What can you say about such breathtaking, Rush Limbaugh-size hypocrisy?
A Tea Party-supported congressman representing some of the most conservative folks in Florida, born Henry Jude Radel III but known as “Trey,” was, in the words of USA Today,
caught buying drugs as part of a federal investigation into a Washington, D.C., drug ring last month and is being charged with cocaine possession, according to a senior Drug Enforcement Administration official.
Now, presumably because Radel is a white guy holding a once-respected office in our national government, he was not arrested at the time he was caught buying drugs. He 
was “detained” later at his apartment by FBI agents, who, the USA Today report made clear, “never handcuffed Radel or took him to jail.” Of course not. Why would law enforcement want to treat him like a regular dope-buyer on the streets of D.C.?
In any case, Radel’s biggest sin, one this Catholic congressman may have to explain to the Lord someday, is not the cocaine purchase. No, that’s not his main crime. Just a few months ago this phony bastard voted to force food stamp recipients to piss in cups to prove they’re not lawbreakers like him. Where do you find words to describe such blatant dishonesty?
Not that making hungry people who receive government help prove they’re not drug abusers isn’t a colossally sinful Republican policy in itself, but for that policy to receive the support of some pharisaical Tea Party congressman, who has an affection for nose candy, is a sin that Satan himself would envy.
Last summer, when Republicans were debating their welfare drug-testing policy, Democratic congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts proposed testing phonies like Representative Henry Jude Radel III:
Why don’t we drug test all the members of Congress here? Force everybody to go urinate in a cup or see whether or not anybody is on drugs? Maybe that will explain why some of these amendments are coming up or why some of the votes are turning out the way they are.
Yes, that might explain it. But what explains the hypocrisy?
Radel, a former talk show host like Limbaugh, has admitted he has a problem. Good for him. That’s the first step towards recovery. He said,
I struggle with the disease of alcoholism, and this led to an extremely irresponsible choice.
I hope he sees his “irresponsible choice” as not just buying blow from a dealer working with the feds, but also cruelly voting to drug-test people on food stamps. That would be his second step towards recovery.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
brucetheeconomist
/ November 20, 2013I just couldn’t help but think of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. They should be roomates at rehab.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 20, 2013Rob Ford is in a class by himself. The drugs have really done some damage to his mind and his stupid-ass brother is not helping him a bit. My problem with all the stuff surrounding him is our news media are giving him much more coverage than he deserves. We have a lot of problems in this country, and the mayor of a city in Canada (and it is a wonderful city; I have been there at least a couple of times) does not deserve all the reports and segments being done on him every day. It is a circus and meanwhile, the Republican Party here at home is getting away with all kinds of mischief.
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Sedate Me
/ November 23, 2013Trust me, Toronto is still good, but it sure as hell ain’t anywhere near what it used to be. I lived there for 4 years of my misspent youth and wished it was still 1/3 that good. The Ford Era has been a giant step backward…and not just because he’s turned Toronto into an international joke.
Thanks to the re-drawing of Toronto city limits in the 90’s that included much of the suburbs around it, the city has drifted into a civil war, Canadian style.
“You urban hosers suck!”
“No, you suburban hosers suck!”
“Well, this isn’t a hockey game where we can drop the gloves, so we’ll just have to settle it by voting-eh?”
The Ford Family grafted themselves onto the rising tide of mindless, suburban, conservatism that hates taxes, worships cars and doesn’t give a shit about anything else. Soprano’s extra, Rob Ford, fits that description nicely and gets their nipples hard with all his macho bravado.
He is what Canucks like me call a wannabe Republican both in policy and style. He’s an argumentative, right wing, asshole, even when sober…and that ain’t often. He blathers on and on about left wing media conspiracies out to get him. He is the king of the TO Castle and if you gotta problem with that….http://lybio.net/tag/rob-ford-kill-the-fucking-guy/ Capiche?
Cracked up or not, that’s pretty much par for the Rob Ford course.
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ansonburlingame
/ November 21, 2013If Congress is a reflection of the general population, which it is suppose to be I think, then there should be about 50 – 100 members of Congress attending AA or NA meetings each week. My guess is some of them do so, very quietly and more power to them in my view. The ones going to such meetings do not concern me at all. But the ones that should be doing so, Dems and GOP, well they give me great pause to worry and I would join a reasonable and effective effort to weed them out and expose them, Dem or GOP not making any differnce whatsoever. In this case Congress did nothing but the DC police department sure helped, a lot.
