The Republican Party’s fall from dominance in 2002 to utter collapse in 2008 is mostly attributed to the GOP either being too conservative or not conservative enough.
But Republicans were mostly incoherent on domestic policy during their six-year ride to the bottom.
Whether it was pandering to baby boomers with a prescription drug benefit or stoking the fires of the gay marriage debate, amassing and retaining power was the GOP’s only evident priority.
When Republican members were taking bribes or in the thrall of lobbyists or even propositioning House pages, congressional leaders tried to avoid the swift investigations and appropriate disciplinary action that would have reassured voters.
Americans generally have low ethical expectations for their politicians. A little double-talking or some womanizing or an oversized ego have long been considered pretty normal for elected officials. Bill Clinton wasn’t the first of his kind, just the apotheosis.
And despite the worshipful tone taken by many toward President Barack Obama, most Americans still know better than to take politicians too seriously.
But there is an invisible, shifting line that anyone in public life mustn’t cross.
What keeps politics interesting, though, is that no one ever seems to learn the lesson.
There are three big ethical pitfalls threatening to undo the political promise of Democratic dominance.
The first has to do with the bailout billions.
Talking about the $787 billion Obama stimulus and the inevitable waste and fraud that occur when spending so much so quickly, Vice President Joe Biden said in one of his moments of compulsive oversharing, “We know some of this money is going to be wasted.”
The same day, Biden, without any irony, promised to “ramp up” the speed of the stimulus cash dump to battle unemployment — now higher than the White House forecast it would have been without any stimulus at all.
If the administration is having trouble keeping track of the billions being spent by government agencies, how will Obama, Biden and various White House czars contend with their new business partners, the United Auto Workers and Wall Street bankers?
With $60 billion from taxpayers circling the drain at General Motors and Chrysler, the president is sending mixed signals. While he doesn’t want to be held politically liable for the decisions the companies make, he promises accountability and to be involved on all the major moves.
This will lead to indecision and errors. And in the chaos, opportunists will take advantage. Rep. Barney Frank has already been leaning on GM to favor his Massachusetts district, and the first round of dealer closings prompted an outcry about favoritism.
Democrats already got their first case of bailout indigestion over the AIG bonuses in March. Authorized in the stimulus bill, the bonuses have pushed Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., to the brink of electoral defeat and have left simmering resentments in their wake.
With so many banks and insurance companies now part of the $700 billion bailout family, the AIG pratfall was more likely foreshadowing than culmination.
Meanwhile, Democrats are dragging their feet on dealing with congressmen like John Murtha, D-Pa., Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and Jim Moran, D-Va., who were the biggest recipients of campaign cash from the PMA defense lobbying firm at the center of a pay-to-play investigation. Last week, House leaders caved a bit to Republican pressure by promising to make public the work of the Ethics Committee on the issue, but they again blocked a move for a special investigation.
Rather than learning from the Republicans’ mistakes and rooting out wrongdoing by wayward party members, House Democrats are still looking to protect their own. When the FBI finishes its work on PMA, Speaker Nancy Pelosi will regret the see-no-evil strategy.
But Pelosi has been distracted.
The speaker took a big chance by saying that the CIA routinely lies to Congress. But rather than holding her ground, Pelosi has steadily tried to walk back her claim without actually saying that she made up the story to get out of a tight spot about harsh interrogation techniques.
The whole shabby affair took a toll on her credibility. And when she has to defend her party on issues like bailout mischief and getting too cozy with lobbyists, her presence will hurt, not help.
As Will Rogers — never one to take a politician too seriously — said: “The more you read and observe about this politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always looks the best.”
