June has been a busy month for the Avenging Angel, smiter of conservative miscreants.
The fun and frolic starts with Rush Limbaugh, the face of right wing radio and prescription drug fraud. On Monday, Rush once again ran afoul of the law over his pill predilection. Only weeks after doing a deal over charges of doctor shopping for the painkiller oxycontin, Limbaugh was stopped at the Miami airport for possession of Viagra without a prescription. Like Bob Dole before him, the Angel suggests, Rush is just another dysfunctional member of the conservative movement.
In the Southwest, Don Goldwater, the nephew of the late Arizona Senator earned the ire of the Avenging Angel and fellow Arizona Republicans including John McCain for his illegal immigrant "tent city" proposal this week. Goldwater, a gubernatorial candidate, was quoted as endorsing the use of illegal aliens to "labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting." Extremism in the defense of extremism, the Angel ponders, is no virtue.
Back in Congress, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert faces the wrath of the Avenging Angel for redefining pork (so to speak). In a sweetheart land deal that makes Whitewater look like a half-off sale at Wal Mart, Hastert pocketed a $1.5 million profit by selling property in his district just four months after securing $207 million in federal funds to build a highway nearby. Hastert, the Angel muses, may yet become the GOP poster boy for pigs at the trough.
Speaking of Banana Republicans, California Congressman Jerry Lewis joins Tom Delay on the growing list of Republicans smote by the Avenging Angel for funneling interest group money to PACs or non-profits run by family members. Lewis' step-daughter received almost $45,000, a third of all funds raised by her Small Biz Tech PAC, from lobbyist and former Lewis staffer Letitia White. White also shills for Trident Systems, which has pocketed $40 million in federal funds from Lewis' Appropriations Committee.
For a complete roster of Right's guilty and still-to-be punished, visit the Avenging Angel.