Winners and Losers - Take One
Over at Newsweek, Howard Fineman, gives his initial assessment of the potential winners and losers in the Abramoff scandal.
On the loser side of the ledger, Fineman lists the following:
" - Members of Congress - Voters tend to like, or at least tolerate, their local congressman and assume that they aren’t part of the corrupt world of Washington—until the member’s name surfaces in a context like this one.
- The Republican Party - Republicans are the incumbent party in the Congress. They are led by a less-than-popular president in the traditionally weak sixth year of his presidency.
- The DeLay-Hastert Crowd - Tom DeLay, given his close ties to Abramoff, can forget about getting his job as House majority leader back. Semi-figurehead Speaker Denny Hastert, installed in the job by DeLay, hastily returned all of his Abramovian campaign contributions, but that only served to underscore his visibility. Look for a major shake-up in the GOP House leadership, perhaps soon.
- The Bush-Rove White House - The process of building that machinery began long before Rove came to town with Bush. DeLay, Abramoff, Grover Norquist and others began assembling it after the GOP took the House in 1994, demanding that corporate types hire Republicans—and not just any Republicans, THEIR Republicans. Rove then took command of that vehicle when he moved to the White House in 2001. Rove will have a hard time claiming now that he didn’t know how the machinery worked, especially since Abramoff himself became a major contributor to Bush’s re-election campaign."
Fineman's winners list is very short and, in my mind pretty suspect. Fineman believes that the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ will come out as a winner. Federal investigators and prosecutors have stuck with this case and driven it to the point where it is going to blow Washington open. Fineman's right that this crew deserves both credit and the public's thanks.
But, Fineman goes one "winner" to far, when he suggests that some sort of 3rd party movement that pledges to clean up Washington could "win the 2008 election going away." Maybe there is a viable 3rd party movement out there, but Fineman's projection of a McCain/Lieberman ticket, with Wes Clark, Russ Feingold and Colin Powell tabbed for key cabinets posts, seems like a real stretch based on the available evidence.
On the loser side of the ledger, Fineman lists the following:
" - Members of Congress - Voters tend to like, or at least tolerate, their local congressman and assume that they aren’t part of the corrupt world of Washington—until the member’s name surfaces in a context like this one.
- The Republican Party - Republicans are the incumbent party in the Congress. They are led by a less-than-popular president in the traditionally weak sixth year of his presidency.
- The DeLay-Hastert Crowd - Tom DeLay, given his close ties to Abramoff, can forget about getting his job as House majority leader back. Semi-figurehead Speaker Denny Hastert, installed in the job by DeLay, hastily returned all of his Abramovian campaign contributions, but that only served to underscore his visibility. Look for a major shake-up in the GOP House leadership, perhaps soon.
- The Bush-Rove White House - The process of building that machinery began long before Rove came to town with Bush. DeLay, Abramoff, Grover Norquist and others began assembling it after the GOP took the House in 1994, demanding that corporate types hire Republicans—and not just any Republicans, THEIR Republicans. Rove then took command of that vehicle when he moved to the White House in 2001. Rove will have a hard time claiming now that he didn’t know how the machinery worked, especially since Abramoff himself became a major contributor to Bush’s re-election campaign."
Fineman's winners list is very short and, in my mind pretty suspect. Fineman believes that the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ will come out as a winner. Federal investigators and prosecutors have stuck with this case and driven it to the point where it is going to blow Washington open. Fineman's right that this crew deserves both credit and the public's thanks.
But, Fineman goes one "winner" to far, when he suggests that some sort of 3rd party movement that pledges to clean up Washington could "win the 2008 election going away." Maybe there is a viable 3rd party movement out there, but Fineman's projection of a McCain/Lieberman ticket, with Wes Clark, Russ Feingold and Colin Powell tabbed for key cabinets posts, seems like a real stretch based on the available evidence.
posted by RJB at 3:48 PM
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