he might have been very right about it. Here is some of what he said.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Tuesday his party relished the thought that Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt might soon become majority leader.
“If you like Tom DeLay, you’re going to love Roy Blunt,” Dean said at a Democratic rally at the Uptown Theatre. Blunt, he added, is ethically challenged.
He stopped short of calling Roy Blunt corrupt, though.
The former Vermont governor stopped short of describing Blunt as being part of the “culture of corruption” that Dean accused Republicans of bringing to Washington.
“I won’t go that far,” he said. “But we do know that he has been involved in taking money from some of the very same organizations that Tom DeLay has been involved with.”
Dean said he planned to unveil a Democratic ethics platform today in Ohio. He declined to detail what would be in that plan, but said it would bar lobbyists from treating.
Well, now, look what Ryan Lizza comes up with at The New Republic today. Interesting.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS ARE ABOUT TO HAND DEMOCRATS A GIFT.
Blunt Instrument
He talks about how the Republicans seem unaware of how this is all going to affect them. He spends some time describing the event in DC today about the culture of corruption.
Then he goes into Blunt’s problems.
And Republicans seem oblivious. Given the Democratic strategy on this issue–a laser-like focus on the personalities and specific practices of the current crop of Republican investigatees–it boggles the mind that GOP members are about to make Roy Blunt their majority leader. There is a reason why Howard Dean was celebrating Blunt’s rise Tuesday and why some Democrats in the Great Hall yesterday were gleefully joking that they hoped to soon add a “Blunt Reform” plank to their package.
Think of just about any current scandal involving a Republican in Washington and Blunt is at the center of it. To wit:
Abramoff. Blunt signed three letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton asking her to stop the Choctaw Indians from opening a casino that would have competed with the tables of Abramoff’s Indian clients. Blunt personally met with Abramoff or his fellow lobbyists (the records are unclear) when Abramoff was working the Mariana Islands issue. Gregg Hartley, Blunt’s former chief of staff and his man on K Street–his Tony Rudy–recruited Abramoff to lobbying giant Cassidy & Associates after Abramoff left Greenberg Traurig in disgrace. Best of all, and most likely to be coming to a TV screen near you in the form of a 30-second ad, Blunt had “friend of owner status” at Abramoff’s Signatures restaurant, meaning he ate for free.
There is a lot more about Blunt’s problems. He presents it all. But I love the way he ends this article:
I really don’t have any idea what that means, either. But I think it’s one reason that all those Democrats in the Great Hall yesterday were smiling.
Yes, Ryan, I do think we finally have some things to smile about.
