Hypocrisy in the Ranks of the Powerful

It's not just DeLay who's a hypocrite. Turns out that Bush sued a car-rental agency, looking for a deep pocket.

In fact, there's hypocrisy in big amounts from the Republican pols who want to keep government out of our lives or insert it directly into our lives, depending on the circumstances.

Dwight Meredith has chapter and verse on his blog.

This could have been a heck of a news story -- compiling all of the cases -- for an enterprising newspaper. But a blogger pieced it together.

Comments

[Staci Kramer]

Dan --

The rental car lawsuit story is an old one -- still relevant but well reported in the past. Here's one example sourced by the August 2000 stories in the Daily News and the Houston Chronicle:

http://www.centerjd.org/press/release/020126.htm
George W. Bush. In 1999, Bush sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car over a minor fender-bender involving one of his daughters in which no one was hurt. Although his insurance would have covered the repair costs making a lawsuit unnecessary, Bush sought additional money from Enterprise, which had rented a car to someone with a suspended license. In this case, Bush seemed to understand one of the most important functions of civil lawsuits — to deter further wrongdoing. The case settled for $2,000 to $2,500. Burger, Timothy, “Bush sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car over daughter’s fender bender,” Daily News, August 26, 2000; “Bush sued rental agency over fender bender,” Houston Chronicle, August 26, 2000

[Al]

So, in Delay's case are you saying that he should have recused himself from voting or something?

If he stayed out of the fray on changing the Tort laws, you guys would be complaining that he's giving himself the option to sue some more.

This is all about the piling on that is going on about Delay. Almost everywhere I read, there are stories about the guy. I agree that he has some problems, but many of the stories seem like they've been planted. You guys just don't like him because he's effective.

It won't work as well as the tactics used against Gingrich, because of new media. In Gingrich's time, all we had was the major media and very few ways to refute and correct. So what took a few years of bad stories will take longer with Delay. If he really is corrupt, then the system will (hopefully) weed him out.

Ah, while we're talking about hypocrisy, I'm wondering why I don't remember many Dem's complaining about Clinton/Reno blowing by the courts to swipe that Elian Gonzales a few years ago? Good article on it:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110006480
In case the link dies off, here's an excerpt: "The Reno Justice Department acted the next day to short-circuit a legal process that was clearly going against it. On Good Friday evening, after all courts had closed for the day, the department obtained a "search" warrant from a night-duty magistrate who was not familiar with the case, submitting a supporting affidavit that seriously distorted the facts. Armed with that dubious warrant, the INS's helmeted officers, assault rifles at the ready, burst into the home of Elian's relatives and snatched the screaming boy from a bedroom closet. Many local bystanders were tear-gassed even though they did nothing to block the raid."

While the cases are different, some of the same people complaining about the Republican-led governemnt getting involved in the Schiavo, were supportive of the Democratic-led government's ARMED involvement in the Elian case. If Jeb Bush had sent in some armed state officials, you guys would be complaining all over the place.

The reality is Jeb was right to not intervene against the courts.

I guess I have to laugh about the hypocrisy card being played by the Dem's. When a Dem was in the White House, Sadaam was evil and bills were passed authorizing force with the same evidence (actually less) than Bush had. Or, "I support the troops, but not their mission." Or, how many times have we heard from the Dem's that Social Security is a mess? Thousands! Then, when someone actually goes out to fix it, all of sudden, the problems are minor. Sorry Dem's, we're too smart to fall for this crap. All of these blogs give all sides an opportunity to push us all to the truth. From global warming to globalization, better information is reaching more people. When the Dem's wake up to this and stop blowing smoke (like Social Security reform), then they'll start winning again.

Of course all sides have hypocrisy issues. It's one reason I came to the "err on the side of life" side of this Schiavo debacle.

[Dan Gillmor]

The Democrats are hypocrites, too, on many things. They don't have any power -- or spine -- at the moment.

[Gary Chapman]

The classic case is that of Greg Abbott, Attorney General of our State of Texas, who campaigned supporting tort reform and labeled his Democratic opponent, former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a trial lawyer who had made millions from "lawsuit abuse."

But Abbott, who is in a wheelchair from a freak accident involving a tree that fell on him while he was jogging, was the plaintiff in a lawsuit over this accident, having hired one of the top plaintiff's attorneys in the state. The case was settled, but during the campaign it was revealed that Abbott may get as much as $10 million from the settlement.

Read about it here: http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1121.

[Owen]

Dan, your point about Democratic hypocisy is well taken, but then it's probably present is all of us to one degree or another. What makes the neocons so offensively hypocritical is they're so quick to claim divine guidance, a higher level of personal morality and unquestionable patriotic motives as the foundation for their official actions.

When judged by actions instead of words, however, their deviation from traditional Republican values is as profound as their deviation from the Christian values they trumpet so loudly...compassion, charity, forgiveness, truthfulness to name just a few minor ones.

[Jim M]

The real story here is that this is not new at all. I read this in popular, widely read blogs months before the election. That means the bigger question is why didn't you know it then, Dan, since you're actually interested in these things, and then the question becomes why didn't the reporters on the political beat know it?

Really, I'm not some superman of news; how can it be that I am much better informed on basic news stories than the people who get paid to cover those stories? Isn't there something wrong there? Really wrong?

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