House Minority Leader John Boehner released a campaign memo earlier this week in which he makes clear that his party will push the idea of a culture of corruption within the Democratic party over the next few years.
Luckily for Boehner he seems to have a lot of fodder.
The GOP can herald the way that Representative Cao ended the carreer of William Jefferson who was under a bribery investigation.
The GOP should beable to make plenty of hay out of this new scandal with Governor Blagojevich.
They also have the case of Charlie Rangel who is under investigation for using his position on the Ways and Means Committee to create and defend tax loopholes which he has used for personal advantage. He is also under investigation for other tax code related issues.
While it is true that the Democrats are corrupt, should the Republicans really push the idea that the the Democrats are corrupt this election cycle? The GOP seemed to have a difficult time keeping its own members from doing really bad things over the past few years. If the House Republicans are going to call the Democrats corrupt durign teh next election cycle, they better make sure they are not corrupt, and have a xero tolerance level for anyone who is even slightly tainted with corruption. Accusing the opposition of corruption is an inherently difficult strategy as you must make sure you are not corrupt yourself.
If the Republicans can pull off the whole corruption angle, cool, however I would be much more excited and inspired to campaign for them if they would advance a series of creative conservative ideas. When the GOP violates core conservative beliefs (suports the bailout, supports unlimited spending, supports amnesty, etc...) and refuses to fight for conservative principles, I am just as uninspired to vote for them as when they are corrupt. Hopefully the Republicans will grow a spine and act on it.
