The Political Chase

Frank Rich accurately describes the scandals encompassing the White House and the Republicans in Congress. Moreover, he highlights Jack Abramoff’’s expansive web that is attached to almost every issue that inaccurately may seem to be stand-alone matters of investigation. Rich dispels any ill-conceived notion that the flurry of indictments and investigations are isolated items or circumstance.

Those who still live in the reality-based community, however, may sense they’re watching the beginning of the end of something big. It’s not just Mr. DeLay, a k a the Hammer, who is on life support, but a Washington establishment whose infatuation with power and money has contaminated nearly every limb of government and turned off a public that by two to one finds the country on the wrong track.

But don’t take my word for it…Listen instead to Andrew Ferguson, of the conservative Rupert Murdoch magazine, The Weekly Standard. As far back as last December in a cover article on the sleazy lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Mr. Ferguson was already declaring “the end of the Republican Revolution.”

Not to minimize the current allegations against Tom DeLay, Rich equates it to a grain of sand on the beach. Given what is known today, Rich notes that the Delay and Abramoff investigations are not intertwined with the DOJ and SEC investigation of Bill Frist and the expected investigation into the possible fraud of the no-bid contracts issued by FEMA for Hurricane Katrina. According to Rich, Plamegate tops the list.

The mother of all investigations, of course, remains the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s pursuit of whoever outed the C.I.A. agent Valerie Wilson to Robert Novak and whoever may have lied to cover it up. The denouement is on its way.

The point Rich makes in his article is that corruption, malfeasance, and ethics violations is rampant in the Republican Party – top to bottom. It’s like standing on a mound of fire ants and kicking the top of the mound off. Detainee abuse, Congressional investigations of inspector generals whose responsibility it was to investigate fraud and abuse, a prosecutor being demoted when his focus gets a little too close to Jack Abramoff, more cronyism than can be listed here…yada, yada, yada.

It’s so filthy that the Republican caucus couldn’t even find someone clean to name as Mr. DeLay’s “temporary” stand-in as House majority leader last week. As The Washington Post reported in 2003, Roy Blunt, the Missouri congressman who got the job, was found trying to alter a homeland security bill with a last-minute provision that would have benefited Philip Morris-brand cigarettes. Not only had the tobacco giant contributed royally to Mr. Blunt’s various campaign coffers, but both the congressman’s girlfriend (now wife) and his son were Philip Morris lobbyists at the time.

So, what is to come of all of this? Well, there are the courts, but who is really going to place a lot of confidence in that and there are several issues that do not meet the qualification of criminal (e.g., cronyism and Michael Brown). What the courts can’t take care of, in theory elections can, but that is more than a year away. And I for one don’t find any solace in the elections resolving the overwhelming stench from the Republicans.

Frank’s right. The Bush administration, the Republican Congress, and the corrupt lobbyists have us all standing in the middle of a pig sty. And, to add another item to the list that I neglected to mention, the number of lobbyists has doubled since George Bush became president.

Mid-term elections are a year away; that’s a long time, but it is a short period of time for the Democrats to get things together. If the Democrats don’t roll out a well developed strategy soon, all the crooks that the courts don’t have by election day, will be in the same offices or moved to better ones.