Republicans Same As 90's Dems? NO WAY

[sandnsea]

Excellent piece on the differences between the so-called arrogant and corrupt 90's Dems and today. No comparison. None. Well, except the extent to which Republicans lied about Democrats to smear them with half-truths, that hasn't changed.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9105

snip~"Gingrich spent years convincing the press that Wright was “the least ethical speaker in the 20th century,” filing dozens of charges with the House Ethics Committee and countless investigatory fishing expeditions that eventually yielded one serious ethics complaint: a $55,000 book deal exploiting a loophole in the House rules concerning outside income. (Careful readers take note: Wright’s $55,000 book deal is not to be confused with Gingrich’s $4.5 million advance in 1995 on two books that were to be published by the Rupert Murdoch-owned HarperCollins, just as critical telecommunications legislation was pending in Congress.)

Wright’s successor, the far more mild-mannered and bipartisan Tom Foley, became one of dozens of electoral casualties from a political scandal that Gingrich concocted -- in the refreshing words of The New Republic’s Michael Crowley -- “almost out of nothing.” Perhaps you’ve heard of the House bank scandal of 1991-92? In his most recent book, How Congress Evolves, political scientist Nelson Polsby sums up the affair as “a comic-opera fiasco that the news media, skillfully abetted by a group of enthusiastic Republican members, pumped up into a Wagnerian Götterdämmerung...”

[hedda_foil]

1. That's exactly how I remembered it.

It seemed even more of a tempest in a teapot than the whole Clinton witchhunt. Gingrich cooked the whole thing up and executed it brilliantly. It's too bad that the Dems still haven't figured out how the fuck to react to these mega-smear campaigns.

[sandnsea]

2. *sigh*

Well I thought this was interesting.

Most people out there, just regular folk, haven't even figured out that it's a smear strategy yet.
When Dems fight it, they look like Hillary Clinton and the VRWC moment because nobody has a clue. Maybe this Reed, Abramoff, Rove, Norquist, College Republicans will bring it more into the publc eye.