Middle Earth Journal: Throw the bums out!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Throw the bums out!

Over at The Nation Magazine John Nichols suggests that the only way for the Democrats to capitalize on the Abramoff scandal is to follow the Newt Gingrich example with a throw the bums out campaign that includes Democrats who are tainted.

If a desire to protect Reid and other Democratic recipients of the lobbyist's largesse causes the opposition party to pull its punches, Democrats will gain no more ground as a result of this scandal than it did from the Enron imbroglio. Thus, the ultimate question does not boil down to what Abramoff will reveal. Rather, it is this: Will Democrats hold every member of Congress who has been implicated to account. If Democrats are smart, they will recognize that this is, at its core, a Republican scandal. And they will say: Throw all the bums out -- just as Republican Newt Gingrich did in the early 1990s when several Republican House members were linked with scandals that generally involved Democrats. Only by being genuine in their commitment to clean up Congress will Democrats turn the Abramoff scandal fully to their advantage. And, as everyone in Washington knows, it has been a long time since Democrats were that genuine -- or that smart politically.

Although the Democrats like Reid's involvement will be minor compared to that of Ney or DeLay they will still be implicated. As we reported earlier Steve Soto has already suggested it's time for Reid to give up his leadership position.

I think the White House is going to try to bury this case at Congress and take down Democrats at the same time. This explains why Reid has been less than energetic about making ethics and corruption a major point against the GOP next year. Perhaps the time is now to think about a change of leadership for Senate Democrats. A team of Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer is far better to lead this charge in the heat of the 2006 campaigns that Harry Reid might be.