Not satisfied with two election cycles of near-supremacy at the ballot box, Democrats are now pushing to close the “corruption gap.”<\/p>\n
The effort has already paid-off big in 2008, with the downfall of two high-flying Democratic governors, Eliot Spitzer from New York and Rod Blagojevich from Illinois. <\/p>\n
One used a business trip to Washington to hook up with an illegal call-girl ring; the other allegedly tried to auction off a United States Senate seat. <\/p>\n
Not bad, not bad. This latest scandal in Illinois even threatens to taint President-elect Barack Obama, a man Blagojevich charmingly refers to on the wiretap repordings as “that motherf*$#(*.”<\/p>\n
And just to be sure there’s plenty of fine-print stuff for the wonks to mull over, we have the ethics probe into House Ways and Means committee chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY). <\/p>\n
He’s accused of various misdeeds, including a failure to pay taxes, misuse of rent-controlled apartments, and doing favors for the operator of a school named after him.<\/p>\n
Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s treatment:<\/p>\n
The New York Democrat was chased down the hall by reporters demanding to know whether he was going to temporarily give up his chairmanship over ethics allegations. <\/p>\n
“I don’t see what purpose that would serve,” Rep. Rangel said. “I don’t think reporters should be in the position to remove chairmen, not even temporarily, especially when the reporting is false.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Okay, it’s not quite Abramoffian yet, but Democrats have proved that they’re fast learners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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