Well as I said yesterday the DNC and its surrogates are on the offense and going after Fred Thompson. The problem is, it seems like the same old, same old.

The charge is basically this. Thompson was a lobbyist who profited from Philip Morris and whom used his position as a former Senator to rake in money. So, basically, he worked in government.

Now I am by no means indifferent to the money-political influence-courting power problems in Washington and around the country. I just don’t think it makes for a powerful enough charge with the electorate. What Bill Clinton did was easy to understand, he cheated on his wife with an intern in the Oval Office. That is why it resonated so well.

Trying to figure out the weird money connections with lobbying & government etc. is complex and unless it is something you can successfully pin on an entire party under “corruption” it doesn’t really work. The Democrats have been trying this set of attacks for ages and though it was a blip on the radar in 2006 they shouldn’t rely on it alone.

Joe Scarborough’s unsavory comments about Thompson’s wife probably had more of an impact on voters than this will. Also this is a ruff area. Start looking into Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama etc. and you know what you start finding? That is right, the money-political influence-courting power works in the Dem party as well.

If you want to see real corruption look at the blocking of the XM/Sirius merger and see how the NAB and other media conglomerates are funding campaigns and courting votes on both sides to better their business. If you want to discount and destroy a political candidate you are going to have to do better than that.

Though it stinks, what Thompson may or may not be up to isn’t exactly news. It is politics as is.

(Aside: I also understand that Dems aren’t necessarily going for the general election. They are feeding the machinary of the right as much as the left. Giving his competition ammunition in hopes that they will take him out themselves. I am not naive here, there is some good strategy. It does wreak, however, of the same old Dem bad platform.)

A followup has been posted.