What would William Bennett or Tom DeLay (on his lobbyist junkets) do without the den of sin known as Las Vegas? What would Republicans, in general, do without the support of the gaming industries?

What would the Republican Party do to stop coarse and crude FOX television programs if it meant offending Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the unofficial GOP news outlet, FOX News?

What would the White House do without the support of Sumner Redstone's Viacom, the owner of CBS and purveyor of much of the entertainment industry content that the right wing media echo chamber condemns as vulgar and crude?

What would the Bush Campaign do without the support of General Electric, owner of NBC, whose television programming includes subjects declared strictly taboo by the new pre-enlightenment self-appointed moral watchdogs of the right?

We could go on and on about the purveyors of so-called moral perversion in the Republican Party. For the sake of brevity, let's just say that leading Republican media campaign contributors are among the foremost profiteers of the so-called "coarsening of American culture" -- and the Paleolithic pundits of the right know it. But morally bankrupt appeals to cultural populism earn right wing shills fat paychecks.

As for the reviled Hollywood of the Rush Limbaugh sect, what have Democratic supporters like Steven Spielberg added to the "downfall of American culture"? Films like "Saving Private Ryan," perhaps? Or was it "Schindler's List" that so troubled the faux jeremiads, descendants of the Salem Witch Trial judges? Or was it that perverse film, "E.T."?

Democrats and independents celebrate the values of a diverse culture, while many Republican financiers wallow in the gutter.

But if you read or listen to the right wing professional town hall whores, you'd think that Barbra Streisand, whose most perverse moment was perhaps singing "People Who Love People," is responsible for the downfall of Western Civilization.

Sorry, Kathleen Parker and Rush Limbaugh, look into the mirror. The smut you see around you is pedaled for the profit of your GOP benefactors.

And guess who is paying for the advertising that supports the "coarsening of America"? Behemoth American companies that financially benefit from the large audiences and profits. It's the American way, courtesy of Wall Street.

Houston, we have a major hypocrisy problem.

The Republicans wouldn't have it any other way.

http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/05/01/edi05005.html