Reply #20: Good Questions... [View All]

[CorpGovActivist]

"1. on a scale of 1-10, with Nixon's watergate being a middle ground of 5 - where do you think this one rates? Bigger, smaller about the same?"

Much bigger. Managed well, the oversight hearings could cause a permanent realignment in the electorate. By that, I mean that:

1. Progressives - whether Democrats, Republicans, or Independents - would gain much more power within their respective establishments.

2. Religious voters would be required to face up to the fact that they've been used, abused, and misled.

3. Some purple areas of the map would gain a faint new blue hue.

"2. watching public reaction to other scandals coming out of the white house, I found that the more 'complicated' it is, the less interest the public has on following it. Mark Foley was pretty easy to follow, he inappropriately approached pages, House Repubs knew about it and covered it up"

Good point. But aspects of this are easily grasped - and directly relevant to apolitical voters (by which I mean those who vote out of a sense of civic duty, without necessarily paying a lot of attention to more complex policy issues).

For example: everyone cares about his/her retirement account, right?

- Dave