Can someone explain this to me?
Sen. Reid’s office put out a report entitled “Republican Abuse of Power.” It singled out 33 Republican senators for various ethical lapses and transgressions.
Republicans are treating this as some sort of outrage. And they actually got Reid to apologize for it. “The document released by my office yesterday went too far and I want to convey to you my personal regrets.”
This AP article that I’m quoting from then includes various tsk-tsking quotes from Republicans like Ken Mehlman criticizing Reid for having the temerity to call the Abramoff scandal a Republican scandal.
What was Reid thinking exactly?
The article suggests without quite saying so that the root of the outrage is that the report went out on Senate letterhead.
Are the Democrats serious about running against the systemic betrayals of the public trust under the current congressional majorities? Or is it all just a joke and just politics? If it’s the latter, what is Reid apologizing for? If there is something substantively wrong in the claims made in the document, that’s another matter. But the article makes no suggestion of that. The idea simply seems to be that it’s poor form.
You apologize if it’s just trash talk for public consumption. If it’s a serious argument about the degradation of Congress under Republican rule, you don’t. The latter would be a difficult argument to make if you don’t actually believe it.
