Rep. Alan Mollohan
has temporarily left the House Ethics Panel, hoping to help
Democratic leaders stem damage to their "Republicans are corrupt"
message.
-I doubt Mollohan's departure is "temporary." If anything about
his earmarks scandal sticks, he won't be back.
-Democrats are foolhardy to think that this move cleans up their
act sufficiently to go after Republicans. Pelosi is painting
Mollohan's scandal as a partisan attack to provide cover for GOP
scandals. But the record so far is clear: Republicans aren't
protecting their politicians from corruption charges (readers of
this blog differ on whether that's a proper response -- I think
they should presume innocence until guilt is proven, but not
undertake a Clintonian scorched Earth policy to protect guys who
could very well be guilty as sin). Duke Cunningham's out of the
House and convicted. Tom DeLay is out of leadership and on his way
out of the House. Frankly, the dirty Republicans are behaving like
Democrats did when they ran the show. As such...
-If Democrats really want to go down this road, a brief white
paper listing Democratic scandals from just 1980 to 2000 would make
a helpful point. We could begin with Clinton's lax control of
military technology and China's subsequent leap ahead in military
strength and technology. That's not petty stuff -- it helped
transform China into the grave threat it is today.
topics:
Earmarks, Military
