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So it’s official, Rod Blagojevich is the first governor in Illinois history to be impeached and removed from office (by a unanimous vote no less). Blagojevich also shares another dubious distinction, he is the third Democratic governor of a large blue state to leave office in disgrace in the past 5 years. He joins two big city Democratic mayors and a scad of ousted congressmen in a 6 year record of lies, corruption, sex scandals, and impropriety from a party that campaigned against a Republican “culture of corruption” in 2006 and for “change” in 2008. Blagojevich only highlights that for the past 6 years, Democrats have been no better, no different than Republicans in their share of personal scandals. He further highlights that, while pointing out the speck in the eye of Republicans, Democrats have ignored their very own Democratic culture of corruption.
Much was made of Republican financial corruption in 2006 and 2008. It cost us the seats of Tom Delay, Conrad Burns, Ted Stevens and anyone who’d ever used the same comb as Jack Abramoff. Democrats, of course, have been mum on many of their own financial scandals. James Traficant was expelled from the House in 2002 after being convicted of bribery, tax fraud, racketeering, and misuse of House staff on his personal property. He isn’t the only Democrat to do time (or foreseeably will) for similar charges. William Jefferson is facing bribery charges and had the full support of the House Democratic caucus till Louisiana voters got sick of him. Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick can relate, he was sent to jail for suppressing evidence in a civil trial. The evidence, of course consisted of text messages he’d made on a city phone that contained details of an affair he was having with his chief of staff. While we’re on the subject of corrupt big city mayors, Shiela Dixon of Baltimore is under indictment for misappropriating charity gifts for the poor.
Of course, impropriety is not confined to pure criminality. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is not only under investigation for pay to play schemes, but he is also accused of inappropriate business dealings in awarding state contracts to businesses he used to chair. Charles Rangel is under investigation by an ethics committee for receiving gifts in the form of favorable rent arrangements in Harlem. John Conyers of Michigan in 2006 accepted responsibility for misusing his House staff for campaign and personal purposes. Republicans with similar clouds of impropriety were dogged with controversy for months. Nary a peep has been made, except in passing by the media, about the above abuses, and certainly Democratic leadership has been mum on the matter.
There’s always the sex scandals. We heard for months about Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and David Vitter’s improprieties. In contrast, very little was made of Tim Mahoney’s infidelity, even though he had replaced Foley in 2006 over the very same issue. Elliot Spitzer got to resign and have his improprieties concluded and moved on from, even though prostitution is illegal in every polity his dalliances occurred in. Then, of course, everyone gave David Patterson a total pass on his admissions of infidelity. And, of course, we can see the above example of Kwame Kilpatrick. Now, certainly there is some relish in the notion of sticking it to the “family values” Republicans when they err. However, I don’t ever remember the Democratic party declaring itself the party of hookers and adultery. Perhaps they should only receive a pass on this sort of conduct if they’re willing to openly stake out such a position. Even if Democrats don’t purport to be a “family values” party (which they will on the campaign trail if they can cloak it in socialist rhetoric) whoring and infidelity are nothing to be proud of.
Now, I’ve saved the best for last. Sure, it’s popular to beat up on Illinois with it’s Chicago machine, but that’s just too easy. In recent memory the state the Democrats should be most ashamed of is New Jersey. Back in 2002 Senator Bob Torricelli was revealed to have accepted campaign contributions from an imprisoned North Korean businessman. Rather than step aside as his seat was up for election, he clung on till polling showed him a 20 point underdog against the Republican. It was only after he was a guaranteed loss that he decided to step aside and allow the Democrats to throw in a ringer, former Senator Frank Lautenberg. The problem, then, was Torricelli had withdrawn several days after the deadline to legally remove a candidate from the ballot. So, the state Democratic party sued in the Democratically dominated state supreme court to change the rules to allow Lautenberg on. The New Jersey supreme court allowed it, even though that same year a Montana court refused the very same sort of request out of the Republican party. Lautenberg, of course, won, though the whole thing stunk to high heaven. The other big winner in New Jersey that year was Jim McGreevey. McGreevey, of course, would later cheat on his wife. . . with a guy. . . who he then appointed Homeland Security advisor to the governor. No better example exists of the Democratic culture of corruption than New Jersey; we have finance scandals, corruption in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, we have infidelity, and we have cronyism.
There can be little doubt that a hitherto widespread problem of corruption in the Democratic party will continue to go unchecked. The media was far too focused on Republican problems for the past 8 years to pay much attention to the transgressions of the opposition. The real question is now that the Democrats are incontrovertibly in the majority will their scandals finally begin to stick? Only time will tell.
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