I guess Jesus has forgiven him for helping to drive the U.S. economy off a cliff

When a Democrat runs for office, everything he did in his entire life is up for minute scrutiny at the hands of a voracious media and equally voracious Republicans. But when a Republican runs for office, we're supposed to forget his entire record, his entire life, and just trust him.

Last week we had the appalling spectacle of Newt Gingrich, a convert to Catholicism who seems to have forgotten the repentance part of the confession/repentance/forgiveness model, embody the worst aspects of "Clean Slate Christianity" when he was confronted by a student about his marital history. For the uninitiated, Gingrich's history consists of fucking his second wife while married to his first, presenting said first wife with divorce papers while she was recoverning from cancer surgery, then fucking his third wife while married to his second -- and working very, very hard to impeach Bill Clinton for an extramarital affair while doing so.

Gingrich's response:

"I've had a life which, on occasion, has had problems," Gingrich said. "I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that their primary concern. If the primary concern of the American people is my past, my candidacy would be irrelevant. If the primary concern of the American people is the future... that's a debate I'll be happy to have with your candidate or any other candidate if I decide to run."

If you want to know why I talk about the Christofascist Zombie Brigade, and while I knock Christianity in a way I don't knock others, it's because of people like Newt Gingrich -- arrogant, self-important assholes who think THEY know the mind of God.

Now we have another Republican asshole, who may lack the religious hubris of Newt Gingrich, but who is blatantly playing a similar game of "Don't look over there, look over HERE, where I tell you to look. It's Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who has realized that he's going to have a tough time running as a fiscally responsible conservative after having been George W. Bush's first budget director:

Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.) is known as a strong fiscal conservative, a top selling point for a potential presidential run. But before he was governor, Daniels was the first budget director for President Bush during a time when the country went from a budget surplus to a budget deficit, and it's likely that he'll have to explain how that fits with the philosophy he touts should he decide to jump into the Republican field in 2012.

On "Fox News Sunday," host Chris Wallace pressed Daniels on this point. "When you came in, this country had an annual surplus for the first time in 30 years of $236 billion. When you left, two and a half years later, the deficit was $400 billion. You were also there when President Bush launched his Medicaid drug benefit plan that now cost $60 billion a year. I know there was a recession, but do you think it was wise -- at a time when we were fighting two wars -- to have two tax cuts and launch a huge new entitlement?"

Daniels said deficits during that time were inevitable. "It was a recession, two wars and a terrorist attack that led to a whole new category called homeland security," he said. "So nobody was less happy than I to see the surplus go away, but it was going away."

Click over to get to the link to the full article at the $40 Million Woman's site, including the order for diverted attention from Mr. Daniels.