Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

US & Int'l Papers

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A Culture of ... Boredom

Monday April 3, 2006

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Alliteration from Merriam-Webster's Third Unabridged: The repetition usually initially of a sound that is usually a consonant in two or more neighboring words or syllables (as wild and woolly, threatening throngs)

MY DEAR MR. MULLINGS!

Why would you include an example like "threatening th �" oh, thRongs.

Never mind.

Signed,
The National Proffreaders Association.

Howard Dean and the Democrats have been working to get an alliteration into the sophisticated society of the mainstream media ever since the downfall of DeLay: A Culture of Corruption.

Last November, following DeLay's giving up the Majority Leader post, former California Congressman Cunningham pleaded guilty to charges related to bribery.

Then, when [a rhyme, not an alliteration] Jack Abramoff donned his Spy-versus-Spy outfit and pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud, and tax charges this past January, the Dems thought they had an issue which they could ride straight through to the midterm elections in November.

For a couple of weeks it was all Abramoff all the time and the city was awash in rumors of how many Representatives and Senators had flown on whose corporate jet to play golf at which exclusive club.

Answer? A lot of them.

This past Friday, another episode [a semi-alliteration] in this sordid story was published when a former senior staffer for Tom DeLay, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to charges that, according to a WashPost front pager by Jonathan Weisman and Tom Edsell, "he conspired with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to corrupt public officials and defraud his clients."

Weisman called Friday with the question: Why doesn't anyone care any more?

He also spoke to former Congressman Vin Weber who said the "drive [for wholesale reform] is not likely to be rekindled until a lawmaker is indicted or is forced to resign."

What Duke Cunningham did has been illegal since the days of the Roman Senate. He had an actual menu of how much a briber would have to pay to the bribee in return for official actions on the briber's behalf.

It is not at all clear that Tom DeLay is guilty of anything. What he has been charged with - by a county prosecutor in Texas - is so technical that the popular press' eyes glazed over after the second write-thru.

Abramoff is a bad actor but he is not a Member of Congress. The others have been Congressional staff members, but that is not the same thing.

SIDEBAR

How much coverage did your hometown paper give to the guilty plea of one Lauren Weiner last week? None? Hmm. I'm shocked.
Ms. Weiner was a staff member at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee which is chaired by NY Senator Chuck Schumer. Weiner illegally got a credit report on Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.
Steele is an African-American. He is an African-American who is running for US Senate.
As a Republican.
Can you imagine the hue and cry if a member of the REPUBLICAN Senate campaign committee had illegally dug up credit info on, say, Barak Obama when he was running?
The Post piece about this did not run on the front page of the "A" section. It didn't even run on the front page of the "B" section.
The Post decided that a Democratic Dirty Trick was only worth space on B2.

END SIDEBAR

It is the Chuck Schumer-esque aspect which has caused the Dems to take a long second stare at their Culture of Corruption alliteration.

Democrats go bye-bye on private corporate jets and play golf at exclusive clubs and sit in private boxes at sporting events.

Democrats hold fundraisers at which they accept checks from lobbyists who have clients with interests in matters which may be before their committees.

Democrats have staffers who write letters to Executive Departments and agencies on behalf of constituents - even if some of those constituents are global corporations with private jets which are represented in Washington by lobbyist who have access to private suites at major sporting events and are able to lob the occasional PAC check over the transom at a fundraiser.

If there is a "Culture of Corruption" in Washington, it is an alliteration which is common to Congress � completely.

On a the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Post stories about Tony Rudy and the woman from Chuck Schumer's staff; a VERY entertaining Mullfoto which is a piece of the actual score sheet I filled out while sitting in the Press Box at RFK Stadium the other night, and a Catchy Caption of the Day which the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices might have approved if she had seen it, which she did not.

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