Monday, August 6, 2007

Another Ethical Dilemma For A Top Democrat

The number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, has posted a campaign video that violates ethics rules. Michelle Malkin covers the whole story here.

The short version is that Durbin's video to the YearlyKos convention contained the Senate seal on it. There are three ways this could be spun. The first is that he included the seal intentionally, which is expressly forbidden in campaign material. The second is that he used official resources
-- which would include the seal by default -- to create the video, and then his campaign used it. This mixing of resources is also a violation of ethics rules. The third is that it was an accident. If that's the case, would you really want someone that incompetent (with that incompetent of a staff) running the country in the White House?

No matter how it happened, he's in trouble (or should be).

There's really no question of proof, since the screenshots and video are available online, and Durbin's team has done a fast scrub of all their material, confirming the gaffe.

What do you bet he'll get off completely unscathed? I'd wager any amount of money that if it were a Republican, there would already be outrage and demands that he step down from his position of leadership.

Two thoughts here...first, is this another example of the 'more ethical' Congress that we were promised in November? Second, if it weren't for the blogosphere, this likely would never have come out. Blogs are becoming more and more critical to the political landscape, so keep an eye on them as legitimate news sources.

There's my two cents.

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