Scandals
Historically, Republican politicians tend to get snarled up in scandals involving money corruption (ITT, Bechtel, AbScam, etc.). In very few cases (cough Iran-Contra cough cough), these end up costing American lives.
Historically, Democratic politicians tend to get snarled up in scandals involving sex and moral turpitude (Wilbur Mills, Jim McGreevy, Eliot Spitzer, et. al.). In most of these cases, these scandals end up costing people credibility, if not actual careers.
Over the past ten years or so, we've seen that historical pattern reversed. Republicans like Larry Craig and David Vitter have been popped for doing kinky things (Craig for trying to pull an undercover cop in an airport bathroom for a bit of the penis; Vitter for renting hookers to diaper him and spank him until he wets himself), and lesser political lights have been seen doing the perp walk for everything from public lewdness to child pornography.
Democrats, on the other hand, have been happy to take up the slack, money corruption-wise. I shall give you two cases in point, and both from New York. For added Irony Points, one is a rare display of true bipartisanship.
The first scandal hinges on a law in New York that says you can run on the GOP ticket for Mayor of New York City even if you're a Democrat (and vice versa), so long as 3/5 of the borough leaderships agree to it. Enter a Democratic State Senator who really, really wants to be Mayor of Fun City (probably because the job pays more than being an apparatchik in Albany). So he colludes with a number of GOP politicos to get his name certified to run on the Republican ballot.
To say that money changed hands would be superfluous at this time.
The FBI caught wind of it (as they always will - come on folks, we live in a police state), and planted an informant with a wire to catch the maneuvers in the act. They've all been arrested, in a true display of the fact that Democrats and Republicans can, indeed, work together toward common goals.
And now we turn to another Democrat from Noo Yawk, Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson. It seems that the Federales caught him taking bribes from the operators of adult day care centers in exchange for legislation that would protect those centers from competition. A very cozy arrangement, like Aunt Effie's prized patchwork quilt.
But you have to acknowledge Assemblyman Stevenson's cast-brass balls. Despite the prosecutors saying that they have video (VIDEO!) of him accepting envelopes full of money, he maintains that he was at home reading the Bible at the time.
It couldn't be any more Richard III if he'd been "discovered with two deep divines."
It's going to be fun to watch how all this plays out, so lay in more popcorn.
Historically, Democratic politicians tend to get snarled up in scandals involving sex and moral turpitude (Wilbur Mills, Jim McGreevy, Eliot Spitzer, et. al.). In most of these cases, these scandals end up costing people credibility, if not actual careers.
Over the past ten years or so, we've seen that historical pattern reversed. Republicans like Larry Craig and David Vitter have been popped for doing kinky things (Craig for trying to pull an undercover cop in an airport bathroom for a bit of the penis; Vitter for renting hookers to diaper him and spank him until he wets himself), and lesser political lights have been seen doing the perp walk for everything from public lewdness to child pornography.
Democrats, on the other hand, have been happy to take up the slack, money corruption-wise. I shall give you two cases in point, and both from New York. For added Irony Points, one is a rare display of true bipartisanship.
The first scandal hinges on a law in New York that says you can run on the GOP ticket for Mayor of New York City even if you're a Democrat (and vice versa), so long as 3/5 of the borough leaderships agree to it. Enter a Democratic State Senator who really, really wants to be Mayor of Fun City (probably because the job pays more than being an apparatchik in Albany). So he colludes with a number of GOP politicos to get his name certified to run on the Republican ballot.
To say that money changed hands would be superfluous at this time.
The FBI caught wind of it (as they always will - come on folks, we live in a police state), and planted an informant with a wire to catch the maneuvers in the act. They've all been arrested, in a true display of the fact that Democrats and Republicans can, indeed, work together toward common goals.
And now we turn to another Democrat from Noo Yawk, Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson. It seems that the Federales caught him taking bribes from the operators of adult day care centers in exchange for legislation that would protect those centers from competition. A very cozy arrangement, like Aunt Effie's prized patchwork quilt.
But you have to acknowledge Assemblyman Stevenson's cast-brass balls. Despite the prosecutors saying that they have video (VIDEO!) of him accepting envelopes full of money, he maintains that he was at home reading the Bible at the time.
It couldn't be any more Richard III if he'd been "discovered with two deep divines."
It's going to be fun to watch how all this plays out, so lay in more popcorn.
posted by Walt at 2:34 PM
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