EDITORIAL - The upcoming elections are problematic at best. How does one vote with any confidence when both major parties are up to their eyeballs in scandal? How does one place any faith in the Republicans when they’ve fallen flat on their faces on so many major issues? How can we take the Democrats seriously when they no longer even bother to cover up their lies and political game-playing?

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when one party makes an accusation against the other, that accusation is likely to be true of both parties. Dirty politics has reached new lows in recent years. Candidates are far more likely to seek election based upon how badly they can scandalize the opposition, rather than trying to honestly earn our votes. And there are plenty of scandals to go around.

The list reads like a Who’s Who of weak ethics, sexual perversion and naked avarice. William Jefferson, Mark Foley, Harry Reid, Tom Delay, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Ney and others continue to hog the headlines in an orgy of pure old trashy behavior. Each party shamelessly points its greasy fingers at the other and shouts “corruption” at the top of its lungs. Neither party has the character to look inward and clean up its own mess.

All this might be easier to take if our government was being run with some semblance of efficiency. Unfortunately, it seems they’re all too busy slinging mud and rhetoric to accomplish anything worthwhile.

The Democrat Party hasn’t had a fresh idea in fifty years. The Republicans have actually presented a few good ideas, but lack the spine to act upon them. All in all, our government has become an international embarrassment to the people it supposedly serves. Beneath the dome of the capitol, where once dwelt hard-working men and women who had the nation’s interests at heart, now lurks a pack of power-hungry, money-grubbing thieves and liars. Their votes are for sale to the highest bidder, and no average citizen can hope to outbid the power players who lobby congress for dozens of special interest groups. Regardless of which side of the ideological fence you call home, you have little true representation in Washington.

At the White House, a once-popular President muddles along, telling us to Stay The Course while operatives of radical Islam stream across our border with Mexico. George W. Bush has no intentions of securing our border, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of Americans have screamed loudly for proper enforcement. America’s sovereignty is for sale, and more and more American jobs will soon be on the auction block as the Bush Administration prepares to bypass our ports and remove the last barriers restraining the flood of cheap products from China and Mexico. Bush is even planning a gigantic foreign-operated superhighway to accommodate the invasion.

So… who do we vote for in November?

As bad as they are, the GOP still seems to be the best choice. While the current crop of Republicans are but a faded shadow of the 1994 Conservative Revolution, the party’s platform still comes closer to American values than that of the Democrats. The Deaniac Democrats have drifted so far leftward that they bear no resemblance to the party that stood for the working man back in the 40’s and 50’s. They’re little more than a gang of socialists, and America is not a socialist nation. The Democrat Party is undeserving of our votes.

The Repubs however, are only marginally better. Both parties are rife with corruption. Both pay lip service to border security while seeking to pave the way for 15 million illegal immigrants to gain a legal foothold on our soil. Both play the War on Terror and our economy to their own political advantage.

The best that any commonsense American can hope for at this point is that the Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, and elect new leadership to lift them out of their doldrums and put America back on track. Whether it’s a Republican flirting with young boys, or a Democrat with $90,000 in his freezer, our government absolutely must clean the skeletons out of its closets and get back to the job of running this country.

As Americans, we have the right and the obligation to expect better of our elected leaders.