The Day After 50

In the special election held yesterday to fill the seat in the House of Representatives vacated by the disgraced Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the Republican won by 50 percent to 45 percent. According to Robert Tanner:

With 90 percent of precincts reporting, [Republican] Bilbray had 56,130 votes, or 50 percent. [Democrat] Busby trailed with 51,292 votes, or 45 percent.

It’s not a famous victory but it is good enough that the Today Show did not feel the need to report on it. Whereas, if it had been closer, say 49 percent to 48 percent, or a Democrat victory, then we would be hearing all about it. We would be told that the election showed that it is all over for Bush and for evil Republicans.

After a horrendous winter and spring, this result is a big shot in the arm for Republicans.

Maybe there is a lesson here for Democrats and their “culture of corruption” campaign. It’s interesting that the two Republican embarrassments were swiftly dealt with and swept away. The Democrats got what they wanted with Tom DeLay. His battles with the Democratic prosecutor in Democratic Austin, Texas, made him a liability, and so he stepped down as Majority Leader, and now is not running for reelection. Randy Cunningham was in the news one day, pleading guilty, in the news another day, being sentenced, and now his seat is back in Republican hands.

Hey, those bumbling Republicans can sometimes really hit their marks.

But look at the Democratic embarrassments: Representatives Cynthia McKinney and William Jefferson. McKinney suffers from a terminal case of “Do You Know Who I Am?” and was unwilling to go quietly when properly stopped by a Capitol Hill policeman for not showing her badge at a security checkpoint. And William Jefferson is playing hard to get in the investigation of his alleged bribery.

A similar situation obtains with the unfolding Fannie Mae investigation. As Jim Gerahty writes, it was a Clinton appointee, Franklin Raines, Chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association, who was responsible for the $10.6 billion overstatement of earnings. But instead of going quietly he tried to block the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) investigation. And he had friends, Democratic friends, on Capitol Hill. The report from OFHEO said that

By deliberately manipulating accounting to hit earnings targets, senior management maximized the bonuses and other compensation they received, at the expense of shareholders. The manipulation contributed significantly to the compensation of former chairman and chief executive Franklin Raines, which totaled more than $90 million from 1998 to 2003 - including some $52 million directly tied to hitting earnings targets.

What do they say about corporate greed? Writes Gerahty:

Let’s recall that the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate had such a close relationship with Raines that he was ready to make him Treasury Secretary.

Raines finally resigned from Fannie Mae in 2004. But no perp walk yet.

Oh, and guess who the Vice Chairman was at Fannie Mae until she quit in 2002? Jamie Gorelick. Yes, that Jamie Gorelick, the author of the wall between domestic and foreign intelligence which stopped the Feds from connecting the dots before 9/11.

So which was worse? Enron or Fannie Mae? And why haven’t we heard outraged Democrats or populist journalists raging about the corporate fat cats putting Fannie Mae’s widows-and-orphans mortgage bonds at risk?

Why is it that we all felt shame and outrage about Randy Cunningham bribery conviction, but not about William Jefferson alleged malfeasance?

There’s a culture problem here for the Democrats. They just don’t believe that they have to follow the rules. And nobody is surprised, or even outraged, when they don’t.