Lying and exploiting the dead

You knew there had to be a reason a Republican would be interested in the dead in New Orleans. Something other than basic human compassion and decency, that is.

Federal troops aren't the only ones looking for bodies on the Gulf Coast. On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."

This is standard operating procedure for Republicans trying to sell tax cuts to a public that, for the most part, won't benefit from them. Describing GOP attempts to sell the Bush tax cuts during the 2000 campaign in his book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," Al Franken explained what they're trying to do:

Rather than offering up an illuminating case of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average, the Bush campaign was casting a political freak show in order to present a tiny minority as the norm.

But Time reports that, unfortuantely for Apolinsky and Sessions, only "a tiny percentage of people are affected by the estate tax -— in 2001 only 534 Alabamans were subject to it."

I guess that, for Republicans, there's finally a drawback to the enormous gap between the rich and poor in this country and the rapid growth of the latter group: not enough rich people. That's not making it easy for Apolinsky and Sessions to exploit dead hurricane victims for political gain. But they're determined. As Time reports,

For now, getting repeal back on the agenda may depend on Apolinsky and his team of estate-sniffing sleuths, who are searching Internet obituaries among other places. Has he found any victims of both the hurricane and the estate tax? "Not yet," Apolinsky says. "But I'm still looking."

The only thing that comes to mind is Joseph N. Welch's famous question to former Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy:

"Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"