John Ashcroft covered up the bare nipples on the statues in the lobby at the justice department; surely that man is of high moral character!

These conservative types came into their posts with a kind of narrow-minded hubris, a notion that they were going to do everything in a contrary way, not for the sake of change or even improvement per se, but because they wanted nothing at all to do with Clinton and his policies. What could a liberal like Clinton know about anything? Foreign relations is a good example - they had no interest in picking up the threads of Clinton's moves on North Korea or Palestine, nor were they they least bit interested in Clinton's anti-terror work.

Now, years later, we can of course grade these "professionals". The Bush administration has been a dismal failure in virtually every measurable way. Yeah, the economy had a boom of sorts, but so did Clinton's and his boom was bigger and broader. They ignored terrorism until it literally hit them in the face. They ignored North Korea and only recently made any progress, though this quasi-successful tactic goes very much against the grain of most of this administration's history, against the so called Hawks, and against White House power monger Cheney. They ignored Iran and they ignored the Middle East peace process, arguably the root of our trouble with radical Islam.

An agency that reached new heights under Clinton, FEMA, was gutted by the Bush administration; this played a key role in the Katrina disaster.

Most Americans today still believe that being religious makes you a better, more moral, person. They wouldn't even consider an atheist as a high-profile politician according to many polls. But where is the evidence? Is there anything measurable anywhere that tells us that Bush's Jesus-love made him a better person? Made his administration perform better in the real world? Makes any man of faith a better human being or leader?

They sure moved heaven and Earth in an attempt to keep a corpse (formerly known as Terry Shaivo) breathing, demonstrating the Big Brother attitude of these moralists who know better than you or I what's best for our close family members. Better double check your will and set aside money for legal defense, just in case...

How many innocent Iraqi's are dead? How many more innocents could potentially die now that Afghanistan is showing early signs of imploding? How many scandals has the Bush administration found itself in with little or no reprisal thanks only to the weak status of the Democrats?

The administration lied about global warming science produced by its own scientists! Bush Jr. is hiding his daddy's dirty laundry in his library. We still don't know (and may never know) what the administration told a room full of oil barons in regards to our national energy policy; even Republicans want to know! Along the same lines, we have rampant cronyism. What happened to the billions missing in Iraq? What about the whole cooked/cherry-picked intelligence stuff leading up to the war?

The whole Libby-as-fallguy affair ended with somewhat of a fizzle, alas. Conservatives are now repeating the, "we shouldn't criminalize politics" bit again. Lies and unethical behavior, in other words, are fine. Rove, Cheney and Bush, the Axis of Dirty Politics - but wait! I thought this administration was supposed to set some kind of higher standard?

What about Jesus-loving Tom Delay? He must be a decent feller, he wanted Americans to pray more often. What about the other members of Congress, especially Republicans? Sure, Democrats are dirty too, but Republicans and their conservative members promised a clean house! They had total control for years, where is the fruit? Did religion help the "do nothing" Congress act responsibly? Ethically? Productively? Frugally?

The devoutness of their hearts didn't even improve their language: this new crowd curses like sailors with the best of us.

What do nice suits and strong religious values get you? Nothing, as far as I can see. Are Americans just too uninterested in learning about the real issues in-depth? Can we now stop putting so much attention to window-dressing? Can we finally stop believing that being a member of a religious sect and wearing uncomfortable clothes with a red or blue noose has anything at all to do with ethics, morality, or positive results? Please can we? Pretty please?

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