But moral terpitude is not enough to deny entry into the United States Congress. If it were, the joint would be empty. -- Garry Owen

Thanks, I needed a laugh.

To define that moral terpitude a little, a "quality" congress posesses is the expanding ablity to abdicate reponsibility. Congress and only Congress can start wars or military engagements, and determine the scope and funding of such engagements. In all cases they abdicate these responsibilities and "delegate" these decisions to the administrative branch. This isn't delegation of duty but dereliction of duty, driven by cowardice which they hope is effctively masked by useless non-binding censures.

Sam Brownback better hope his SKELETONS in his CLOSET DON'T GET RATTLED BY SOMEONE out for Brownback's SCALP! I don't like or want to have Craig or Vitter around either, but the Democrats are hoping both of them STICK AROUND like CLINGING TURDS BESMIRCHING the repugnicant-repub fudge-pachyderms EVEN MORE and DRAGGING the G.O.P. down with them to their WELL-DESERVED OBLIVION!!!!! What a LAUGH, seeing repugnicant-repubs ASSAILING ONE ANOTHER----PASS THE POPCORN, GUYS, IT'S TIME FOR ROUND TWO, or IS THAT A "NUMBER TWO" SMEARED RIGHT IN THEIR SAPPY FACES?????

When sex has been doing so well for them so far? The republican party has been all about sex for over a decade and it's been good to them, why give it up now? If their voters started caring about real problems now, they might actually start realizing that the republican party doesn't care about them and they might walk away. Why run that risk?

I personally don't care where you stick your dick on off hours just save my constitution first.

The New Yorker cover has Amedinijiad (Iranian PM) sitting on the pot in a stall, with a foot coming under the stall wall toward his foot.

Craig pled guilty, presumably under oath. Now he's saying he wasn't guilty. Sounds like a pretty clear-cut case of perjury to me.

Hmmm, don't I remember a big case a while back involving another political figure ... something about the Senate meeting to decide if someone was guilty of perjury ... "it's not the sex, it's the lying under oath" ... big scandal ... or was I just imagining that?

"if you look at what took place, you look and you go, 'This is not good; this is bad. This shouldn’t have taken place.'"

Funny, I feel the same about letting our guard down to allow the 9/11 attacks to occur, the invasion of Iraq based on the WMD lies, hundreds of thousands of deaths, secret prisons, a separate judicial system, the USA being known for torturing people, the end of Habeas Corpus, the squandering of what was once a surplus, and the loss of any leadership the USA will ever have in the area of human rights.

I probably left out several events.

Too bad nobody inside the Senate seems to see that this ought to be a crime.

This is sad and pathetic -- both Craig's having to solicit in an airport bathroom and our fixation on it because it could get us a couple points in the election.

If exploiting some third rate senator's sexual problems is our best bet at winning -- at a time when fascism is on the march -- then I'd say both the progressive movement and the Democratic Party are serious pansies.

will they be able to drag up very old news about the Clinton marriage and use it to attack Hillary should she be nominated. I think that they are desperate.

How can they attack Hillary you may ask when it was Bill who did the adulterous deed? It's very peculiar, but they've done it before, implying that she is an amoral, ambitious broad who only stayed with Bill for political reasons.

The more I think about it, the more I like this wacky theory. Think about who the Republican front-runners are: John McCain, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani. Nasty, naughty boys all. For any of them to be elected, the GOP base will need to develop a jaded, blasé, so-what? attitude towards sex scandals.

They vote in favor of censure, they get accused by people like us of wasting time on ridiculous nonsense and/or selling out to the right wing yet again when we have more pressing matters to address.

They vote against censure, and the fundies will accuse them of complicity in/indifference towards "moral turpitude."

Some are acting mote like the scum of the earth.Repugnant Repugnicans. No wonder that the approval ratings stink.

I'm starting to wonder if there's a part of the Secret Republican Cabal that wants to keep sexual pecadilloes front page news. For now at least.

Because it's a distraction from what really matters: torture, warrantless wire-tapping, Iraq and all of the domestic issues on which Bush has achieved absolutely nothing since taking office. Clearly the whole MoveOn.org issue and other useless "Sense of the Senate" votes were an obvious distraction.

But could Republicans be so desperate for distraction that they want us to be talking about Vitter and Craig? Heck, maybe they'll even start manufacturing sex scandals.

Moral Terpitude: "conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty, or good morals"

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs, simple moral terpitude is enough in and of itself to deny an alien entry into the United States.

But moral terpitude is not enough to deny entry into the United States Congress. If it were, the joint would be empty.

United we stand, divided we fall. Our American politicians love their wedges.

Censure for these two fools, officially scolding MoveOn, to scold or to honor Rush Limbaugh?...this is how they're occupying their time while we are probably mired in one of the darkest periods of our national history? Its all a diversion tactic. Watch waht the magician is doing with the hand behind his back...oh say, like overwhelmingly giving George Bush his green light to go after Iran. Money, money, money. Clinton's campaign strategist has ties to Blackwater. They're all swimming in the same filthy water. All of this foolishness is simply to mask what's really going on.