The question Jeffrey Birnbaum asks in today's Washington Post is "Will the corruption issue go national?" He answers it himself by considering the growing list of familiar Abramoff-linked names in electoral trouble, along with non-Abramoff-linked names that are finding their campaigns in undesirable waters (such as Ohio Senator Mike DeWine).
National and state scandals have tarred members of Congress and even the governor, and Ohio is among the places where Republicans are most vulnerable to the charge that they are an entrenched party that has lost its ethical compass.
This will be the first election after a long and ripe season of Washington scandal. Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partners illegally exploited their ties to senior Republican lawmakers in the capital's most noxious influence-peddling scheme in a generation.
Tom DeLay. Bob Ney. Conrad Burns. Ralph Reed. Why is it that these Abramoff-associated names evoke more visceral reactions than other names linked to corruption, such as Jefferson, Doolittle, Mollohan, and Harris?
Here's a quick and dirty answer - isolated incidents of corruption are deplorable, and the electorate will punish those at fault. But the Abramoff scandal carries the connotation of a conspiracy, which permeates throughout an entire party and casts doubt on the integrity of our political system as a whole, and that is unforgivable.
It's unfortunate for upstanding members of the Republican party, who for all intents and purposes had little or nothing to do with Abramoff and his cronies. The Abramoff stink is threatening to contaminate their campaigns just the same, and it's unclear at this point if there's any escape.
I love this quote from Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio who responds to the
passage of the Senate's lame lobby reform bill by saying:
"I don't know," Mr. DeWine said. "People are not really talking to me directly about lobbying. I think they're concerned about some of the quote scandal, but I don't have anybody come up to me and say there's a lobbying problem. It doesn't get that specific."
The "quote scandal." I guess the fact that federal agents are investigating more than a dozen members of Congress and their staff for possible felonies is not a quote big deal for Senator DeWine.
Our assessment of the lobby bill below the fold.
Common Blog
