Do The Republicans Have A New Whitewater Scandal To Chew On?

[Yavin4]

This Blagojevich scandal makes me believe that the Republicans have a new Whitewater-type scandal that they will be able to use to rally their supporters, pressure the media, publish books, and if, god forbid, they get back into power, they will use their committees to investigate ad nauseum.

Unlike Democrats who always play nice when they have power in the Congress, the Republicans don't have any reservations against using their power to tar a Dem president whether it's warranted or not. They spent millions on investigating the Clintons and got nothing for it.

The question is what should the Obama transition team/administration do to head off a possible witch hunt.

[tekisui]

1. Obama needs to do what he is doing. Condemn it, call for the resignation

and keep his nose clean.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Short Answer: They Wish

Shorter Answer: No

Let 'em hunt...they're just opening up their own closet and will overplay it again.

Today I saw a report about recent government corruption...you had Blago and Jefferson vs. Ney, Stevens, Craig, Cunningham and the text dude from Florida. Plus there are still pending trials for Renzi and DeLay and possible future indictments of Don Young and Normie Coleman (if we follow his wife's money). They've got no pot to shit in.

There's almost no connection between Blago and Obama...or Blago and most Democrats in this state. He was a party unto himself. He didn't campaign, he didn't fundraise nor was he even invited to speak at the DNC or attend Obama's victory celebration. Let them try, and try they well...and just like many here on DU, jump to conclusions or spew bullshit cause it fits an agenda or tin foil hat theory.

I'm sure we'll find out that Blago is the one hiding Obama's birth certificate... :rofl:

[McCamy Taylor]

3. If the MSM bites...yes, they do. And today, the press is all over it.

That is why I wish that more Democrats would get involved in this case.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. If one person taints the entire Democratic Party, then ever Republican

in the GOP needs to get a ticket to Brazil.

[Zynx]

5. There isn't even the slightest tinge of impropriety here.

Whitewater looked fishy to me and I was only 7 when it was a big deal. This will be over and done with in a matter of weeks.

[whistler162]

6. He did it 3 months ago.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/us/politics/10chicago.html

[cooolandrew]

7. I think it's a new epic fail for the GOP and Blago.

[Solomon]

22. Exactly. This is what it is. Yet another "epic fail".

[izzybeans]

8. Ummm...I'm an idiot.

mixing my presidential issues.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. I think you're confusing Whitewater with Watergate.

Whitewater was the excuse for years and years of conspiracy bs and investigations into the Clintons, at least until the focus shifted to Bill's dick.

[izzybeans]

11. ...

:rofl:

a little too much to drink to night.

Thanks. :rofl:

yeah that makes perfect sense. Now that my mush brain finally grasped the concept. :)

I agree however with the below poster about the country being in a different "mood" now. The 90s were filled with naivety about the smear tactics. Some people were still coming out of the fog of the Reagan era, they had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

Today we know those sugar plums were eaten by a turd blossom.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. You know, I think that was the reason they thought the thing had any traction to begin with.

Richard Mellon-Scaife: "Hmmmmm. 'Whitewater' sounds sort of like 'Watergate', doesn't it?"

[pdxmom]

9. The Repukes led this country down a primrose path with Whitewater

and I think the entire mood of the country has changed since then. They are playing checkers and Obama just keeps winning at chess.

[TexasObserver]

12. Yes! Just put "Chicago politics" in place of "Arkansas politics"

Get used to it. This is the beginning of the new GOP meme to undermine Obama.

The Bush administration fired all the US attorneys who wouldn't play ball with them. All of them.

[Jennicut]

13. Nope cause Obama has been up front. There are no documents missing that might show up later

Hillary just should have been up front and ended it quickly. Obama does not drag anything out and did not have anything to do with Blago's pay to play crap per Fitz himself.

[grantcart]

14. "their committees" they have no committees

they can block a few things but they can't start a fire with a blow torch.

Also there are enough Republicans to be investigated that the last thing Republicans want is an enthusiastic investigation of elected officials.

[mwei924]

15. Too bad they have so few members left in Congress ...

[Donkey_Punch_Dubya]

16. They will try. That's what they do.

Republicans started the era of having no respect for the President when Clinton was elected, yet they complain that everyone is so meanie meanie to W for being the worst president ever.

They had been in charge for all but 4 years between 1968 and 1992, and thought of a Repub in the White House as the Natural Order of things, as favored by their God (the mean, spiteful God that hates most people and would in reality despise what Christ was). So when Clinton won, especially since it was with less than 50% in a 3 way race, they took it as if someone was performing a coup de etat or hostile takeover of the country.

Thus we had 8 years of nonstop investigations, and many repubs in congress treating a popular president of the US as if he were a child molester or something.

Then Bush got in, despite losing the popular vote, and governed as if he won by 20%. He nearly destroyed the greatest country in world history in just 8 years. And now a Democrat won the election by almost 9 million votes, with one of the highest votes per capita ever and the highest total votes, the 2nd biggst margin by a non encumbent ever. He was the clear choice of the country.

But Clinton in 1992 won the same amount of electoral votes and he was treated by all GOPers as a horrible ursurper who must be stopped or destroyed at all costs. So, given their track record, I think they will try to do anything to destroy him. Hopefully it works as good as it did in 1996 with respect to the 2012 election.

I've always loved Clinton, and am not that far left of center. But I can really see Obama being a better president (and Bill Clinton was a very good president, despite the personal problems that became a GOP witch hunt). I know some DUers don't like him or Hillary at all, but I always did.

This time, as opposed to in 1993, the public are not going to put up with partisan witchhunts. Partisan politics has exploded in the last 15 years, and only under W has it become primary to the executive branch. People have had enough, for the most part. There will still be the 25% who are idiots and think Obama is a Muslim terrorist non-citizen, but they will always be there. Since Washington left office, there have always been a minority that attacks and dislikes the president. Sadly many of those current people are fed lies and propaganda as fact, but I bet some people were fed the same under Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, FDR, etc. It's only in high school that kids finally learn that not all past leaders were universally loved great men who acted with honor and intelligence.

The crazies will be there, but think of them as Creationists screaming at scientists and arguing againsts false positions and strawmen. Screw 'em, the rest of us need to fix our country and get it back to where it was in the 90s.

[Window]

18. They have no teeth. Nothing to chew on here.

[BeyondGeography]

19. It's always something

[Ganja Ninja]

20. It doesn't matter that there's no crime or hint of a crime involving Obama.

The right will cling to this until they have something better to cling to.

On the flip side, nobody's talking about the old 'phony birth certificate' anymore.

[Vinca]

21. I honestly think if the Republicans try to make something out of nothing

in order to derail Obama's mission, it will backfire badly. People are really hurting and the only hope we have is Obama's success. If Republicans turn this into a repeat of the Clinton years, it won't go over well for them.

[leftofthedial]

23. if they don't make this one stick

they'll come up with another.

they've been wiretapping everyone for eight years now, remember.

[baldguy]

24. If they don't, they'll just make something else up.

[ecstatic]

25. It will be interesting to see what LIEBERMAN the snake does

His true colors are going to show very soon...