Over the past few weeks, the Republican Party has been exposed as a cesspool of fraud and corruption. Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Karl Rove, Bob Taft, Scooter Libby ... the list is seemingly endless. The reaction to the news of the myriad Republican ethics violations -- on this site and elsewhere -- has been a little tasteless.
We should not be gleeful, but disgusted. Not thrilled by the destruction of their party, but furious at the damage they have done to America.
I say this for two reasons. First, the Democratic Party has been there before -- remember the days of Newt and his Contract With America? It would be hard for the most fervent Democrat to argue that the man didn't have a point or two regarding the pervasive corruption throughout our party.
Secondly, we may have a systemic corruption problem -- right here, in our own party, right now.
Now, I used the word "systemic" not to argue that Democrats are involved in a large number of current scandals, but because our political system (on both sides of the aisle) has created an environment amazingly tolerant of corruption. Perhaps the best example is Tom Delay, who has been cited for numerous ethics violations during his Senate tenure. Through misguided desire to protect their own (i.e. partisanship), Democrats and Republicans alike have long convinced themselves that "it's only wrong when the other guy does it."
Many of us look at the Republican response to the recent hailstorm of scandals and say "What the hell? Where's the outrage? Hypocrites."
As much as we'd like to believe we are ... we're no different. When is the last time you heard about the following from a fellow Democrat?
"Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), a veteran member of the Ways and Means Committee whose homes in Washington and New Orleans were raided by the FBI last week, had been the target of an undercover FBI sting involving public corruption for nearly a year, according to law enforcement sources.
Investigators are looking into whether Jefferson illegally pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars of an investor's money from business transactions during the sting, according to the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201678_pf.html
And that article predates his reprehensible use of National Guardsmen to save personal posessions in the aftermath of Katrina.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1
The Democratic Party will run on a platform of "cleaning up Washington" in 2006, and it's likely that we'll pick up a few seats. Will we walk into Washington as the Republicans did in 1992, trumpeting virtue and ethics, only to stumble out 10 years later embarassed and tainted by scandal?
I hope not. We MUST hold every member of our party accountable for their actions, and demand that they meet a higher standard -- not just a level better than whatever the current state of the other party happens to be.
If we have a DeLay, a Frist, a Taft, or a William Jefferson in our party ranks, we must disown them immediately. We must excoriate them in our blogs, in our conversations, in our politics, and we must run them out of town. This is not infighting, but purification of the highest order.
That kind of scum is not good for our party, and they are not good for America.