Members of the military have been subjected to random drug tests since the early 1980’s so why not Congress (and all members of the Congressional staffs as well) I wonder and the White House staff and elected officials therein as well? As a skipper, when my name came out of the “random hat” I peed in a bottle like everyone else, long ago. So did the Commander of the Atlantic Fleet as well.
I don’t know the “policy” now for anyone holding security clearances issued by the federal government, in terms of testing for drugs and alcohol. But I know what it should be. I wonder how many Congressmen and staff members hold such clearances?
Now for drug testing people receiving large federal benefits? Is it OK for the federal government to shell out huge amounts of money, $500 a month in food stamps, to people that will squander that benefit and continue to feed their habits, with no oversight whatsoever? Souls Harbor refuses to let anyone stay there if they can’t pass a breathalyzer placed right in the entryway. Is that wrong to so test those people and refuse awarding the benefit of shelter when they test positive?
Anson
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McKnight John
/ November 21, 2013The national average for a single recipient is $133.00 per month (less than $1.50 per meal). This month SNAP cuts go into effect, putting a hitch in what you believe is the recipient’s druggy stride. Wallowing in right-wing disparagement of the “poor” is your prerogative (or poor judgment). Just keep in mind that when you share a compost pile-as-opinion it makes you look like a…?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/21/house-republicans-want-drug-tests-for-food-stamp-recipients-theres-no-good-reason-for-that/
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Sedate Me
/ November 26, 2013“If Congress is a reflection of the general population, which it is suppose to be I think,
Well, there’s your first mistake…It’s anything but what its supposed to be.
then there should be about 50 – 100 members of Congress attending AA or NA meetings each week.”
Nothing like listening to the utter bullshit that goes on in Congress to make me want to numb the pain with all manner of drugs & alcohol. I can only imagine what it would be like to be permanently trapped there. There can’t possibly be more than 5% who aren’t on hooked on something.
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ansonburlingame
/ November 22, 2013Thus John, should I assume you feel that no testing for addiction should be applied to any member of Congress, the White House, or anyone receiving federal benefits or working with classified materials as well? Speaking of a composte pile of opinion!!
Anson
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 26, 2013There’s a slight difference between, say, “working with classified materials” and getting a few bucks a month for food, Anson.
No, folks in Congress shouldn’t get drug tested unless they insist on drug testing everyone who receives a benefit from the federal government, which, means the entire country. So, as a conservative do you want to live in a society where every single citizen has to pee in a government cup?
Huh?
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Sedate Me
/ November 26, 2013Great, Duane. Now somebody is going to use that argument to justify instituting nation-wide drug testing on everyone…Oops, too late!
In my book, drug testing is all about power & control. It’s just like how our ape brethren piss on each other to establish dominance. Other than Anson, I don’t see anyone of importance pissing all over themselves. Er, you know what I mean.
Drug testing started out claiming it was about ensuring that people holding “important” jobs were morally pure enough to hold them. However, as I predicted when it first started, it’s trickled down to testing the moral purity of the human veal calves working in cubicles. Now its trickling right down to the folks with no jobs at all.
If you have to scientifically test somebody’s urine to see if they’re capable of doing their job, then obviously they aren’t doing THAT bad of a job. It’s yet another case of “Guilty until proven innocent…innocent for now!” (See: NSA) And what happens when they fail? Well, a “How much do we like you?” triage inevitably gets preformed.
Drug testing completely ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of people now take some kind of drug just to make it through the day. (Big Pharma is the biggest drug pusher there is, but their lucrative smack is A-OK!) It identifies the use of a pharmaceutical crutch as the problem and ignores the root cause, the reason so many in our society feel the need to self-medicate.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 27, 2013Your analysis has some merit, I confess (and it should, since your handle is “Sedate Me”). But haven’t humans been self-medicating for a long damn time? Here is an article from 2008 I particularly like:
And the article gives an explanation for this self-medication:
So, not only have folks been doing drugs for a long time, they’ve been lying about why they’ve been doing them for at least 5,000 years!
Duane
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