THE REPUBLICAN CULTURE OF CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION

In your Chicago Sun-Times, Lynn Sweet says that the Democrats are trying to make rhetorical hay while the sun is shining:

The major political question raised by the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is not whether Democrats will exploit it, but how effectively they will.

By coincidence, House and Senate Democrats, who are trying harder to coordinate their messages, this week decided to focus on what they called the GOP "culture of cronyism and corruption'' without knowing the DeLay indictment would be unveiled.

"Republican culture of cronyism and corruption" -- It's short and has a pretty good ring to it.

"Republican culture of cronyism and corruption" -- The phrase sums up the myriad instances of Republican wrong doing.

"Republican culture of cronyism and corruption" -- It applies to everything from Tom Delay's criminal money-laundering/campaign finance schemes to Bill Frist's insider trading...
to Denny-boy Hastert's Turkish connections...
to Haliburton's no-bid contracts...
to Michael "Brownie" Brown's employment at FEMA...
to the Presidential Medals of Freedom awarded to the architects of the Iraq failure...
all the way down to George Ryan's license for bribes trial.

But can the Dems stay on message?

From your Chicago Tribune:

"The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom DeLay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), voicing one of many similar comments by Democrats on Wednesday.

Well... so far so good.

Now lets try for a new Democratic record and stay on message for two days in a row.