Brent Colton is a retired CIA operations officer now in the employ of the Creighton Corporation, a privately owned think tank that advocates various opinions on world issues, but it’s his clandestine job to solve the dirty problems for their private clients for a million dollar fee with no questions asked. When recovering stolen technology from a Vietnamese industrialist, Colton obtains evidence that he secretly partnered with a U.S. Senatorto rig the recent presidential election and elect him to the nation’s highest office.

WHY THE REPUBLICANS SHOULD LOSE CONTROL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
by Terry Heath, 2006

The winds of persuasion in the political world of Washington can sure change even faster than the proverbial New York minute.

It was only last week that the Republicans seemed assured of retaining control of the House and Senate in next month’s mid-term congressional election because the number one concern being stated by prospective voters was the continued threat we face from terrorists. Most of those being surveyed favored Republicans over Democrats as the best party who could take care of that issue.

Then the whole country got to find out who Mark Foley is.

The Republican House elite is now on the defensive in the wake of all the disclosures revealed against them on who knew what and when did they know it that is reminiscent of the Watergate fiasco regarding the scandal involving the just resigned Florida congressman and the improper and highly sexually suggestive e-mails he was sending to congressional pages.

The Washington Times has editorialized that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert should resign from that position since he and the House leadership knew about Foley’s extracurricular activities for at least a year, maybe even longer. Yet that leadership did nothing about stopping it in a cynical attempt on their part to keep the Republican majority going in that branch of Congress for the next two-year term instead of doing what was right and getting this guy out of office and out of town.

What will it take to restore voter confidence toward the Grand Old Party since Foley happens to be the fourth Republican congressman to step down just this year? Don’t forget that also going in recent months were Californian Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham in a bribery scandal, Ohioan Bob Nay in the Jack Abramoff lobbyist debacle and Texan Tom Delay who stepped down to face charges of ethics violations in his home state.

So what should they do to gain back the trust of the American people?

It’s time for the entire Republican House of Representatives leadership to resign en masse over this disgusting spectacle as a gesture of ‘personal sacrifice’ to the American people. That would show that those given the trust of ensuring the nation’s security are willing to take responsibility for the actions of one of their own and share the shame when one of their group violates the rules of society.

If the Republican leadership won’t fall on the sword to regain public acceptance in the next two weeks, then the American voter should seek their own wrath at the ballot box against the Republican Party and put the Democrats in charge of that half of Congress for the last two years of George W. Bush’s presidency as a just and fitting punishment.

Why advocate such a drastic move over yet another congressional sex scandal that we’ve seen occur many times in the last fifty years?

If this crop of GOP members are out of power for two years in the House that will enable a new group of prospective leaders to emerge in 2008 that believe in true Republican Party values and not in retaining control over the Democrats for that sake only.

The Republican blogger die-hards will complain that losing one house of Congress will lead to political gridlock and diminish the effectiveness of the president’s final twenty-four months of his second term.

That could be a good thing in the long-term for true believers of conservative values who are tired of seeing this clan of alleged Republicans keep spending the taxpayers’ money as if this was still the era of FDR’s ‘The New Deal.’

It’s apparent this current group of Republican leaders have gotten complacent, entrenched and arrogant with power after twelve years of being in charge. If they won’t go on their own accord then the entire Republican members of Congress needs to go to the political wilderness of no authority for these next two years. That punishment will enable a new generation of Republican policymakers to step forward and bring back the true conservative political values that were held by Barry Goldwater, Robert Taft and William McKinley to Washington.

What can the American people expect for the next two years under Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi if we vote the Republicans out of the majority?

1) Gridlock. That will be a good thing because nothing important (or potentially damaging to the American people) will get done.

2) More gridlock because the two parties will be doing less lawmaking since they’ll be arguing with each other more on how the other party is to blame for the nation’s problems.

3) Lots of public name-calling and finger pointing that’s not very useful in getting things accomplished but is entertaining to the news media and the C-Span observer.

4) A quick departure by the Neo-Conservative Bush appointees who urged us into Iraq because they’d rather leave office and write their memoirs than appear for tough questioning before any investigative committees controlled by the Democrats.

5) There’s less likely that truly bad legislation would get passed with a divided Congress. George W. Bush would sign any bill voted in by a Republican Congress. But he may be less likely to sign something sent to him that was approved by the opposing Democratic Party so he could appear presidential in his vetoes of such legislation.

6) The future Republican 2008 presidential candidate can campaign as the underdog and make the claim they can end gridlock in government to their own political advantage without having to defend the Bush presidency.

Terry Heath California E-Mail readermail@terryheathbooks.com