Forget the lame "culture of corruption" tagline. I think this is the line Dems should be repeating. "They're Incompetent Because They're Corrupt." Not only does it tie together two things Americans are ready to believe about DC Republicans, it has the virtue of being true.
I'm sure I don't have to remind you...
They screwed up Katrina because they stocked FEMA with college buddies of contributors.
They screwed up Iraq because they stocked the Coalition Provisional Authority with 24 year olds from the Heritage Foundation.
They screwed up Medicare Part D because they were so busy shovelling billions to Big Pharma, they forgot to design a program that works.
They don't even HAVE an energy policy (a real energy policy) because they're so deep in the pockets of Big Oil.
They let some mine disasters happen because they installed mining CEOs as "regulators."
They outed an anti-nuclear agent in the course of a political hit.
They tried to install the president's personal lawyer on the Supreme Court.
The rebuilding of New Orleans is a second disaster because they put Karl Rove in charge of it.
And they didn't even review this ports deal because their contributors reviewed it for them.
Half the mistakes this Administration has made have been due to mendacity, but the other half have been due to incompetence traceable to corruption. They think they're the only ones who know anything when really they're completely ignorant, so they put total lunkheads in charge of things and then wonder why they screw up. Talking about corruption and hubris and incompetence and "Bush in a Bubble" all separately is not really compelling enough; it feels scattershot. Tie them all together though -- "They're Incompetent Because They're Corrupt" -- and you've got a narrative going.
Somebody tell Pelosi. "Culture of Corruption" is just way lame.
(And yes, I am kindof conflating corruption, cronyism, and insularity. Eh. It's a tagline, not a master's thesis.)
What do you think?