I have a question - granted, the Gov. of Illinois did a very bad thing, but why....

[Sarah Ibarruri]

Are we behaving as if he had brought the planet down? After DECADES of Repukes committing crimes, many of which are STILL not in prison and never will be, why should we be behaving as if this were the end of the world?

Is it because Repukes are behaving like it's something worse than everything they've done?

I don't get it.

[blueclown]

1. It's a double standard.

Repukes never pay for their crimes. Our party always does. It's the responsibility our party takes for being the grown-up party.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Exactly. When are we going to get rid of the double standard once and for all?

Repukes spend their LIVES being criminals and nothing comes of it, but heaven FORBID one Democrat do something bad, it's the end of the world.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. And that's got to change now. We have to stop being the ones that suffer while they get away with

EVERYTHING.

[onenote]

42. tell george ryan, jack abramoff, bob ney, and duke cunningham that

Some repubs do pay for their crimes. In fact, of the repubs and Democrats on CREW's most corrupt members of congress list, at least a couple of the repubs have gone to jail ... none of the Democrats have. Blago deserves to go and I'm glad to see it.

[stray cat]

2. Catching crooked politicians whether dem or repub is a good thing

Its called white collar crime and its illegal.

[malaise]

10. Ditto n/t

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. But that doesn't explain the outcry. We're acting like this one is the devil.

He's just a crook. What about the crooks in the White House and other Repuke crooks? Are we experiencing outrage about them and their crimes?

[Critters2]

18. Three of my parishioners are unemployed because of this crook.

Others have been worrying about their jobs. He's been using his power to punish opponents for years. He needs to go to prison.

[Occam Bandage]

33. Ted Stevens. Duke Cunningham. George Ryan. Jack Abramoff. Scooter Libby.

We were outraged about all of them. All of them ended up--or are going to--prison, except for Scooter, who got a Presidential pardon despite his felony conviction. If we weren't outraged about Blago, we'd be flaming hypocrites.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

35. He has most likely condemned us to a Republican governor now and may even cost us a senate seat.

He has been abusing his power for years. He gave the right wing ammunition against Obama. He, once again, made Illinoisans look like rubes and con artists (even though we hate him here). And although we all knew he was a crooked, egotistical idiot, I think even we were surprised at just how out of touch and arrogant he is.

[onenote]

45. Maybe its just me, but selling the senate seat of the President Elect is a step beyond

your typical corruption case. If you can't see that...well, you're just trying not to.

[sufrommich]

3. The repukes have their Theater of the Absurd

shtick down to an art form.I don't know why Dems are acting like it's the end of the world,I expect that shit from republicans.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. Dems need to stop acting like it's the end of the world

Dems need to start looking at who the biggest DAMNED crooks in this planet are, and many of them are still sitting their asses in the OVAL OFFICE and thereabouts. Why the HELL are we acting like the Gov of Illinois is the devil? And why is he in prison, while the White House criminals are running free?

[sufrommich]

20. The fact that republicans are crooks doesn't make the

Democrats immune from having their own criminals.I'm pretty sure most people posting here agree that Bush and Co. are responsible for criminal acts,that doesn't mean all laws should be suspended until they're brought to justice.I don't hold my breath that Bush will ever be charged with anything,that doesn't mean I want a lawless free for all to replace all government from now on.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

30. That's not my point.

My point is that they are practically ALL crooks, and we're pretty relaxed about it when these same don't get sent to prison (including the frikkin' president of our country).

However, when it's one of us, we're ready to quarter them.

That is my point.

[sufrommich]

43. And my point is that we don't have to measure

outrage about political corruption as if there were a finite amount that we must reserve for republicans.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

51. I'm just glad he was arrested before he made that appointment.

Your lightbulb going off "Ohhhhhhhhhh.......that's why it was bad!" moment isn't worth watching a Senate seat get fucked up over.

[leftofthedial]

4. double standard

we've become numb to repuke corruption and crime.

plus, they commit HUGE crimes in the dark and in smoky rooms none of us never see inside.

This clod did everything but run ads.

[babylonsister]

6. There's also a little matter of having close to a majority in the Senate.

Now, all bets are off, especially if a special election is called. From what I understand, rethugs could also run.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. I know, and this guy is an a-h - but Dems are so quick to slit their own throats nt

[babylonsister]

16. Who has been quick to slit their own throat? nt

[bobbolink]

7. At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest, remember the HateFest for John Edwards not so long ago?

Nobody is picking on the gov in particular... We don't take too kindly to Dems betraying us.

And certainly, the gov did MUCH worse than Edwards!

"But mommy, EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT!"

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. For decades I've been pissed off by the way Repuke criminals have gotten away with everything

And STILL are getting away with everything. Then along comes 1 Democrat and does some shit and heaven forbid, it's as if it were the DEVIL and his SPAWN newly arrived on earth and this were the end of the world.

I just don't get it.

[onenote]

46. I'm pretty sure there was some publicity about that Abramoff guy and that Cunningham guy

YOu must have missed it.

[malaise]

9. Maybe we actually have higher standards

Still for Tweety to suggest that this is the worst level of corruption when we've had Haliburton and other contracts rip off the treasury with impunity strikes me as ridiculous.

If he had argued that he had taken corruption to a new level in trying to sell a Senate seat, I might agree, but history would prove me wrong. Legislatures used to sell these seats which is why they changed the law.

