Josh Marshall on the Abramoff scandal and whether Democrats will be caught in the mix:
DiGenova notwithstanding, the lawyers at the Public Integrity Section at DOJ (just now coming under the gun from DiGenova and his pals) are doing a pretty decent finding cases where even the normal rules of the road in Washington were trashed so egregiously and overwhelmingly as to cross over into criminal conduct.
But let’s return again to this issue of whether some Democrats might get singed by the Abramoff bonfire. Frankly, so be it. Republicans are about to reap the whirlwind because the operation that Jack Abramoff and Co. were running in Washington went way beyond what the already corrupted and corrupting rules of the road in Washington allow or anyone in the town has witnessed at any time in recent history. And as I’ve written before, pay offs to dirty reps. like Bob Ney were only one relatively small part of the racket.
But if Democrats are going to run on reform, they need to be for reform. And if they’re going to fan the flames of this bonfire they’ll need to let it burn its course.
If a Democratic politician or operative gets caught up in the bribes, sleaze and/or quid pro quo, so be it. They deserve the same fate. If ever there was a time for another party this is it. Both parties are in the pockets of the wealthy, be it business or personal. What has happened is enough to gag a maggot.