Doom and gloom sweeps over the GOP but Dems aren't home free

Doom and gloom sweeps over the GOP but Dems aren't home free
By DOUG THOMPSON
Nov 29, 2005, 08:53

Doom and gloom washes over the Republican Party these days like a storm surge from Hurricane Katrina, drowning partisan political operatives in a rising sea of scandal.

California Republican Representative Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s admission that he took $2.4 million in bribes and his immediate resignation from Congress is just another layer of scandal that sweeps over the GOP like a toxic cloud.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is headed for trial on campaign finance violations and remains a central figure in the widening scandal surrounding corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Besides DeLay, at least a half-dozen Republicans face charges in the Abramoff conspiracy and briary probe, including Oho Rep. Bob Ney, Montana Sen. Conrad Burns and California Rep. John T. Doolittle. However, the expanding Abramoff scandal may also snare some Democrats too. North Dakota Democratic Senator Bryon Dorgan also received some of Abramoff's tainted campaign money.

“Duke Cunningham may be the latest senior Republican member of Congress to lose his way, but sadly he won't be the last one to fall from grace, and his behavior is a symptom of a greater problem: the culture of corruption that the GOP has made its trademark in Washington and throughout the country,” says Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. “Cunningham is just one more example of a Party that has lost its moral compass and replaced it with a treasure map of personal and special interest gain.”

And while Republicans try to paint as positive picture as possible in these hard times, they have trouble sounding optimistic....