Thou Shalt Not... *

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

"My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh. I was maybe a little bit inarticulate... There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership." - Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele

 "I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh. Regardless of what yesterday's headline may have read, I never told Rush to back off. I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives - that was not my intent." - Republican Representative Phil Gingrey

 "The congressman believes Rush is a great leader of the conservative movement in America - not a party leader responsible for election losses. Nothing the congressman said diminished the role Rush has played and continues to play in the conservative movement." - press release from the office of Republican Representative Todd Tiahrt

2. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

"We've always had a free market in this country. It has worked. It will work again." - Republican House Whip Eric Cantor

 "House Republicans are prepared to stay in Washington to forge an agreement on a proposal that reflects the core free-market, pro-taxpayer principles of our party." - House Republican leader John Boehner

 "Again, I hope the United States will not be the leader for government control of not only just the national institutions, but of non-financial institutions as well. We won't be the leader anymore in the world if we dis free-market capitalism." - Republican Representative Michele Bachmann

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

"It's in the spirit of making good from bad that I am committing to you and the larger family of South Carolinians to use this experience to both trust God in his larger work of changing me, and from my end, to work to becoming a better and more effective leader." - adulterous Republican Governor Mark Sanford

 "Plain + simple, it was wrong; it was a sin. God never intended for us to do this. I walked away from Him + my relationship with Him has suffered terribly. I know He loves me & I know he loves you. He wants to restore Darlene + me + wants to restore Doug + you. More than that, he wants to restore our relationships to Him." - adulterous Republican Senator John Ensign; the next day, he continued his relationship with his mistress

 "Consider it if the opportunity was there and it was right. God has a way of revealing stuff to you and making it real for you through others. And if that's part of the plan it will be the plan." - Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele

 "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's will." - former Republican Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the Iraq war

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

"We're the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs." - Michele Bachmann

 "Keeping us up here eats away at families. Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families - that's what this says." - Republican Representative Jack Kingston arguing against a bill that would force congress to sit five days a week

 Most home-owners do "what is necessary - working a second job, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets" as the means to pay for a mortgage. - Republican Presidential candidate John McCain

  

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

"[O]ut of concern of the well-being of the long time family friends during a difficult time." - Senator John Ensign explaining why he had his parents give the woman he had an affair with and her husband $96,000

6. You shall not murder.

"If you're asking me whether or not as to the innocence or guilt or if people have had adequate access to the courts in Texas, I believe they have." - Republican Governor George W. Bush on his support for the death penalty

 "There's clearly a group of people that go through a very extremely well-vetted process, interagency process...that have committed acts of war against the United States, who are at war with the United States or are suspected of planning operations of war against the United States, who authority is given to our troops in the field in certain war theaters to capture or kill those individuals. That is certainly true." - Dick Cheney national security aide John Hannah on the assassination program run out of the Republican Vice President's office

 "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." - conservative lobby group Americans for Tax Reform leader Grover Norquist

7. You shall not commit adultery.

"As I told you before, you brought happiness and love to my life and (I) will take you forever in my heart. I wasn't aware till we met last week, the strong feelings I had for you, and believe me, I haven't felt this since I was in my teen ages, when afterwards I got married. I do love you, I can feel it in my heart, and although I don't know if we'll ever be able to meet again this has been the best that has happened to me in a long time You made me realized (sic) how you feel when you realy (sic) love somebody and how much you want to be beside the beloved. Last Friday I would had stayed embrassing (sic) and kissing you forever." - Mark Sanford, in an email to his lover

   "This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible." - Republican Senator David Vitter, on his phone number being in the book of the DC Madam

8. You shall not steal.

"When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, DC, invited me to the [Marianas] islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made." - former Republican House majority leader Tom Delay about felon Jack Abramoff

 "The judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion." - Bush v. Gore, the 2000 Supreme Court decision that stopped the recount vote in Florida and handed the Presidency to George W. Bush despite the fact that he lost the popular vote

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

"This president has exposed himself, I think, as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or white culture. I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. He has a, this guy is, I believe, a racist." - conservative talk show host Glen Beck

 "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, ruled by dictate." - conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh

 "Has anybody read this book [Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance]? Inasmuch as the book reveals Obama to be a flabbergasting lunatic, I gather the answer is no. Obama is about to be our next president: You might want to take a peek. If only people had read Mein Kampf..." - conservative pundit Ann Coulter

10. You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour's.

"That's way too far away." - former Republican Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on whether he will be running for the Presidency in 2012 (after visiting Iowa, the state with the first Presidential caucuses)

"The most important thing I can do is be the best governor of Louisiana." - Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on whether he will be running for the Presidency in 2012 (just before visiting Iowa, the state with the first Presidential caucuses)

"What this country needs is someone with strong conviction who can articulate those convictions and who can provide a vision for America that is an alternative to the big government, freedom-depriving vision of Barack Obama. I don't know who that is." - former Republican Senator Rick Santorum on whether he will be running for the Presidency in 2012 (after visiting Iowa, the state with the first Presidential caucuses)

"2012 sounds so far off that I can't even imagine what I'd be doing then." - former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on whether she will be running for the Presidency in 2012 (after just about everything she has done to get attention)

* ...unless thou art a Republican.