Say Anything Blog

The New York Post has a run down of 2008’s top ten political scandal, and election day victories aside, it was a tough year for Democrats.

Here’s the list of involved parties (you can click through to the Post for descriptions of their various scandals).

• Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick - D
• Former New York Goverrnor Eliot Spitzer - D
• Former Senator John Edwards - D
• Rep. Charles Rangel - D
• New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn - D
• Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella - R
• Newark Mayor Sharpe James - D
• David Kernell, son of Tennessee Democrat Mike Kernell - D
• Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens - R
• Alaska Governor Sarah Palin - R
• Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey - D

Now, I’m willing to take David Kernell off the list because he’s the child of an elected official.  But I also think Palin should be removed from the list, because unlike the other people on the list she was ultimately exonerated.  Yes, the report on “Troopergate” suggested that she abused her powers, but remember that the committee which produced it (during the campaign) was headed by a partisan Democrat who was also a prominent of Obama’s local campaign.  And the report also concluded that Palin acted within her authority of Governor of Alaska.

So you can disapprove of what she did, but she did nothing illegal.

Anyway, does anyone else have any scandals to add to the list?  I think William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson should be there (the list, coming from a New York newspaper, was a little New York-centric).  And if the world were a just place, Obama’s egregiously illegal campaign fund raising would be on the list too, but since our campaign finance laws seem to be geared more toward silencing advocacy groups than transparent campaign fund raising that’s not going to happen.

Rev. Wright’s comments should be up there too, frankly.

Anything else?