When the "Revolution" Ends

A few years back, I read a book by the late Jacob Javits, called Order of Battle: A Republican's Call to Reason. In it, the liberal Republican Senator from New York discusses why he was a Republican. He talked about growing up in New York City and dealing with the corrupt Tammany Hall government which was run by Democrats as the reason he joined the GOP.

Mr. Javits is probably rolling in his grave as he sees the latest graft coming not from the Dems, but from his own party. New York Timescolumnist David Brooks writes one heckuva an essay today talking about how corrupt the party has become. Here's a devastating snippet:

Soon the creative revolutionaries were blending the high-toned forms of the think tank with the low-toned scams of the buckraker. Ed Buckham, Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, helped run the U.S. Family Network, which supported the American family by accepting large donations and leasing skyboxes at the MCI Center, according to Roll Call. Michael Scanlon, DeLay's former spokesman, organized a think tank called the American International Center, located in a house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., which was occupied, according to Andrew Ferguson's devastating compendium in The Weekly Standard, by a former "lifeguard of the year" and a former yoga instructor.

Ten years after the Gingrich Revolution, we see that the Republicans did change some things: they learned how to become corrput faster than the Dems ever did.

Somewhere, I think Senator Javits is crying.