Washington Post Headline aTad Overstated

This morning, the Washington Post featured this head: “Democrats’ Ethical Lapses Could Threaten Hold on Power” In the first place, the Democrats haven’t had a “hold” on power since the Clinton era. When Obama became president, the Democrats merely gave the nation a chance to bring to an end the deadly stranglehold the Republicans had on the federal government. But secondly, even if the Dems had a hold on power, how come the recent ethical lapses in the Democrat Party were endangering that hold? For eight years, from 2000 through 2008, the Republican Party’s egregious ethical lapses did not threaten its hold on power. And those ethical lapses were not the puny ones the WP is referring to today in the Democrat Party. The Republican Party’s ethical lapses included an unnecessary war in Iraq; granting unheard of powers to the executive branch of government; lies and cheating in the Justice Department; lies and cheating in the State Department; lies and cheating in the Defense Department. When the WP talks about the Democrat’s gaining the upper hand, it is referring to the Dems’ reclaiming control of Congress in 2006. However, the Repubs’ never turned loose its control of the federal government until Obama was elected. Which control, let us be clear, was gained by the Repub’s using illegal means of coercion, wiretapping, threats, blackmail, and giving itself wartime powers never intended to be used when the US mainland was not threatened by war. And even the WP had to admit that the ethical lapses it referred to were “not as severe” as the Repubs’ lapses--Jack Abramoff going to jail, for one, and Mark Foley putting the make on Senate pages, for another. But let’s face it, the media seems to be only too willing to jump on the Repub bandwagon when the party cries “foul” or makes up bogus charges. It’s as though the media is still scared to death the Repubs will exact retribution if it doesn’t toe the GOP party line.