Illinois governor's arrest an ironic twist for Democrats

[WoodysGirl]

By JANET HOOK
Los Angeles Times

Dec. 9, 2008, 11:25PM

WASHINGTON — The arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday marks the latest in a series of recent scandals erupting around Democratic politicians — an ironic turn for a party that won control of Congress in 2006 in part by saying it would end a "culture of corruption" under GOP leadership.

Democrats also highlighted Republican ethical problems in the successful bid to expand their congressional majorities in 2008, and Barack Obama made government transparency and a crackdown on lobbyist influence a central theme of his presidential campaign.

The corruption charges against Blagojevich come as one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, remains under investigation by a House ethics panel.

The panel is looking at Rangel's occupation of several rent-controlled apartments in Manhattan, failure to pay taxes on an offshore rental property and other ethics questions.

Tuesday, it announced that the investigation was expanding to include allegations that Rangel supported a tax break for an oil drilling company in exchange for a donation to a school that would bear his name.

Democratic Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana is awaiting trial on charges of bribery, money laundering and misusing his congressional office, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Saturday, he was ousted from his House seat in a run-off election.

Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York resigned after revelations that he was involved in a prostitution ring.

The allegations against Blagojevich — including charges that he solicited favors to influence his decision about who should replace Obama in the Senate— were shocking to fellow Democrats.

"It straightened my hair," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla.


Wearing a bull's-eye
Democrats said they hoped the political fallout for their party would be limited, but they acknowledged that the developments would give Republicans a new political target during Obama's transition months.

"Do I think Republicans will try to make something of this?" said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. "Of course."

Indeed, the new chairman of the GOP's Senate campaign committee was quick to respond to the Blagojevich news.

"Every Democratic and labor union official, whether in Illinois or in their national organizations, who has spoken with the governor or his aides about this U.S. Senate seat should step forward and immediately make public the full details of those conversations and meetings," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Obama said he had no contact with the governor concerning his Senate replacement, but he said little more because of the investigation.

The political risk for Democrats is that voters will be as repulsed by Democrats' ethics problems as they were by the scandals that contributed to the defeat of former GOP Reps. Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, Bob Ney of Ohio, Mark Foley of Florida and others.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6156504.html

[JBond]

New Jersey then New York and now Illinois. The governors of these liberal utopias are dropping like flies.

[arglebargle]

Anyone who thinks that 60% of these politicos aren't money grubbing or power-crazed venial yahoos has not had much experiance around them. And party affiliation doesn't matter one whit.

[burmafrd]

It is interesting how NOW its the Dems getting caught and going to jail. And of course the MSM pays NOWHERE NEAR as much attention as they did to the Republicans. And these cases are clearly much more serious.
I mean look at that William Jefferson. He had $80,000 in his freezer but craig and his toilet rendezvous got 10 times the coverage.

[dbair1967]

Worst state economies in the union...Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey, California

hmmm

[burmafrd]

Contrast that with the best ones and it gets interesting.
Though to be fair its states with large metropolitan areas in them that have the hardest time. All the welfare and unemployed and other problems tend to soak up a lot of money.

[Aikbach]

Change we can believe in, 2006 was all about change and a rebuke of 12 years of Republican leadership now in two years the Democratic congress is even more wildly unpopular and deemed untrustworthy.

Obama has inherited a mess of circumstance but many of them go back to his party and it may cost him dearly, perhaps even turn him into a one term president.

[MrMom]

I live in the most corrupt state. Ryan, Ryan, now Blagojevich. Jagbags.

[Aikbach]

Originally Posted by MrMom

I live in the most corrupt state. Ryan, Ryan, now Blagojevich. Jagbags.

Sorry friend.

[JBond]

Originally Posted by burmafrd

Contrast that with the best ones and it gets interesting.
Though to be fair its states with large metropolitan areas in them that have the hardest time. All the welfare and unemployed and other problems tend to soak up a lot of money.

There are ways to fix that. Stop giving away other peoples money to those who have not earned it. Stop taxing the crap out of people. Get people off of being dependent on the government for their every need. Force people to be self reliant.

The liberal lazy way is a failure.

[heavyg]

Originally Posted by JBond

There are ways to fix that. Stop giving away other peoples money to those who have not earned it. Stop taxing the crap out of people. Get people off of being dependent on the government for their every need. Force people to be self reliant.

The liberal lazy way is a failure.

I agree with that to a point. There are times when people truely need help. Unfortunately those are the people who can't get the help. The system is broken for sure

[JBond]

Originally Posted by heavyg

I agree with that to a point. There are times when people truely need help. Unfortunately those are the people who can't get the help. The system is broken for sure

The fallback, if everything goes wrong, should be state unemployment that you have paid into. Until the time there are no jobs left in the help wanted section of the paper, people need to stop whining. Just like most people, I have failed more than I have succeded. You work through it. You don't go demanding that others pay your way for you.

People must be responsible for their actions. If you drink, do drugs, have children without two responsible parents and make other such poor judgments, that is on that person. It is not societies roll to take care of those people.

[WoodysGirl]

Originally Posted by JBond

The fallback, if everything goes wrong, should be state unemployment that you have paid into. Until the time there are no jobs left in the help wanted section of the paper, people need to stop whining. Just like most people, I have failed more than I have succeded. You work through it. You don't go demanding that others pay your way for you.

People must be responsible for their actions. If you drink, do drugs, have children without two responsible parents and make other such poor judgments, that is on that person. It is not societies roll to take care of those people.

On the one hand, I agree with the overall principle of your post. But state unemployment is a joke. At least in Texas, it is.

[Rack Bauer]

Originally Posted by WoodysGirl

"Do I think Republicans will try to make something of this?" said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. "Of course."

He says it as if the Republicans would be "making" something out of nothing. As if it were no big deal.

[notherbob]

Originally Posted by arglebargle

Anyone who thinks that 60% of these politicos aren't money grubbing or power-crazed venial yahoos has not had much experiance around them. And party affiliation doesn't matter one whit.

Yeah, the politicians are demanding that Gov. Blagoyevich resign but they want him to wait a few days to give them time to round up some more bidders for his job, oops, I mean, candidates for his job.

Ain't politics wonderful?