Well of course Rove's spin wins

As Dr. Bloor just noted, the press coverage of the Abramoff plea has been rife with "Dems did it, too" spin, despite the obvious fact that Jack was a made man in the hard-core conservative wing of the Repug party, and all the big fish solidly tied thereto (Safavian, Ney, DeLay) have been from the party in power.

How could it be otherwise? The Rove machine is designed for exactly this kind of situation, and the clueless, rudderless media are unable to resist in the absence of a strong countervaling force. Assume for the moment that the Dems could, in the right context, mount such a campaign. (A ridiculous assumption, I know, but work with me here.) Imagine that you are Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. Do you want to be the one hung out to dry for your assertion that only Republicans are dirty when it comes out that some Blue Dog idiot took $500 to swing a close vote? Do you really believe Karl wasn't smart enough to smear a bit of his feces on a few obligingly stupid Democrats in preparation for exactly this eventuality?

The answer, of course, is "hell, no." So it should come as no surprise that the Democrats have walked off the field, yet again. While I agree that the orange jumpsuits are overwhelmingly reserved for Republicans, I think Karl is right about the value of spin here -- the same rubes who seem to still believe that Saddam masterminded 9/11, that we found WMDs, etc. will happily believe that their favorite Bible-thumping redneck hypocrite of a Congressman is just doing a little of what all them evil librul Democrats do all the time.

The judges who will put a few of these crooks in jail are unlikely to be spinnable. The judges who elected those crooks, and will re-elect them if given the chance, would much rather be spun than have to question their own beliefs. Unfortunately, the spin matters.