The Trust Factor

Check out Arianna Huffington's new post. She nails the real reason the Republican party is in trouble and its not because a Republican Congressman stands accused of soliciting sex from minors over the Internet.

"The current narrative -- that the American people can't trust these guys to look after the interests of vulnerable children -- fits in perfectly with the building narrative that the American people can't trust them in so many other areas: We can't trust them to tell the truth about the war in Iraq. We can't trust them to tell the truth about who really benefits from their tax cuts. We can't trust them to tell the truth about what they are doing to protect us at home. We can't trust them to tell the truth about the predatory actions of their point man on child porn."

This is what has been building through the past six years of Republican lies and Republican mismanagement. This is the fall that follows the arrogance. Republicans in the White House and in Congress have believed they could do anything they wanted and lie about it as much as they wanted and it would never come back to haunt them.

Now they're being shown they were wrong. They are finding out that the American people are neither as gullible, nor as malleable, as they hoped. And anyone who focuses too exclusively on the Foley scandal will miss the very important fact that support for the Bush White House and the Republican-controlled Congress had been swiftly eroding even before the Foley allegations hit the news.

Whether Republicans learn the larger lesson of the Foley scandal or not is a question that has yet to be answered. But whatever the final effect on the Republican party, it is satisfying for those of us who have raged at being continually lied to, to see that their ubiquitous strategy of lie, lie and lie some more is no longer working.