Serious competition to be the worst sleaze-bag

Case I, pretty sleazy but is he the worst?
In the early primaries of election 2004, Arlen Specter, a liberal politician and "Republican" Senator from Pennsylvania (that the ultra liberal press refers to as a "moderate Republican") was in deep trouble in his bid for a fifth term. Unhappy with Specter's Senate record, a Republican member of the House from Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey, challenged Specter for the Republican senatorial nomination. Many pundits and most analyst soon gave Toomey a better than even chance to win the primary.

However, from out of the East came the thundering hoof beats of the great White Knights from Washington, D.C. — President Bush, aided and abetted by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and the Republican National Committee, sent money and support to the incumbent. Specter won the primary by a very narrow margin and when the dust from the general election settled, Specter's seat was saved, his career was saved, but most of all his 24-year ambition to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was saved.

[Under rules of the Senate Republican caucus, committee chairs rotate every six years. In Jan. 2005, the chair of Judiciary will rotate from Oren Hatch of Utah and Specter's seniority makes him the presumptive replacement. However, the Republican caucus must agree. On this last point, the Senator had a serious memory lapse.]

Following victory, Republicans waited for him to step forward with: WOW! Thank you, thank you, Mr. President. — And sure enough, on Nov. 3 he did step forward. BUT, instead of humility and "thank you" he fire a shot across the bow of the White house and blasted the president with a sharp warning… Do not send any conservative nominees for federal judge to HIS committee… they would be DOA. — [What a country!]

Think Specter is a louse? Is he about the worst you ever heard of? — Well, Specter is a light-weight when it comes to sleaze-bags. Read on.

Case II, and the winner is!
Bill Gates, &c, of Microsoft. . . .

Remember how Janet Reno (Bill Clinton's Attorney General) went after Microsoft? Remember that Reno's DOJ got a resounding conviction against Gates and MS for using MS's monopoly of Windows to slaughter competition? Remember Netscape, and how Gates crushed the company? Remember Word Perfect, and how Gates destroyed that company?

Remember how Gates put the screws to PC makers and consumers: He wouldn't do business with manufacturers if they shipped PCs without Windows pre-installed. The idea was to discourage consumers from installing a different operating system (O/S). [If consumers wanted to buy machines for Linux, Unix, IBM O/S, etc. they would have to pay for Windows anyway.]

But, most of all, do you remember that the conviction was on the books and DOJ was working on the penalty phase of the case when the Clinton / Reno term ended and John Ashcroft came to DOJ? Remember that Ashcroft promptly reversed the progress on the case and saved Microsoft from being split into three smaller companies? Remember that Microsoft got to keep the $50 billion in cash it had in the bank (which has now grown to $65 billion)? Remember that the judge was so upset over the lenient settlement that Ashcroft had trouble getting him to sign off on the final deal? Remember how p----d the European Union got over the outrageous settlement?

Don't you know that Bush-Ashcroft made friends for life at Microsoft? Right? Surely, such help and support translates into appreciation. Right? — Er, but wait. What's this at Microsoft-MSN's Slate magazine? Is that a LIBRARY of hate Bush; hate Republicans; hate red-states America? —

Excerpt from one article:

"...we see the outcome now -- Cheney is the capitalist arm and Bush is the religious arm. They know no boundaries or rules. They are predatory and resentful, amoral, avaricious, and arrogant. Lots of Americans like and admire them because lots of Americans, even those who don't share those same qualities, don't know which end is up. Can the Democrats appeal to such voters? Do they want to? The Republicans have sold their souls for power. Must everyone?" — [Here's the full text: a sermon of pure hate.]

Ahem... Did someone once say something about the pot calling the kettle black? — And not one kind word for Bush, Ashcroft, Republicans, red states, etc.

[Keep in mind: Microsoft and NBC jointly own MSNBC and it followed the CNN and CNBC practice of hammering Bush and fawning over Kerry for the whole election cycle, more blatantly than CBS, NBC, and ABC combined. Its probably unrealistic to expect bottom feeders to act honorably but at least MSNBC could have tried a little fairness.]