Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

While I don't blame Republicans for taking this line, it is inexcusable that Democrats have failed to fight back and paint the Dukestir as a symbol of modern day Republicanism.  While the details of the Abramoff scandal are sickeningly corrupt, they don't jump off the page with the same level of venality as the Dukestir's sins.  In terms of hitting the gut of middle America, no one can top the Dukestir.  Josh Marshall has a rundown from the Government's sentencing memo:

Page 15, item e. Duke demands that Mitchell Wade buy him a used Rolls Royce. Duke then has Wade pay thousands to restore the car. Duke then engineers bogus paper 'sale' of the car to Wade to pocket still more money. Cunningham retains ownership of car.

Page 16, item f. Duke arranges to purchase the yacht 'Buoy Toy' from gay couple with his "business partner" Mitchell Wade. Duke then renames boat the 'Duke Stir'. When explaining his reasons for changing the yacht's name, Duke quips, "I bought the boat, not the lifestyle."

Page 19. Unnamed Duke staffer confronts Duke over millions of dollars in bribes he has accepted, asks Duke to either resign or not seek reelection. Duke thinks it over, decides he'll stay in Congress. Staffer resigns.

See more excerpts here. Of course, Mitchell Wade has quite a few connections with other Republicans, including national figure Katherine Harris.  So Democrats can certainly argue that many other Republicans are messed up with the Dukestir's co-conspirators, and that there needs to be an additional investigation of those relationships.

The Democrats have essentially let the Dukestir scandal die without lifting a finger to tar the national Republicans.  I personally find this passivity baffling.  The DNC should be issuing press releases explicitly tying the Dukestir to the Republican culture of corruption, and elected Democrats should continue to bring attention to the Dukestir's criminal acts whenever they can, including on cable and Sunday morning talk.

That's certainly what Republicans would do.  Does anyone remember Gary Condit?  Even though Condit's sins were unique to him, Republicans had no problem going on the cable talk shows and tarring the entire Democratic Party with Condit's sins.  Condit was a symptom, they said, of the entire Democratic Party.

I see no reason why Democrats shouldn't do the same with the Dukestir.