The Republican Party
quotes and actions
In 1957,
Strom Thurmond staged one of the most famous acts of defiance in American politics.
In an effort to stall
President Eisenhower's civil rights bill, Thurmond filibustered on the Senate
floor for more than 24 hours, never leaving
the room. Eleven days after Thurmond's filibuster ended, the Civil Rights Act
of 1957 became law.
"I've been portrayed as a caveman by some. That's
not true. I'm a conservative progressive,
and that means I think all men are equal, be they slants, beaners, or niggers."
-Senator Jesse Helms, R-NC, February 6, 1985
"Don't
let anything like trees in the Clearwater National Forest get in the way of
providing
jobs and fueling the economy, even if that means cutting down every last tree
in the state."
-Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth R-ID, 1994
"I
want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we
voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed
our
lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
- Senator Trent Lott, R-Miss, December
2002
Republican Senate Leader for 6 years
[Sen. Lott resigned his position as Senate Majority Leader Jan. 6, 2003]
[In 1948, Strom Thurmond ran for president. His campaign included
"keeping the nigra race out of swimming pools and movie theaters".]
"...they
added no value, no advantage, really, to the United States
Armed Services over any sustained period of time."
-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, January 8, 2003
referring to the draftees that fought in the Vietnam War
"..honest to goodness, (husband) Ed and
I for years, for 20 years, have been saying,
‘You know, look at who runs all the convenience stores across the country.’
Every little
town you go into, you know? I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure
out that
there are people who don't like us all over this country no matter what their
nationality may be."
-Representative Sue Myrick, R-NC., February 6, 2003
The North Dakota State Senate has voted to uphold a law that makes it a crime
for unmarried couples to live together. The offense is listed among other sex
crimes,
including rape and incest. Violations carry a maximum 30 days in jail and a
$1,000 fine.
"It stands as a reminder that there is right, and there is wrong."
State Senator John Andrist, R, April 2003
Bismarck, N.D.
"If
the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual
gay sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy,
you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest,
you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."
-Senator Rick Santorum, R-Pa., April 2003
3rd highest ranking GOP Senator
“When
Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay recently tried smoking a cigar in
a restaurant on
federal property, the manager told him it violated federal law. His response
was, "I am the federal government."
- NY Times, Editorial Observer, May 27 2003.
During
a discussion June 17, 2003 on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally
exchange music and movie
files over the Internet, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee), asked technology
executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal
experts have said any such attack
would violate federal anti-hacking laws.
"No one is interested in destroying anyone's computer," replied Randy
Saaf of MediaDefender Inc.
"I'm interested," Hatch interrupted, "it may be
the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights." The senator
acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners
from liability for damaging
computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about
illegal online behavior, "then
destroy their computer." "If that's the only
way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few
hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize the seriousness of their
actions.
There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws," Senator
Hatch said.
Prominent
Republican fund-raiser Richard Anthony Delgaudio, 50, who had once called
President Bill Clinton "a terrible example to our nation's young people,"
pleaded guilty to taking
lewd photographs of a 16-year old girl he met in a Baltimore, MD. park. At the
time of his arrest,
according to court documents, Delgaudio had with him a book of obscene photographs
that he had
taken of 15- and 16-year old girls, whom he paid to pose in erotic positions
and have sex with him.
- June 19, 2003.
On
Friday, July 18, 2003, during a House Ways and Means Committee meeting on a
pension plan bill, when the
Democrats requested and could not to get a line-by-line reading of the bill
(a common parliamentary tactic) they
walked out and gathered to talk in a library at the back of the meeting room.
The Chairman of the Committee,
Bill Thomas, R-CA., had his staff call the Capitol Police and order them
to evict the Democrats from the library.
-CNN, July 21, 2003.
On
June 20, Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., was pulled over for speeding in northeastern
Nebraska, but was let off
with a warning. Eight weeks later, on August 16th, Janklow ran a
stop sign in South Dakota at
71 mph in a 55 mph speed zone, and killed a motorcyclist. He is charged with
manslaughter.
-Philadelphis Daily News, September 5, 2003.
Bill
Janklow was sentenced to 100 days in jail yesterday for a car crash that killed
a motorcyclist.
After he completes his jail term, he will be on probation for three years and
can't drive during that time.
His resignation from Congress is effective on Tuesday.
The 64 year old Republican was found guilty Dec. 8 of second-degree manslaughter,
speeding,
and running a stop sign, causing a collision that killed 55 year old motorcyclist
Randy Scott on Aug. 16.
-Daily News wire services, January 23, 2004.
"The
idea of being able to use a redesigned nuclear weapon to keep a terrorist from
hitting us with
a nuclear weapon is something we've got to come to grips with because it's part
of the war on terrorism."
-Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., September 16, 2003.
Monroe
County District Attorney Mark Pazuhanich, a Republican from East Stroudsburg
who is
scheduled to become a county judge in January 2004, was charged with public
drunkenness at the
F.M. Kirby Theater for the Performing Arts, where teen singer Hillary Duff was
performing.
Pazuhanich was released to family members after the 6:40pm citation by the Wilkes-Barre
police.
-Associated Press, Nov 29, 2003.
Family
court judge James Farber issued an emergency order preventing Monroe County
District
Attorney Mark Pazuhanich, 47, from having "telephone, written or physical
contact" with his
daughter, who lives in New Jersey with her mother. Pazuhanich's parental rights
were "suspended
until further notice" by the Judge. Pazuhanich is accused of fondling a
10-year-old girl at a teen pop
concert. He has been released on $10,000 bail, and faces two counts of indecent
assault, one count each
of corrupting the morals of a minor, public drunkenness, and endangering the
welfare of a child.
-Associated Press, Dec 26, 2003.
Former Illinois
Republican Governor George Ryan was indicted yesterday on charges that he
and his family took cash, gifts, vacations and other favors to steer state business
to friends
and associates while he was governor and, before that, Illinois secretary of
state.
-Associated Press, Dec 18, 2003.
"Let's all admit something." Rush Limbaugh was on his usual
tear. "There's nothing good about drug use," he was saying.
"We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use
destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And
we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs.
And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and
neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating
the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted
and they ought to be sent up."
"What
this says to me," he told his listeners that day, "is that
too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting
away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this
stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail
because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer
is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and
send them up the river, too."
-Rush Limbaugh, Oct.
5, 1995
"'When you strip it all away," Rush had said of the Grateful Dead guitarist, "Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks."
Dennis Miller * Kelsey Grammer * Billy Ray Cyrus * Pat Croce * Ted Nugent * Peter H. Coors / Coors Brewing *
