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Thursday, July 16, 2009

This is what investigative journalism looks like
Posted by Jill | 5:20 AM
Perhaps the Washington Post ought to watch Rachel Maddow's show to remind itself what the role of the press is (hint: It isn't to fire guys like Dan Froomkin just because they ask uncomfortable questions about Vice Presidents, and it isn't to give idiots like Sarah Palin a forum for spewing more lies about their records). Maybe if WaPo would stop carrying water for Republicans, they wouldn't be in such dire straits.

To see what real journalism looks like, we turn to Rachel Maddow:




Now I don't have a problem with a group of men who join a club that helps them stay on the straight (heh) and narrow. It has been made quite clear during the Bush years and now with the peccadillos of Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford that Republican males in politics need such things since they lack any kind of moral code on their own, without some kind of punitive structure around them to act as a deterrent. But like every quasi-religious structure that tends to spring up around fundamentalist Christianity these days, C Street seems to be a particularly corrupt version of the Clean Slate Christianity which says you can cheat on your wife, embezzle money, murder those who disagree with you, and bugger little boys in the choirloft, and you are already forgiven because Jesus died on the cross. In the case of "The Family", there's no deity to whom these men are accountable, because Jehovah has anointed them as special and destined for power (in short, they believe in the Divine Right of Kings, or in their case, Senators). It's arguably the most corrupt corruption of Christianity we've ever seen -- and far too many of its members have powerful positions in government.

If you don't have time to read Jeff Sharlet's book (link in left-hand sidebar), then check out the piece he did in Harper's in 2003 about his time with "The Family." One could almost feel sorry for a group of men so small, so self-loathing, so rudderless, so unable to live day-to-day life without this sort of structure around them, that they have to come up with something like "The Family" and by extension, the C Street House in order to just get through every day. The problem is that these man have managed to infiltrate our government, with their corrupt structure that lacks any accountability to the American people they're supposed to serve and to the Constitution they swore to uphold while lying through their teeth. I think it's time to identify these guys and show them through the ballot box that their little fantasy of being anointed by God as somehow special is just an illusion.

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2 Comments:
Blogger Steve said...
I'm sorry. Every time I hear about "The Family", Sister Sledge's song just keeps rollin' cross my mind. Sanford, Ensign and Coburn should do a cover. Whueee, whueee, whueee.
7/16/09, 10:43 AM  
Blogger casey said...
Hi Steve,

Unlike you whenever I hear "The Family" I think about the book and movie "The Godfather" and their values. At least they had values even if you and I disagreed with them.
7/16/09, 4:08 PM  
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