I have not been the Lone Ranger in making known the disdain for the self righteous who, all too often, turn out to be total hypocrites. The list of examples is a very long one and unfortunately touches both sides of the political fence as well as a variety of religions.

On the religious side we have good old Jimmy Swaggart the anti Catholic, anti Jew televangelist who took in more then $150 million each year. He decided to attack fellow minister Marvin Gorman and Gorman repaid him by hiring a private eye to follow Jimmy. That led to the discovery that Jimmy liked prostitutes. Pat Robertson preached against gambling but had a financial involvement in a race horse in the $500,000 range. Newspapers talked about "praise the Lord and put a 10 spot on Mr. Pat to win."

Of course, we have Rush Limbaugh, the biggest hypocrite of our time, who complained about "too many whites getting away with drug use…" and in October of 2003 admitted he was addicted to pain killers.

In the political arena, one of my favorite examples is that of the late Strom Thurmond, the U.S. Senator from South Carolina, who built his political career on being a racist and a strict segregationist. "Blacks and whites should have nothing to do with each other." The problem is that he had a mixed race daughter born of his affair with a 16 year old family maid. 

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was the attorney general of law and order. He was dedicated in his efforts to stamp out immoral and illegal conduct until it was discovered he also visited prostitutes.

However, we can't overlook Newt Gingrich who gets some kind of an award as the single biggest unabashedly hypocrite. His Republican preaching about religion, family values and his attacks on Democrats for their lack of moral fiber was a national political agenda, all conceived by Newt. After marrying his high school math teacher, he had an affair as a congressional candidate. Shortly after winning Newt ended the 19 year marriage by visiting his wife, who was seriously ill in the hospital, to discuss the terms of divorce. Then he married a House employee, twenty years younger then he, with whom he had been having an affair while attacking Democrats for lack of morals and family values. Even when these facts were revealed, Newt continued to promote family values and "traditional family life."

The latest example is in today's news. Now we have Ccongressman Tim Mahoney from Florida. Married with a child he defeated his opponent by campaigning on a promise to return morals and family values to Washington. The problem is he had affairs, one with a staffer and paid $120,000 to keep it quite.

So, there you have it. This is partly the reason why I have no patience with the self righteous who believe their support of Republican candidates is favored by God and promotes traditional family values or morals. Sorry, but take a look at John McCain's marital history and his flip flop positions in his lust for the office. Take a look at the video's taken in Sarah Palin's church as well as her family. There are too many critical issues facing this country to be narrow minded and wear the blinders of closed minded thinking.