There are certain myths about the Republican Party that irritate the hell out of me. The myth that Republicans are fiscal conservatives should have been dispelled over the last six years of the Bush Administration which has been marked by budget busting deficits, massive government spending, tax cuts and more tax cuts. Currently our 'in name' only fiscally conservative President is promising to spend "whatever it takes" to repair the hurricane devastated Gulf region, while continuing to spend billions of dollars a day in Iraq and Afghanistan and extend his massive tax cuts for the rich. Another myth about Republicans that persists despite abundant evidence to the contrary is the one about Republicans having higher moral and ethical standards. For evidence that decries this fairy tale you need look no farther than the headlines of today's newspaper. House Majority Leader Tom Delay has been indicted on charges of fraud. There's nothing really new about this story since Rep. Delay has been accused of ethical violations in the past and managed to evade any long term consequences. The latest charges however, from a Texas grand jury renew hope that this slimy thug may finally be held accountable for his disgusting and illegal conduct while serving as an elected official.

Another example of unethical, immoral and dishonest conduct on behalf of a well known Republican politician can be found in South Carolina. State Attorney General Henry McMaster, former Chairman of the SC Republican Party recently declined to prosecute MCI for criminal tax fraud. According to the director of the SC Department of Revenue, Burnet R. Maybank III, "the case in South Carolina was part of a massive fraud scheme by MCI in which the parent company quit filing income tax returns in the majority of states, while its subsidiaries took $18 billion in fraudulent deductions on state tax returns representing "payments" to the parent company."

In 1991, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down MCI's tax evasion scheme and repeatedly ordered the company to file taxes in South Carolina. Despite the fact that the Department of Revenue has filed claims against MCI and its subsidiaries for $18 million in unpaid taxes, Attorney General McMaster has declined to press forward with the case. As Mr. Maybank so eloquently stated in a recent letter to the editor of The Greenville News, "The effect of these types of tax schemes has been to dramatically shift the tax burden in South Carolina over the past 10 years from large, multinational corporations to South Carolina residents. More importantly it invites contempt and disrespect for our voluntary system of taxation if we only criminally prosecute South Carolina residents for tax crimes and not large foreign corporations."

The Attorney Generals office in South Carolina began to turn its back on the people of South Carolina and devote itself almost exclusively to big business during the tenure of Charles Condon. Condon was one of the founding members and the first chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association. An article in the March 30, 2000 edition of the Washington Post described the association's members as aggressively soliciting large contributions from corporations that are embroiled in or are seeking to avert lawsuits by states. RAGA's leaders are quick to reject charges of conflict of interest but consider these facts cited by the Washington Post. "Former Attorney General Condon had joined a nationwide antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. but dropped out in December 1998, citing changes in the industry. A few months earlier, Microsoft had given $20,000 to the South Carolina GOP, one of the largest gifts in the state party's history."

To be fair, not all Republican's have abandoned the little people for big business and the almighty dollar. Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher declined to join RAGA, saying, "I'm a Republican and I try to keep politics out of my business as attorney general." I guess Charlie Condon and Henry McMaster are too busy counting their money to care about those troubling issues of ethics.