I think Blagojevich must be on some serious meds or he's bat shit crazy, delusional or both.

[terrya]

13. Rod Blagojevich ran as a reformer in 2002.

He specifically ran against the corruption of George Ryan and the whole despicable mess in the Secretary of State's office when Ryan was Illinois SoS.

Rod Blagojevich was going to clean up Illinois government.

And here we are. Not a fucking thing has changed.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

48. I was so disappointed when Blago won the primary.

It was my first election, and he was shady even then.

[Renew Deal]

14. It's going to be a huge story on a political website.

So it's going to get lots of attention here. Besides that, Blago is a first rate jerk and his crimes are shocking. Extorting a childrens hospital is beyond the pale.

[patrice]

15. I'm hoping the message is that we can and WILL clean our own house, so we will, therefore,

be able ALSO to go after ALL corruption, which I really really hope includes BushCo!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

25. Cleaning our house will take no time. When are we going to clean THEIR (GOP's) house?

We never do that do we?

[patrice]

37. This action is giving me hope that we are getting ready to do more. nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

19. If we had used all this outrage we are spewing against the Gov....

and instead had used it against the Repugnican criminals (all zillions of them), we wouldn't have to be worried about how many seats we have or had in the Congress.

That's all I'm saying.

We need to use that rage against Republicans. We never do!

[MNDemNY]

23. It is worse, when it is one of our own.

It is then that we must act even swifter.

[Occam Bandage]

26. Yes, the netroots just needed to be more outraged against Bush.

That would have solved everything.

[onenote]

47. You're right we were so wrong to be so forgiving of Abramoff

and the way we coddled Delay and Ney and Cunningham -- I can't believe we didn't express any outrage about those guys. What were we thinking?

:sarcasm:

[MNDemNY]

21. WE, as Democrats MUST be willing to flush our own when it becomes necessary. It is , now.

This scum must be gone, soon, kicked out by DEMOCRATS.

[ColbertWatcher]

44. We do.

We always flush down the crap.

We also do not control the media like the GOP does. If the media were doing its job properly, Rove would be in jail and no one would question it.

Along with Rove would be Cheney (hey, whatever happened to his indictment anyway?), Addington, Yoo, Gonzales, and all the Bush boys.

But, we don't control the DoJ or the justice system to decide which cases go forward in the way the Federalist Society does, nor do we control the media to provide information to the public the way the GOP does.

[Occam Bandage]

24. I'm shocked that people would talk about a politician being arrested in a huge corruption scandal.

And to think, it's been several hours since it happened! How obsessive! Let's talk about Republican corruption instead. That's how we keep our party healthy--by only focusing on the bad things the other guys do.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

27. Actually, when they do it, we have to watch in anger as they do NOT go to prison

When we do it, you bet we're going to prison.

[Occam Bandage]

28. That would be reasonable, if not for the fact that Blago's Republican predecessor

is currently sitting in a prison on corruption charges.

[onenote]

49. as well as other several other repubs, whose convictions I recall we celebrated

but apparently they actually never happened.

I'm always amazed by posters that assert their beliefs as if they were fact when the facts --easily checked -- prove that their beliefs are a wee bit off.

[onenote]

29. so you suggest that we minmize what Blago did?

How exactly would that help? People can hear with their own ears what the dumbfuck was doing. Pretending it wasn't a big deal or that "everyone does it" or going "hey look at what those repubs are doing over there" isn't going to help make Democrats look like the party people can trust. We can only do that by going after democrats that are as foul as Blago and going after them hard. And I find it mildly humorous that, after zillions of posts detailing the many instances of exposed repub corruption over the past several years (including Abramoff, George Ryan (blago's predecessor) Cunningham, Stevens, etc), suddenly people are acting as if no repub has ever been charged with anything).

[Sarah Ibarruri]

32. I'm suggesting we minimize our reactions, yes.

We don't even react this way with the current criminal president, VP and all his associated criminals.

[Occam Bandage]

34. That's absolutely fucking ridiculous.

To suggest that we've complained more about Blagojevich than George W. Bush or Dick Cheney...:rofl:

[onenote]

50. and you think that will help? that the public will respond positively

if we try to make excuses for blago or try to distract by saying "hey, look over there"?

You've got to be kidding. But of course, you're not. :-(

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

52. A guy screwing with our party's Senate seat isn't worth getting upset about?

Imagine if this guy was a Rethug.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

31. We in Illinois have been fed up with Blaggo for awhile now.

Frankly, I'm thrilled to see him go.

[JDPriestly]

36. Republican crooks run big corporations, not unions. They can

hire other people to make their "deals" for them. That's why only sub-strata Republicans get caught.

[Occam Bandage]

39. Yeah, just little nobodies like Tom DeLay and Ted Stevens.

:eyes:

[JDPriestly]

53. Is Tom DeLay in jail? He was convicted you know.

And what about all the Republicans who conspired with DeLay? Why weren't they also indicted and convicted?

As for Ted Stevens. Just watch. He will get off on appeal.

[gravity]

38. Democrats have been conditioned to live in a state of total fear

[rvablue]

40. Because two wrongs don't make a right.....what Blago did is a federal crime....

do you really want someone to not be held responsible for their corrupt and illegal actions just because they have a big D after their name.

You can't be serious.

[Nye Bevan]

41. My reaction was exactly the same when John Rowland went down here in CT

Unfortunately the governor gene and the crook gene often seem to go hand-in-hand.