Calvert and his business partners violated the law.

July 11, 2007: Republican state Representative and Florida co-Chairman of McCain for President Bob Allen is arrested for soliciting a male undercover police officer, offering to pay $20 to perform oral sex.

July 16, 2007: Republican Senator David Vitter holds press conference acknowledging being on the D.C. Madam's list and past involvement with prostitutes.

July 16, 2007: Story breaks that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski was involved in a sweetheart real estate deal.

July 19: Republican former state legislator Coy Privette is charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution

July 24, 2007: Michael Flory, a 32, the former head of the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans pled guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Ohio that he sexually abused a colleague during Young Republicans convention in the summer of 2006. The teary-eyed college student he overpowered in a downtown hotel room gasped and dabbed her eyes as Flory replied to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan's question, "Are you indeed guilty?"
"Sure - yeah," Flory said.
The victim, who is 22, declined to speak after Flory's guilty plea.
She and some supporters lamented when the incident became public last winter that Flory and his followers within the Republican organization had been smearing her reputation in retaliation for accusing Flory of rape.
"People were using every opportunity to try to trash her, on Web sites or whatever," the prosecutor said. "He's been running around telling everybody what a piece of trash she is, so she was very happy to see him plead guilty."
Flory gained some notoriety at age 18 when he gave a televised speech to the Republican National Convention in the Houston Astrodome in 1992. The Michigan Young Republicans' Web site once hailed him as "one of the rising stars of GOP politics in America" and declared that "Mike has earned a great name for himself."

July 26, 2007: Media report that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski will sell back land purchased in a sweetheart deal, following close scrutiny of the shady transaction.

July 29, 2007: Glenn Murphy Jr., recently-elected Chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, is accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping man.

July 30, 2007: The FBI and IRS raid the home of Republican Senator Ted Stevens following investigations into Stevens' dealings with the corrupt VECO Corporation.

August 2, 2007: Bush administration senior adviser Karl Rove disregards a Congressional subpoena and refuses to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

August 6, 2007: Investigation called for after House Republican Leader John Boehner leaked classified information regarding a secret court ruling over warrantless wiretapping.

August 8, 2007: Republican Senator Larry Craig pleads guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct following his June 11 arrest.

August 9, 2007: Major Republican donor Alan Fabian is charged with 23 counts of bankruptcy fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and perjury.

August 15, 2007: Republican state House candidate Angelo Cappelli is arrested for perjury and grand theft.

August 22, 2007: Republican political consultant Roger Stone resigns his role with the New York state Senate Republicans after reports surfaced that he made a "threatening, obscenity-laced" phone call to the 83-year-old father of Governor Eliot Spitzer.

August 27, 2007: Story breaks that Republican Senator Larry Craig was arrested and pled guilty - he had not publicly disclosed the events to that point.

This is not to say Democrats have not had a few scandals of their own in 2007, and one is too many. However, Democrats do not hold a candle to the Republican culture of corruption.