It's not me, it's the alcohol. If I was a Democrat it would be due to my weak morals, but as a Republican it's the alcohol!!

"I'm not making excuses..."

THEN DON'T!

hey, instead of a possible 27 months, maybe it should be 27 years. I, as a USA citizen am tired of being used and abused and raped for profit! if we cant trust the elected officials, then they have to go! i dont care if your last name is washington, lincoln, kennedy or clinton, or bush, if your on the take or abusing your power, then you have to go! period!!!!!!!!!

Don't expect much to happen here. Politicians (excuse me, public servants) usually get an easy ride. Ney has come up with a sympathy excuse, it might be years before any action is taken, the public forgets, he gets off with a fine and probation, AND gets to keep most of his money. Aren't we glad that this is a country where one can make it by going into politics. After that, these guys become lobbyists or consultants and really strike it rich. The problem is that we keep electing these moochers even while knowing about the things they do. We certainly do have the best politicians that money can buy.

Elected public oficials, whether in our country's capitol or our state's capitol who abuse the laws that they have established should have all of their benefits taken away from them immediately. Including medical,pensions, wages,as well as thier spouses benefits.

How come no one is pointing out the indians... the casino operators for whom he was working? silence.

In response to the post by Dave Mallory; no one is pointing out the indians because they weren't the ones accepting bribes/payoffs. They were the ones being defauded of millions of dollars. It is time to start placing the blame on the guilty parties and demanding accountability from our elected officials.

I think we should clean house.....oust every one of them and start all over. I mean it. Just kick their butts out, establish 2 term limits for senators and 3 term limits for congressmen ande women.

Barney

Are all Reoublicans alcoholics? Or are all alcoholics Republicans?

Why is it that everytime a Republican congressman gets in trouble it suddenly turns out they are an alcoholic? Foley recently admitted to sexually explict messages with a underage male page - and guess what, he announces he is a life-long alcoholic. What does that have anything to do with taking the bribes or in Foley's case having sexually explict messages with an underage page? Absolutly nothing. And the Repubicans call themselves the party of family values....

The vast majority of Republicans are alcoholics. In the book Buyology, they make the point that a conservative Republican's room is likely to have flags, sports pennants etc. and beer / alcohol bottles. Liberal / progressive's rooms have a wide variety of books, art supplies and magazines.

In case you haven't been paying attention for the last 8 years, the role call of "former" alcoholics (whatever that is) reads like a who's who of the Republican party.

And ask yourself this question- do the Republicans I know drink every day, say a cocktail at dinner (functional alcoholic) and use holidays as an excuse to tie one on?

To a person (about 30 of them), I can answer this question "yes" with a single, highly religious exception.

It's important to understand that ANY amount of alcohol kills brains cells. A small amount kills a few, a larger amount kills a larger amount. There is no "small, safe" level of alcohol consumption to the brain cells that encounter that alcohol.

You can pour water over a rock and it seems like nothing's happened to the rock. But if you do it everyday for 30 years, you can see the rock is really being worn away by the water.

So also with brains and alcohol. The parts of your brain that go are the centers dedicated to high-level information processing- the neo-cortex, amongst others. So over time the brains of alcoholics are less able to process complex situations, to understand and react to vital nuances, to formulate realistic plans and even to think that such activity is worthwhile.

Moreover, alcoholics secretly know or suspect that they're unable to control this basic part of their lives, and hate themselves for that failure. A common reaction is to project the chaos and moral (as they feel it) failure onto "others" and thereby assume the role of moral superiority. They also experience the world as more dangerous and chaotic than it really is. They feel inadequate to deal with this dangerous world, and can't engage with the world in any authentic way or any way which requires trust. All because they themselves are unable to trust their own behavior, and they project that. They themselves feel overwhelmed by so much (internal) confusion and (their own) inability to deal with the complex, and many faceted nature of reality. This makes them drink even more, which compromises their ability to reason about a complex world even further. It's a downward spiral and one which is often only broken by "conversion" to a fundamentalist religion which, by definition, substitutes dogma for thought. In one shot, the alcoholic is relieved of having to think about the world in any authentic way, given the false gift of absolute certainty and security and is also handed the ultimate weapon of moral rectitude and superiority - the absolute, unchanging "truth" and "reality" of a Bronze Age belief system, impervious to reason.

That's what conservatives ARE. That's why all the conservatives you know are alcoholics.