CQ Politics
- There is no way to put this delicately: the ethics scandals swirling around Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) aren’t just a political boon to Republicans because they spotlight corruption in the Democratic Congress. They’re also a political gift to the GOP because Rangel and Waters are African-American.
Let’s face it: there’s a racist, yahoo element in the tea party movement, and by extension, the Republican Party. It has been catalogued in various news reports in recent months, and even some tea party leaders have acknowledged the problem. Republicans have certainly profited by running racially-charged political ads against their opponents — some subtle, others less so — for decades.
The struggling economy and voter anger are enough to sink Democrats at the polls this November; political corruption by the majority party is just icing on the cake for Republicans. With corruption in the headlines, it becomes that much easier for the minority party to portray the majority party as arrogant and out of touch.
