FL-16: What's the Matter with Florida??
There is something about the FL-16 Congressional district that just screams hypocrite. It is a perfect example of right wing (Republican AND Democrat) hypocricy, scandal and pseudo-morality.
Now, when Republicans act in a corrupt or hypocritical fashion, the Republican party almost always makes excuses and defends even their worst, most offensive members. When Democrats act in a corrupt or hypocritical fashion, it is often Democrats who call attention to it and reject that corruption and hypocricy. FL-16 is an example of both.
In 2006 Democrats won the FL-16 district because right wing Republican hypocrite Mark Foley got caught as a pedophile. This is a typical bible thumping Republican who is always talking about morals...but who is himself about as disgustingly immoral as you can get. The Republican Party did their best to defend this sleazeball, siding with NAMBLA, but in the end the voters stood up to Republican sleaze and voted Mark Foley out. In his place they voted for a bible-thumping Democrat who is always talking about morals: Tim Mahoney.
I supported Tim Mahoney in 2006. I did not like the fact that he was so right wing and so loud about what people should and should not be doing in private. Tim Mahoney sounded too much like a Republican to me, but he was running as a Democrat and, quite honestly, seemed to fit the district. Some districts are conservative and their representatives should fit their beliefs. Tim Mahoney seemed like the right Democrat for the district. So I supported him in 2006. Well, in the end, Tim Mahoney proves to be a hypocritical right winger as well.
Daily Kos (a Democratic blog) has a scathing article exposing Tim Mahoney (a Democrat) for the uptight, nasty hypocrite that he is. You never see Republicans calling out the hypocrites in their midst...but Democrats hold their politicians to a higher standard.
Tim Mahoney talks about morality and values, but is just as much a womanizer as Republican Vito Fossella of NYC who, as many put it, was so pro-family values he had two families. Mahoney not only turns out to have a mistress, but that mistress was ready to leave him for...infidelity! He had more than one mistress. So his main mistress threatened to talk, so Mahoney tried bribing her to keep quiet.
Okay, what people do in private is their own business. At least Mahoney wasn't a pedophile like Republican Mark Foley. But when you go around giving sermons on morality and telling people how they should behave in private, you don't then get to break your own "values" without being labelled a massive hypocrite. Come on! If YOU can't live by your own rules, don't go around telling others how they should live.
And then Mahoney took it further by offering hush money.
What can I say? At least Mahoney wasn't a pedophile like Foley, and at least the Democratic Party is not defending his actions the way Republicans defended Foley. But if Mahoney loses this year he deserves it...and I would welcome it even though it means losing a House seat to the Republicans. I do not like hypocricsy and I do not defend hypocricy, whether it is Republican or Democratic. I will once again point out that when it comes to corruption the Republican party is demonstrably more corrupt AND contains more pedophiles.
I ask the FL-16 district: what is wrong with you? First a Republican pedophile, then a Democrat whose strict morality only applies to others, not himself? Are these truely the people you want representing you? Maybe you should stop listening to sermons from politicians and start paying attention to what they are really like and where they stand on issues!
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scandal
Thanks
Submitted by mole333 on 15 October 2008 - 5:55am.
Thanks for the insider's view.
I should make clear that I have nothing against strongly religious people. I have known very strict Catholics (including my current boss), Muslims (including a close co-worker and friend), Jews (including Orthodox coworkers), Hindus and Buddhists. Even knew a Christian guy who had had religious visions he believed in, but never expected anyone else to believe in them.
All of these people had deeply held PERSONAL beliefs and I respected them. What I cannot stand are people who feel their personal religious beliefs should apply to everyone else as well. But what is even worse than that are the people who feel their religious beliefs should apply to everyone else but DON'T even apply them to themselves. Foley and Mahoney fall into this last category. I suspect most of the people you describe in your area fall into the middle category. Or maybe I give them too much credit, but I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt at first.
Well,
Submitted by Nance Confer (not verified) on 15 October 2008 - 2:36pm.
after turning down the invitations to send my young children to bible study -- twice, politely but firmly -- the super religious around here leave me alone.
I don't hold them to any higher standard than any of us. Nobody's perfect. I just don't care what they do privately and wish everyone felt the same.
And I truly hope that we can move past having to pretend to care about who is screwing who when really we are all being screwed by this economy. Let's get that fixed first and then worry about who is going to heaven or not.
Nance
What's wrong?
Well, you see, it's a bit of a story.
I live here and, really, it was just a thrill to have a Dem to vote for who actually won something!
He didn't work out and wasn't, as you point out, really too much of a D to start with, but how much fun will it be to go to the polls on November 4! I get to vote for a real Democrat who will actually win! Hurray!
Anyway, we are wall-to-wall churches and rich people. Or not-quite-rich but aspiring and now living in a McMansion they can't afford. Or not rich at all but proudly riding around with a confederate flag on their pickup truck. Or extremely old. Old as in hazardous to drive at about 10 AM -- that's when errands are run and doctor appointments are kept and stop signs are for the under-70 crowd.
And there's the bible college. And Jupiter Island -- home of the mega-rich.
The perfect breeding ground for a bunch of self-righteous Rs.
But there are, I was happily surprised to find out, more Ds than I imagined. Last I saw, under half the voting population but not by the huge margin I had expected. But even the Ds are not all that D -- witness Mahoney.
So it was amazing to have a D elected at all and I wouldn't hold my breath for the next one. And the R will be of the bible-banging support-the-rich variety.
So, thanks for starting my day with an eye-catching headline -- you've gotta love living in a state that is the punchline so many times
-- but don't waste too much energy thinking this district is ever going to get much of a clue.
Nance