Criminalization of Republicans

Bill Kristol piece on the present criminalization of the conservatives in power.

I have to say that I think this paragraph is accurate.

A number of analysts have argued that all this fits a fairly predictable pattern of two-term presidents: a vigorous first term, followed by agenda fatigue and assorted scandals in the second term. Bill Clinton, after all, had his Monica Lewinsky, Ronald Reagan his Iran-contra, Nixon his Watergate. Even Dwight Eisenhower saw the resignation in disgrace of his powerful chief of staff, Sherman Adams, over the questionable gift of a vicuna coat.

I don't like the present media and political yelping on corruption. But then I pretty much never do. I didn't even like it during the Clinton administration. If there are politicians that are being investigated or tried for crimes, let the justice department deal with it. Using these events as political fodder is just pathetic.

Much the same is true of DeLay's alleged laundering of soft (corporate and/or unlimited) money in 2002 races for the Texas legislature, where only hard money (limited, individual contributions) is allowed. At the press conference called by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to comment on the DeLay indictment and the "culture of corruption" fostered in Washington by conservative Republicans, she was asked about her own high-dollar soft-money fundraising--supposedly banned for members of Congress by the 2002 McCain-Feingold law--to defeat a ballot initiative on congressional redistricting sponsored by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She replied that her soft-money fundraising was utterly different from DeLay's because it had been blessed by her campaign lawyers, and she never raises soft money while standing or sitting on government property. Without missing a beat, reporters at the Pelosi press conference dropped the awkward subject and returned the focus to DeLay and to the larger pattern of Republican corruption DeLay's indictment supposedly signifies.

Pelosi is just precious with her screeching on corruption. It's even funnier when someone asks what the difference is when she does it. They should have pushed the issue though.

More politics as usual. Disgusting.