Who is the archetypal Republican. What is the Platonic ideal of a Republican?

[swag]

For my money, it's Spiro Agnew. Just a flat-out fucking crook. The quintessential Republican. The man who embodied what the party meant and what it means today.



Great Agnewisms (how many were penned by William Safire?):

"Ours is the greatest nation in the country."

"Nattering nabobs of negativism."

"Effete snobbery."

Ladies and gentlemen, my nomination for Archetypal Republican, Spiro T. Agnew:

On October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew became the second Vice President to resign the office. Unlike John C. Calhoun, who resigned to take a seat in the Senate, Agnew resigned and then pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he accepted $29,500 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland. The bribes were paid to Agnew by some members of the construction industry to get their projects approved. When Agnew moved from Baltimore to Washington, DC, he continued to demand payments. Angered, the construction men turned government's witnesses. Agnew was fined $10,000 and put on three years' probation. The $10,000 fine only covered the taxes and interest due on what was "unreported income" from 1967. The plea bargain was later mocked as the "greatest deal since the Lord spared Isaac on the mountaintop" by former Maryland Attorney General Stephen Sachs. Students of Professor John Banzhaf from The George Washington University Law School, collectively known as Banzhaf's Bandits, found four residents of the state of Maryland willing to put their names on a case and sought to have Agnew repay the state $268,482 - the amount he was known to have taken in bribes. After two appeals by Agnew, he finally resigned himself to the matter and a check for $268,482 was turned over to Maryland state Treasurer William James in early 1983. As a result of his nolo contendere plea, Agnew was later disbarred by the State of Maryland. Like most jurisdictions, Maryland lawyers are automatically disbarred after being convicted of a felony, and a nolo contendere plea exposes the defendant to the same penalties as a guilty plea.

[L. Coyote]

1. Jack Abramoff + Isnt Republicanism neo-Platonic Idealism at best?

Their ideas and beliefs supercede reality!

[PATRICK]

2. As for Plato

after a terrible experience in elected office( the ungrateful people didn't want his ideal leadership) he came more to admire the perfect state as being in the model of Sparta.

Sorry for the irrelevancy. No such giants exists today to make a Nazi joke out of themselves. Just petty poopers on the pulpy paper of the contrary Constitution.

[valerief]

3. Fab alliteration. nt

[swag]

4. Safire, is that you?