Posted on 03/22/2007 12:27:57 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys for reasons that may or may not have been political has reached the high-drama stage, with Congress approving subpoenas and President Bush daring the legislative body to carry them out.
But a study by two communications professors that suggests the Bush Justice Department is seven times more likely to investigate Democrats than Republicans may point to a much larger scandal.
The professors, John Cragan, of Illinois State University, and Donald Shields, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, looked at news reports of 375 elected officials between 2001 and 2006 and concluded the bias against Democrats "exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops."
Their statistics for Wisconsin show six investigations of Democrats to three of Republicans.
To be sure, such a study is more indicative of smoke than it is of fire.
For one thing, the two seem to have used Internet search engines to find press accounts of investigations. That's hardly definitive and it doesn't tell us about ongoing investigations nor investigations that were dropped before they hit the press.
For another, the study doesn't tell us who is guilty.
Perhaps Democrats are seven times more likely to be corrupt than are Republicans. That's not likely, however. One might argue that the 2- to-1 ratio in Wisconsin is accurate, but not 7-to-1 nationally. (I didn't say I would argue that, I just said one might argue that.)
It might be that all administrations try to jail their political enemies. Perhaps the Clinton Justice Department had a 7-to-1 ratio of investigations of Republicans. If so, we really ought to change this system.
Finally, the study is of investigations of all public officials. It might be Democrats have controlled more government than we thought. We do know power corrupts, so parties in power are more likely to take actions that draw the scrutiny of prosecutors.
So, smoke doesn't necessarily mean fire. It might just be fog with a bad odor.
But, given all of the showtime in Washington these days, wouldn't you think Congress would like to find out whether the Justice Department is targeting one party for prosecution and sparing the other party? Wouldn't this be a good subject for congressional hearings?
Both U.S. senators from Wisconsin, Democrats Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, are on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Menomonee Falls, is a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
After all, if the smoke detector in your house goes off, that doesn't mean there's a fire in the basement. But prudence would dictate that if you hear the smoke detector screeching, you might at least take a look.
It's a pity they could not show the same concern over the IRS autdits, and other political activism of the Klintons.
But a study by two communications professors that suggests the Bush Justice Department is seven times more likely to investigate Democrats than Republicans may point to a much larger scandal.
maybe it's just because dems are involved in more scandals than reps?? just a thought..
The dem leader in the senate made millions on property he did not own, a dem congressman has 90,000 in his refer. Senator Clinton has millions in trust funds she does not disclose to people and this guy says dem's don't get investigated?
Maybe it because the Dems are involved in more criminal activity than Repubs are?.........
"But a study by two communications professors that suggests the Bush Justice Department is seven times more likely to investigate Democrats than Republicans may point to a much larger scandal."
I agree that something is VERY fishy here. Democrats are at least 20 times more likely to be in violation of the law.
I'm game, and do a bit of statistics on the side. What are their sources and data?
Studies show that professors who do studies are seven times more likely to be democratic-leaning.
If they can get the sheeple to believe the same thing about Dems, that will save their butts from time to time, allowing them to commit more mischief. It's a viable strategy, and likely will work.
Yeah - so the number of Congressional investigations justifies investigations where no crimes have been committed.
Perhaps it is because the large cities, which I will assume are proportionally more corrupt, are largely controlled by Democrats. Just a hypothesis.
Wow, I didn't realize that Democrats were committing that many more crimes than Republicans. They should really do something to get rid of all the criminals. Sounds like the "Party of Criminals" to me. Of course, they don't include local actions like Ronnie Earl's railroading of Tom Delay in their little study either...
I can't name 7 democrats that have been investigated since Bush took office.
LOL! Seven times more likely than never! Zero times seven is still zero.
"but not 7-to-1 nationally"
I have to agree with this.
It's closer to 50 - 1 nationally.
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