[GOP Corruption]

The Moral Corruption.

In the midst of Arlen Specter's toothless NSA hearings ("we're here to judge the law, not the politics"--to paraphrase), we have an item today that underscores the real corruption at the heart of our degenerate ruling party. The GOP has figured out how to hide the most deeply bankrupt parts of their "leadership" in plain, legal sight:

President Bush sent Congress a $2.77 trillion spending plan on Monday that would bolster the nation's war against terrorism but squeeze many other government programs in an effort to deal with an exploding budget deficit projected to hit an all-time high this year.

Bush, hoping to get his domestic agenda back on track after a year of political setbacks, sent Congress a budget blueprint that emphasizes keeping the country strong militarily while offering mostly modest initiatives to deal with voter anxiety about rising global competition, soaring energy prices and skyrocketing medical bills.

The compost of GOP politics is a rich admixture of corporate cronyism, viscious ideology, and incompetence. It takes decades to build sound government policy, but just a few years of ham-handed tin-pot rulership to destroy it. It is these kinds of actions, not the more easily remedied corruption of K Street and Jack Abramoff, that will bind us to the Republican revolution--as decades are required to clean up the mess. (That is, if adults committed to creating sound policy ever actually return to power.)