Sirota Nails It

David Sirota has found my intellectual g-spot. Go on, talk dirty to me, baby:

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) needs to "lay out what he did and why he did it" if "he is going to put an end to questions about his travel and dealings with lobbyists."

It's true, DeLay needs to answer these questions. But then again, these very same questions should be swirling around Santorum as well. Santorum has run the so-called K Street project in which he "vets the hiring decisions of major lobbyists" at weekly breakfasts in the Capitol, despite the Senate Ethics Committee questioning Santorum's behavior. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on 8/12/02 that contributions to Santorum's campaign and political action committee "have come from some of the same lobbying firms that attend his breakfasts." That same campaign and PAC, according to a very recent Newhouse News Service story, is funding charter planes for Santorum's own personal travel "to the tune of nearly $83,000 in two years."

Is Santorum shaking down lobbyists to make them pay for his jet setting and lavish lifestyle? And what favors are those lobbyists getting from Santorum in return?

YES! That response to Santorum’s posturing is so right it makes my spine tingle and my toes curl.

One of the frequent moans I’ve seen in the Lefty blogosphere about the Tom DeLay debacle is that it isn’t happening closer to the ’o6 midterms. It’s a fair concern; the only thing with a shorter attention span than a goldfish is the American electorate. But such resignation is predicated on the assumption that DeLay is a one-off, and anyone who believes he’s the only member of the GOP who can be legitimately called on the carpet for corruption is probably the regretful owner of a couple of bridges and a swamp in Florida.

Instead, DeLay should be seen as the first in a series, keeping this story in the news for as long as it needs to be there, as the Hammer’s shady cohorts are outed one by one for their own sleazy dealings (and prevented from hiding their own complicity in the administration’s far-reaching radical agenda, scapegoating DeLay to protect their own deplorable skins).

If the Dems had any sense, they’d be saying the same thing Sirota is. Or, have they, too, succumbed to the same temptations of the ruling party, leaving them too vulnerable to deliver a proper attack anymore?