home :: Politics :: Report__Top_Dem...ckets.writeback

Tue, 30 May 2006

Report: Top Democrat took free boxing tickets

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that the vaunted "culture of corruption" is not limited to legislators with an 'R' following their name...

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who has criticized Republican ethics, accepted free ringside tickets to three professional boxing matches from Nevada officials who were trying to influence his federal legislation regulating the sport.

(link) [CNN.com]

/Politics | 3 writebacks | permanent link

writebacks...

On 5/30/2006 14:32:28
Thud wrote

I think statements like this encourage the idea that the two parties are equally bad, which is clearly not the case. Corruption *is* a problem of politics, especially when we do not have public financing of elections. Everyone accepts these little gifts, and they shouldn't. That's minor corruption, and it shouldn't be tolerated. But they are corrupted individuals, and these are individual influence peddlers. In this specific Reid case, it's very small. The Republicans actually currently had a corruption *ring*, where politicians cooperated with each other. Ambramoff served as a veritable influence *distributor* for DeLay, Cunningham, apparently Hastert, and to all accounts several other as yet unnamed Republican officials. Tom Delay's "K Street Project" made sure jobs at lobbying companies went to dedicated Republicans, assuring both party loyalty for lobbyist money and sinecures for Republican loyalists. Cunningham held poker and prostitution parties at the Watergate. Everyone was in on it and everyone knew about it. To me, Reid's boxing tickets vs. the Abramoff scandal equate about as well as shoplifting and wholesale extortion. Stacked against the sins of the Republicans, it's small cheese.

On 5/30/2006 22:27:22
Dave H wrote

Would that it were so ...

Remember Dan Rostenkowski? The House Banking scandal? The White House Travel Office under Clinton? How bout last weeks news: Democrat William Jefferson with "cold cash" and an FBI warrant, and the (Republican) Speaker of the House riding to his rescue? (Curiously, Mr. Hastart seems to have no problem whatsoever with warrantless searches of ordinary citizens). Sorry, Thud, but I'll have to stick to my guns on this one: once a party gets swept into power on a wave of public disgust at the scandals and corruption, it's only a matter of time before they adopt the same practices that got their predecessors swept out of office. It happened to the Dems following the 74 landslide, and it's happening to the Republicans now. The main difference is that it took the Democrats two full decades to become fully corrupt - the Republicans have done it in a mere 12 years. Rest assured that I'll still pull the handle for the Democrats this November - but I won't be surprised at the Republican return to power in 2026 on an anti-corruption platform. Power does indeed corrupt ... Thanks for the comment and Be well, Dave H.

On 5/31/2006 02:57:20
Thud wrote

I notice most of your democrat examples are things that happened well in the past -- not currently. And Jefferson was peddling his influence on his own. The Republican scandal is about Abramoff organizing and laundring bribes to several republican congressmen specifically for their vote on certain issues. We're talking a centralized wholesale market for influence. People have a responsibility to pay attention to their government and clean up the corruption from time to time; it's something you have to do, like vacuuming. And yes, the Dems can become corrupt, some are corrupt, and many have been corrupt. But right now, it's the Republicans who have the main problem. They're the ones who -- through Abramoff and DeLay's K Street Project -- have tried to institutionalize corruption. And pointing to Jefferson and saying "see! The democrats are involved, too!" just makes people feel helpless and directs cleanup efforts away from the filthiest side of the Capitol building.

comment...