Scandal isolates Cunningham (the Duke Stir)

[Robbien]

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Randy Cunningham's political woes are echoing far beyond the boundaries of his north San Diego County district. Only 25 days after the first allegation exploded, the veteran congressman already has emerged as a powerful symbol of what Democrats hope to portray as a Republican congressional leadership grown arrogant and too cozy with big money contributors.

The first public sign of that came Wednesday when he was one of five scandal-tainted Republicans to be featured in full-page newspaper ads run by the Democratic congressional campaign committee. But behind the scenes, Cunningham is a frequent topic of discussion by strategists from both parties trying to assess his vulnerability in the 2006 elections and whether he is tainting other Republicans.

. . .

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics who has written extensively on political scandals, said this one is playing out as most scandals do except Cunningham has not been able to fall back on a base that refuses to believe the allegations.

"For many Republicans, the attitude is why take a chance?" he said. "That's a district that is nearly guaranteed to be Republican. They can get rid of Cunningham and keep the seat. Then they don't have to answer any more embarrassing questions."



Much more on why the right wingnut defense machine is silent:
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regstate/articles/1668492.html

[tsuki]

1. From the article:

Democrats hope to play on that reaction and link Cunningham to other embattled Republicans. "This is a story line," said Cook, "that Democrats are trying to construct that is similar to the story line that Newt Gingrich constructed for Republicans in 1994 -- arrogant, out of touch, possibly corrupt, abuse of power."

/snip

Dean's "Culture of Corruption," talk it up.