CNN tips off GOP Strategy on Cunningham

About an hour ago, in the Situation Room on CNN, James Carville and Rich Galen were having their strategy session, and discussing the resignation of the Duke, Randy Cunningham.

On the ubiquitous "Situation Room" back wall was the phrase "crooked congressmen." There were three members of Congress on the picture behind it. One of them was definitely Harry Reid, and I couldn't make out the other two. But it looked a lot like the Reid-Schumer-Durbin picture from a few weeks ago after Harry brought the Senate into closed session.

Now, when CNN inadvertently puts an X on the screen during a Dick Cheney speech, that becomes such big news on the right that CNN has to announce some sort of retraction and apology. The right loves to yell about this kind of low-level bias. But when the story is about a Republican member of Congress and the picture is of the Democratic Senate Minority Leader, that's clearly premeditated, will there be a hue and cry? I doubt it.

In addition, I think we see exactly how the GOP is going to approach this story through that graphic. It was designed to muddy the waters, a visual representation of the "everybody does it" defense. I've always found this completely silly; even if you take it on its face (and given the preponderance of Republican corruption these days, you can't), does the fact that everybody in Congress takes bribes mean that you shouldn't prosecute the taking of bribes? Does the volume of crimes supersede the enforcement of crimes? That's absurd and contemptuous of the rule of law.

As we go on with the continuing drip drip of Culture of Corruption stories, this attempt to make it into an "everybody does it" story needs to be met quickly and without equivocation. If there are members on the Democratic side with ethical problems, take them through the legal system as well. This is not a partisan issue.