
 |
|
May 20, 2013
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Jan. 19, 2006
/ 19 Teves, 5766
GOP, stop the self-inflicted wounds
By
Dick Morris
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the ugliest of them all?
The most recent Fox News poll indicates that Americans see the Republican congressional majority as materially more corrupt and more responsible for the current spate of scandals than the Democrats. Indeed, the building sense of popular anger against the GOP resembles nothing more than the last congressional scandal the bounced-check congressional bank affair of 1991 in its political impact. But that scandal paved the way for Newt Gingrich's takeover of Congress three years later. This scandal may undo the Republicans.
Generic cynicism about Washington is nothing new. Fox News poll respondents said that they felt that "most elected officials in Washington make policy decisions or take actions as a direct result of money they receive from major campaign contributors" by 65-21. Nothing new there. Because distrust of Congress is usually visited equally on both parties, it normally has no political impact.
But this scandal is different. With Republicans so completely in control of the government, this scandal is theirs. Asked "which political party in Washington" is "more corrupt," respondents to the Jan. 11 survey said the Republicans are by 33-15. (Forty percent said both were equally dishonest). Independents, the vital element in any potential Republican majority, rate the GOP as the more corrupt by 23-5.
The scandal also seems to be spawning a reaction quite different from the usual cynicism in that it appears to be visited on each district's local representative. While voters typically deride Congress as a whole, they usually speak highly of their own members. But not this time. Asked if "your own congressional representative has ever taken money or things of value in return for voting a certain way," voters said yes by 42-33, with Democrats and Republicans equally likely to think so.
Because this scandal is both partisan and local it will have a searing political impact. Nor should the recipients of Abramoff's dubious generosity dismiss their acceptance of his donations by saying it doesn't matter because everybody took his money.
Those who did get contributions from him are in for an Election Day surprise. Forty-four percent of the Fox News survey respondents said that if "an elected official from your state took a campaign contribution from Jack Abramoff or organizations that he represented" it would be a "major" factor in deciding whether to vote for him in the next election. Even 31 percent of Republicans felt this way.
Washington scandals come and go. But, about every decade or so, they metastasize into massive national affairs that embrace an entire political party. Republicans were victimized in 1974 by Nixon's misconduct. Democrats kept Congress in 1992 after the 1991 check-bouncing scandal, but they did so because so many of their old bulls retired. In their places, Bill Clinton's election swept into office young saplings who succumbed to the partisan wave of 1994, a wave kindled equally by disgust with Clinton and with the Democratic permanent Congressional majority.
The 2006 elections look to be another of these decadal bloodlettings, victimizing, this time, the Republicans.
What can the GOP do to prevent it? It has to start by not coddling its members who are in the cross hairs of this scandal. But shedding individuals will not buy the party a pass from what voters see as an epidemic of scandal. Only real reform will suffice.
Obviously, Congress needs to ban lobbyist-sponsored travel. It was voter anger over taxpayer-paid junketing that spawned these free trips, as legislators looked to lobbyists rather than Uncle Sam to subsidize their vacations. But now the voters are as angry about lobbyist-paid trips as they were over funding the travel themselves. The trips have to go.
But the more serious reform would be to ban earmarking on appropriation bills. Voters have long since understood that it is a fiction that a legislator is fighting for a specific earmark to help the district. They know he is really doing it to get campaign contributions. Once the Supreme Court took away the president's ability to use the line-item veto on spending bills a key provision of the Contract with America that was enacted with Clinton's approval the natural next step has been to ban earmarking. The practice invites the kind of corruption that is crippling Republican chances in the next election, and it deserves to be ended.
Will the scandals translate into the loss of Congress by the Republicans in 2006? The generic 13-point Democratic lead in Congressional ballot would suggest that it might. Can popular revulsion overcome even Tom DeLay's gerrymandering? You bet it can!
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Because He Could". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.
Dick Morris Archives
© 2005, Dick Morris
| |

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|