Moe Lane has put together an interesting chart comparing Rasmussen's poll last October to its poll this month asking which party voters trust more on a variety of issues. On every issue--from taxes and the economy to national security and abortion--there's been a shift in the Republicans' favor--except on the issue of government ethics.
Can this really be true after the Blagojevich-Burris-Obama fiasco? When Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner, Kathleen Sebelius, and Charlie Rangel haven't paid their taxes? When Jack Murtha is funneling loads of cash to his local airport and implicated in taking corrupt contributions from PMA lobbyists, along with many of his Democratic colleagues?
I suppose voters would have to actually hear about these scandals in order for there to be a negative impact on public opinion. TNR's Eve Fairbanks wrote back in January that the Democratic scandals up to that point hadn't damaged the party because they lacked the "great media narrative Abramoff made: A pious religious man makes a bargain with the devil and links up with a greedy Majority Leader." Of course, the crucial element that made the "media narrative" so "great" was the fact that Abramoff was mostly connected to Republicans.
Still, maybe the lies and hypocrisy surrounding the Democratic party's "torture" witch hunt might make too sweet of a narrative for the media to ignore. This story has only begun to gain traction and Democrats have assured it will be in the news for months to come.
