Shame on them!

A Boston Globe update on the latest Congressional scandal says that The Committee for Justice, headed by C. Boyden Gray, a former senior White House counsel, is taking the point for the Republican staffers who stole Democratic documents from Senate computers. They're distibuting a "fact sheet" arguing that no rules or laws were broken.

I'll be honest. I'm not a legal scholar, or an authority on the Senate rules that apply to staff activities. What seems obvious, though, is that by any ordinary standard of ethical behavior, the Republican conduct was simply wrong. So wrong that any reasonable person would expect it to be illegal.

Regardless of any disciplinary action that might come out of the investigation, this is an issue that Democrats should rally around as a way to demonstrate the paucity of ethics and morality that typifies Republican behavior in the political sphere.

David Callahan has an important piece in The Nation, arguing that the Democrats can win on the 'values' arguement by attacking the culture of cheating that he says " infects nearly every part of American society, from education to sports to business to a myriad of professions."

"Cheating is up." Callahan argues "Cheating is everywhere. By cheating I mean breaking the rules to get ahead academically, professionally or financially. Some of this cheating involves violating the law, some does not."

Exactly. Let the Republicans try to spin their legalistic nit picking. Let them broadcast it far and wide. Hell, let it work. Let all the malefactors off.

And beat them constantly with the one single truth that almost every American can recognize. What they did was wrong. They cheated. They're not just liars, they're cheaters.

They should be ashamed, and we should shame them at every opportunity.