GOP's Reality Check

Newly minted GOP wonder woman, Sarah Palin, is living proof why conservative "values" don't work.

Rehka Basu of The Des Moines Register takes aim today at conservative-policy hypocrisy, pointing out that GOP rhetoric doesn't square with life's realities.

Palin is a no-holds barred pro-life advocate who opposes school sex-ed and distribution of condoms in schools. And, John McCain has opposed funding programs for teen moms and supported the Bush administration's lavish spending on their crusade for abstinence-only education.

So Basu notes, "the real question Palin has to answer is how, as chief policymaker, she would reconcile her tough platitudes with other Americans' rights and realities, especially in the face of first-hand evidence such policies don't work.

Ironically, her own 17-year-old unwed, pregnant daughter is the best illustration of that."

And, although VP Cheney's administration and finger-wagging conservatives have promoted harsh policies toward gays.... backing a constitutional amendment forbidding them to marry and at the same time discouraging out-of-wedlock births.... Cheney made an exception for his gay daughter and her child, openly accepting them.

"The Republican Party, and Palin, say sex before marriage is wrong. But Pain's daughter didn't listen. The Republican Party says children should be raised by married couples. But Cheney's granddaughter can't be.," Basu argues.

"So which are we supposed to believe, how these leaders say families should live, or how their own families live? The moral principles they broadcast, or the exceptions they are willing to make for their own? And why won't they offer all Americans that understanding and acceptance?"

The GOP Evangelical Christian base is calling the moral shots for the party, although it's clear their aim excludes their own actions. But take heart, the rest of us don't have to stand defenseless in the crosshairs of their preachy bullseye.... November.