If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a cheater. My rule applies to athletes who take steroids to gain an advantage over their competitors, or my neighbor who calls my tennis shots out of bounds even though he knows the balls were inside the line. I feel the same way about golf partners who kick their ball out of the weeds or lie about their scores.

I have even less respect for the national Republican Party.

According to my calendar (and everyone else’s), the election took place on Nov. 6. The final count gave President Obama 332 electoral votes, far more than the 270 required to become president. Not everyone who was involved in the campaign played by the rules, according to media reports. In six states, governors tried mightily to stop minorities from voting by shortening voting hours and creating fear at the polling places through intimidation and harassment of potential voters.

The governor of Florida, on his own, canceled the traditional Sunday voting day just before the election and shortened voting hours in key election districts in an attempt to discourage turnout in traditionally Democratic areas. The same thing happened in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Republican governors tried to stifle the turnout.

Despite all the dirty tricks, there was a record turnout of Hispanic, Asian, African-American and female voters who were undeterred by attempts to keep them home. I thought the final vote for president settled everything and that the country was ready to move on. I believed it even more after the Republican members of the House of Representatives held their retreat last week at a fancy Southern golf club.

At the close of the three-day meeting, a number of House members publicly stated that it was time for the party to clean up its image and begin to recognize that its November losses were not accidental. They acknowledged that they had failed to win the support of the key voting groups, and they had to find new ways to appeal to women and minorities. They expressed their regrets over the remarks made about violence against women by two losing candidates for the Senate.