Mitch McConnell is BuzzFlash.com's GOP Hypocrite of the Week

So Many Republican Hypocrites, So Little Time

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

GOP Senator Mitch McConnell is known as the Republican bagman for his legendary fundraising prowess. He'll stop at nothing – and not ask any questions – in his effort to roll in the bucks to ensure the GOP maintains power and controls America's "inventory of goodies" for party friends (as in contributors).

He merits being named the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of this week for his audacious defense of a partisan double standard on the right of the White House to claim Executive Privilege.

You see, McConnell declared, during the Clinton administration, that the White House should abandon its claims to Executive Privilege. In the Bush years, he thinks Executive Privilege is solely the prerogative of the President, to exercise at his discretion – as long as he's a Republican.

ThinkProgress.org reports: "Here's what McConnell said on June 16, 1996: I think the testimony [from Clinton staffers] obviously ought to be sworn testimony. And we ought to go all the way into this and take as much time as we can to reassure the American people that this sort of thing's not going to happen again in the future."

Here's the incriminating exchange on, of all places, FOX News:

CHRIS WALLACE: Senator McConnell, my point is that back in 1996, you were saying those White House aides should testify in open hearing. These were White House aides of Bill Clinton, in open hearing under oath. Why shouldn't the same rules apply for the Bush White House and people like Karl Rove?

MCCONNELL: And what I'm telling you is the president's going to make that decision. I was a senator. I was talking about an administration. The president made the decision in 1996, President Clinton, as to how that would be done, and this president's going to make the same decision and we'll see how it all works out.

WALLACE: Well, you're still a senator. So the question is do you call on this president to do the same thing?

Ah yes, unfortunately for America, McConnell is still a senator and still in the pantheon of GOP hypocrisy.

Until next week, remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

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This is Mitch McConnell's first HOTW Award. Welcome to the Club. His wife, Elaine L. Chao, won the award on May 7, 2005. McConnell and Chao are now the third married couple to have each won a HOTW award.