Rs in Congress. It doesn't add up.

[Skidmore]

Now not all these guys are neocons, nor do they agree with them. Yet they all toe the line, regardless of how egregious the demands of the executive are on them. Even with Delay gone and Frist weakened, they still line up. The only conclusion I am drawing now is that *, Cheney, and Rove are blackmailing them big time. They are providing cover for this administration on issues that are diametrically opposed to the platforms that brought many of them into office.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Blackmail and threats of cutting off their support and $ for re-election

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. That HAS to be the reason. Also, think about this:

The WH knew for a YEAR that the NYT had this info. IF they had wiretapped every member of Congress, they had more than enough time to remove all wiretaps and cover their tracks. My guess is...they have garbage on EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS. Why else would they not go to FISA to get a court order?

[sandnsea]

3. This is Republicanism

This is what they believe in. Constrained power in the Unitary Executive to enable commerce and protect it with a strong military. That and that alone is the purpose of the federal government. All the pesky people stuff should be handled at the local or state level. Government isn't to make people's lives better, it's for trade and commerce and the accumulation of wealth in the elite.

That's why they'll continue to line up no matter what Republican is in charge.

[Talismom]

4. It doesn't seem to be limited to Rs...check out the 19 defectors on the

Alito filabuster, many of whom also voted for the bankruptcy bill. A bunch a whores!

[Skidmore]

5. Something really stinks here. and I don't think it's just

typical R behavior.

[Talismom]

6. Whaddaya mean 'Splain please. n/t

[stillcool]

7. The Origins of Overclass...

by Steve Kangas....the investigative journalist who was suicided in the bathroom of a Scaife Office Building...

The wealthy have always used many methods to accumulate wealth, but it was not until the mid-1970s that these methods coalesced into a superbly organized, cohesive and efficient machine. After 1975, it became greater than the sum of its parts, a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest 1 percent into the stratosphere.

The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA. This is not to say the machine is a formal CIA operation, complete with code name and signed documents. (Although such evidence may yet surface — and previously unthinkable domestic operations such as MK-ULTRA, CHAOS and MOCKINGBIRD show this to be a distinct possibility.) But what we do know already indicts the CIA strongly enough. Its principle creators were Irving Kristol, Paul Weyrich, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, William F. Buckley, Jr., the Rockefeller family, and more. Almost all the machine's creators had CIA backgrounds.

During the 1970s, these men would take the propaganda and operational techniques they had learned in the Cold War and apply them to the Class War. Therefore it is no surprise that the American version of the machine bears an uncanny resemblance to the foreign versions designed to fight communism. The CIA's expert and comprehensive organization of the business class would succeed beyond their wildest dreams. In 1975, the richest 1 percent owned 22 percent of America’s wealth. By 1992, they would nearly double that, to 42 percent — the highest level of inequality in the 20th century.

Many common traits made it inevitable that the CIA and Corporate America would become allies. Both share an intense dislike of democracy, and feel they should be liberated from democratic regulations and oversight. Both share a culture of secrecy, either hiding their actions from the American public or lying about them to present the best public image. And both are in a perfect position to help each other

http://www.aliveness.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html

[berni_mccoy]

8. One Word: Abramoff

They've been controlled with money and extortion. Plain and Simple.