Unfortunately, as an article in today's New York Times indicates, others are quite willing to go with the status quo and blame everything on the Republicans:
Other Democratic lawmakers argued that the real ethical problem was the Republicans, not the current ethics rules, and that the election had alleviated the need for additional regulations. "There is an understanding on our side that the Republicans paid a price for a lot of the abuses that evolved," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, alluding to earmarks. Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, said the scandals of the current Congress were "about the K Street Project for the Republicans," referring to the party's initiative to put more Republicans in influential lobbying posts and build closer ties to them. "That was incestuous from the beginning. We never had anything like that," Mr. Harkin said of Democrats. "That is what soured the whole thing."
That kind of thinking is opening the door for even more Congressional scandals. Any look at history decries the notion that Republicans have cornered the marketplace on corruption.
Allowing the current system to continue without any substantial changes is an invitation for more scandal down the road.
That is not an accurate statement Randy. There is just as much documented corruption on the democratic side as there is on the Republican side. It will now start to garner more attention now that they have control of Congress.The party in power, no matter which one it is, receives the majority of the headlines. Also, if you follow the media as closely as I believe you do, the Democrats did not "win" the elcetion. The Republicans lost it through a series of blunders over the last several years. The exit polls showed that people weren't giving democrats a ringing endorsement, they simply wanted a change, any change and the only other party is the Democrat.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this is just not true. There is not as much documented Democratic corruption as there is Republican. The major scandals that truly erroded American's faith in the government; Iran-Contra, Watergate, Valerie Plume, Jack Abramoff, have all been Republican-led.
ReplyDeleteAnd the problem, I believe, is less in number of corruptions, but in scope--Republican scandals tend to be more than a kickback to one's self or one's friends, but something that either entirely pollutes the democratic system orpotentially (or actually) puts the lives of others in danger.
I'm not sure that the reason is that Democrats are more moral, so much as it is that Republicans are better organized and tend to 'hang together' more, shielding them so that they may carry on their dirty work.
Actually it is true. You are simply giving your opinion as to which scandals you believe are larger. If you actually do the research you will see that wht I said is indeed fact, not simply my opinion. I don't have the time to go throughout history and list every single incident of corruption. I will let you do the follow-up if you wish.
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