While Mr. Abramoff is most closely linked to Republicans, even Democrats, many of whom also benefited from his largesse, acted skittish.
"We're talking about people who have longstanding careers in Congress who took contributions from somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew Jack Abramoff," said a Democratic Congressional aide who insisted on anonymity so as not to drag his boss into the scandal. "Now they're panicked. The hope is that this investigation will root out the wrongdoing without innocent people getting hit with the ricochet."
You know, in purely political terms, the Democratic Party has seen what essentially amounts to a once-in-a-generation perfect storm of scandal that could culminate in an effort to truly reform things. You have Abramoff copping a plea, you have an unpopular president getting caught fucking something up or making shit up as he goes along, you have Newt Freakin' Gingrich publicly opining that Tom DeLay should step down.
And what do they do? This fucking ninny anonymously waffles to a reporter, enabling the Republicans to push their "they do it too" narrative, so they can start setting up their midterm strategy of reforming themselves, for Christ's sake. I am dead serious when I say that I fully expect Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi to find out who this stupid motherfucker is, and make sure that he or she is selling oranges at the fucking freeway off-ramp by the end of next week.
Jesus, people. Grow a fucking pair and take a page from the people who did it ten years ago.
Republicans smartly decided to take Gingrich's lead rather than Leach's and act like piranhas. The result was the downfall in 1992 of some important Republican incumbents like Mickey Edwards and Vin Weber as part of the fallout from the bank scandal, but also a net Republican gain of 10 House seats in the same election that brought Bill Clinton to power. Gingrich and his allies kept up the piranha act for two more years, and the rest is history.
If the fallout from the Abramoff scandal ends up taking down a lot of Republicans and a couple of stupid Democrats, so what? Do the math. Good riddance. Either you are for an ethical reform strategy, or you're not. Either you're serious about what you're doing, or you're not. Either you have your shit together and are all on the same page, or not.
This is crunch time for the Democrats. Nothing is a slam dunk in this game, and the longer they wait and waffle, the more time they give the Republicans to get their bearings and run out the clock yet again come election time.
As much as I despise the folktale of the "values voter", and as much as I detest the hypocritical meme of the daddy/mommy party dichotomy, I think there is also something deeper at play, that captures some of the swing vote, and turns a lot of the base right off. And this little episode just demonstrates it all over again. Little pinhead fucks talking out of school, anonymously of course, saying things that can only hurt their own cause. There is literally no upside for that person, supposedly working for the Democratic Party, to say what they said. Who the fuck is that stupid and incompetent? What sort of party allows morons like that to remain gainfully employed?
Time after time, the Democrats have been given gimmes, and they either roll over or give it right back. Again, either they're serious or they're not. If they're serious, then Alito should be grilled like a fucking ahi steak next week, and shoved unceremoniously toward the door. Every Sunday circle jerk appearance should be geared toward flooding the proverbial zone with the message du jour. And little ratfucks that blab anonymously to reporters, out -- and make an example of them in the process. If that aide is too stupid to see what they did wrong, they're in the wrong line of work to begin with.
This is what it's going to take to compete seriously with a true Republican machine, a disciplined juggernaut that deliberately encourages this stupid cat-herding mentality that the Democrats seem to specialize in. It's not that fucking difficult, guys. Get your shit together, or get used to losing.
1 comment:
Good catch, Craig. I actually did consider those possibilities, that the quote could have been a plant, or even made up altogether. It's not like it hasn't happened before. (I'm sure a blogger ethics panel should be convened to suss out the deep dark truth.)
But even then, since it behooves the Democratic leadership to find out who floated this quote in the first place, that same process should turn up such situations. In either case -- again, if they are serious -- even more ammunition has been added to their stockpile.
So no matter how it shakes out, it is incumbent upon the Democrats to be very proactive about this, and demonstrate their commitment to reform, because that's their best bet for reclaiming some seats in the midterms.
If Byron Dorgan used Abramoff's skybox for fundraisers, then he needs to find a way to do some sort of John McCain-style mea culpa and have a come-to-Jesus moment. If Harry Reid accepted $5K from an Indian tribe, then he needs to give the money to charity or something. And if somebody really got blatantly, brazenly stupid and corrupt, then fuck 'em. Cut 'em loose, make an example, show the kids you mean what you say.
They need to make the clear distinction between what they've done, and what Abramoff's Republican clients did. Because there really is a difference between the two, on several orders of magnitude. But the average Joe is already so fed up with the system, to him it appears to be a difference without a distinction.
This is how they start making that distinction, with serious in-house discipline, and a concise message that has a hook that the people in the cheap seats can hum.
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