Democrat culture of corruption becomes an issue

NY Times:

Congressional Republicans learned the hard way in 2006 that ethics transgressions and outright corruption could be molded into a potent campaign message. Now they are trying to turn the tables on Democrats who pressed a good-government theme in their successful drive to recapture Congress.

Spurred by a surprise election victory against an indicted House Democrat, the expanding ethics inquiry involving a powerful Democratic chairman and now the scandal over the Illinois Senate seat, Republicans are emphasizing that the majority party should be held to its pledge to clean up Washington.

Republicans, and their allies on the right, also seem ready to use the explosive accusations that Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois had sought to cash in on his power to appoint a Senate successor to President-elect Barack Obama to tie Mr. Obama to the Chicago-style politics he has sought to rise above.

“The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with Governor Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high-ranking officials who will be working for the future president,” Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new No. 2 House Republican, said in a statement.

It is a different tack for Republicans, who have been on the defensive on ethics in recent years. But they are energized by last weekend’s upset defeat of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, by a virtually unknown Republican challenger, Anh Cao, who was helped along by the bribery and money-laundering charges facing Mr. Jefferson.

“The Cao victory is a symbol of our future,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, wrote to his colleagues this week. “In the two years ahead, House Republicans will demonstrate our commitment to reform by holding ourselves to the highest possible ethical standard.”

The Republican leader also has called for Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, to step aside from the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee while the ethics committee looks into some of his dealings.

At the same time, Republicans are moving to limit their own exposure on the ethics front by removing Representative Don Young of Alaska, the subject of a federal investigation, from his senior post on a House panel.

Republicans were also quick to point to an account on the Village Voice Web site this week about how Representative Edolphus Towns, the New York Democrat who is the incoming chairman of the investigatory Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was implicated in a bribery sting but faced no charges back in 1982.

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Most of the corrupt areas of the country are controlled by Democrats. There is an embedded culture of corruption in cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago and most cities in New Jersey. When Democrats took charge of Congress it was going to be only a matter of time before the corruption in their ranks was noticed.

Republicans need to talk about his in the context of Democrat screw ups. When a party is perceived as a bunch of screw ups, it generally results in a change of control.