RIP DC Scandals

I haven't been blogging of late because the news out of Washington was so dyspeptic that I couldn't form a coherent thought that didn't involve Darrell Issa and a string of expletives. This morning things changed as I caught a WaPo blog post from rational human being Ezra Klein called "The scandals are falling apart." Whew.

The crucial ingredient for a scandal is the prospect of high-level White House involvement and wide political repercussions. Government wrongdoing is boring. Scandals can bring down presidents, decide elections and revive down-and-out political parties. Scandals can dominate American politics for months at a time.

On Tuesday, it looked like we had three possible political scandals brewing. Two days later, with much more evidence available, it doesn’t look like any of them will pan out. There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough.

Ezra then goes about explaining why there is no there there -- albeit it tentatively -- and that the scandals will likely fade into oblivion. Let's hope so. Thanks Ezra!

This also assumes that the Republican Party is willing to abandon the stupid, and that may not be a good bet to take. Oh well.