Searching for meaning
Posted by Greg on January 4, 2006
It’s been a belated Fitzmas with Jack Abramoff’s plea and ongoing cooperation with federal prosecutors. The power brokers within the GOP have a lot to worry about, but you’d not know it listening to the mainstream media.
Digby explains:
I just saw CNN’s Henry again say that this was a bi-partisan scandal and that Democrats were going to find it very hard to make the “culture of corruption” charge. This was not “he said/she said” — he was editorializing in his piece and his opinion is either uninformed, myopic or biased. This piece was followed by another from William Schneider in which he helpfully points out that while the public indicates that it thinks Democrats are less corrupt than Republicans that’s only because the public understands that it’s because the Republicans are in power and have more opportunity.
Bullshit. The reason people think this is because every few years we find out that Republicans leaders have no respect for the law. It’s like clockwork. If they aren’t selling themselves outright to big business on the floor of the congress they are claiming the constitution allows them to break any law they choose. Just in the past couple of weeks we’ve had news reports about legal trouble for corrupt Republicans George W. Bush, Ken Lay, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Duke Cunningham, Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff. Lot of dots there. Is it too much trouble for the media to connect them?
This characterization of the scandal as being “bi-partisan” is typical bad mainstream journalism, particularly the emphasis they are placing on the very small handful of Democrats who’ve even been mentioned (much less included in any legal procedings.) Not only are they creating some equity and illegality where none exists, by doing it they are missing the real story, as usual.
This isn’t a story about power corrupting or about a few bad apples. This is about a corrupt political machine — a system of money laundering and public corruption on behalf of one political party. It’s about a party that has used every tool at its disposal to legally and illegally enrich itself and enhance its power. It’s right there. It’s unravelling before our eyes.
And all Dana Bash and Ed Hanry can say is that Jack Abramoff lent his skybox to Democrats and Republicans alike. Which he did. He lent it 1% of the time to Democrats and 99% of the time to Republicans. That makes all of them equally corrupt.
Oh yeah. It requires more than a double helping of willful blindness to perceive it as a fair and balanced scandal.
Michael Stickings says:
Sidestep the spin, peer through the complacency, and see the scandal for what it is, filth and all. And then, if you dare, explain to me how these guys deserve to stay in power. I’d love to know how Republicans intend to defend themselves against these charges.
The Democrats are viewing this as an opportunity for 2006 and it should be, but the real question is whether it matters. As Mick at Uncorrelated observes:
In the end though, the 2006 elections are likely to be a rather ho-hum affair decided by demographics rather than current events. The bottom line is that congressional races are local, not national affairs. The local perception of a Senator or congressman can differ wildly from the national impression. Ted Stevens, castigated for his pork barrel antics in the national forums, was referred to by one journalist as the most popular man in Alaska. I have little doubt that’s true.
He’s right to an extent. People send their “good” congressmen to Washington to get the goodies and protect their interests from other people’s thieving bastards. But one thing that the manufactured majorities of 1994 and 2002 demonstrated is that state elections, at least for national offices, often can be nationalized. Just ask Tom Daschle. I have nothing against Lincoln Chafee, for example, but we have to be practical here. His is one of the votes that keeps the likes of Bill Frist and Rick Santorum in power.
In any event, The Heretik’s musings are an absolute must read.
TMV does well too.
