WAPO DOING ITS BEST TO BALANCE NEGATIVE REPUBLICAN STORIES WITH DEMOCRATIC

WaPo seems determined to make the ethics issue a bipartisan one. Throughout this article about the commingling of money and politics, they emphasize that recent indictments and investigations of Republicans, which are widespread and with more being revealed every week, are accompanied by that of a single Democrat, Louisiana's William J. Jefferson. It's umpteen-to-one, but, they say, it's a Democratic problem as well as Republican.

The polls may support the notion that the public disapproves of the way both parties are handling their jobs in Congress, but the spread between favorable and unfavorable definitely favors the Democrats, who have (depending on the poll) a negative difference of 8-13 between the two ratings; Republicans have a 20+ negative difference. So while both parties are clearly suffering public distrust, the Republicans are, fittingly, suffering the greater.

There is no covering up for the fact that the ethics problems being investigated are overwhelmingly that of Republican politicos. But WaPo does its best. Considering the MSM's practice of balancing every negative story on Republicans with a "but the Dems are doing it too!" and every reporting of failure of Bush policies with a "but the Dems have no alternative plan!" it's no wonder the public is reacting negatively to both parties.

Still, the Rethugs are getting the worst of the backlash.

Tags: Washington Post, media, corruption, Congress