As co-author of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party, I am certainly not surprised to learn that Rep. Charlie Rangel and Rep. Maxine Waters have been less than exemplars of selflessness in public service.

What’s interesting is how, when Republicans get caught with their pants down and/or their hands in the cookie jar, the media depict the scandal-afflicted politician as tainting the entire party, as if philandering and graft are pervasive within the GOP and as if Democrats never have these problems. In fact — as readers of Donkey Cons know (see p. 36) — corrupt/criminal Democrats in Congress since 1975 have outnumbered crooked Republicans by a ratio of 3-to-1.

This is an area where political facts and political perception diverge primarily because of two factors:

• Media bias — About which we need say little more, given the evidence that nearly 90 percent of Washington journalists vote Democrat. When a Democrat is caught in a scandal, this is usually portrayed in the press as an isolated incident (one anomalously bad apple in an otherwise wholesome bunch) whereas the media go out of their way to paint crooked Republicans as symbolic of some larger and uniquely partisan flaw.
• Liberal “idealism” — Because Democrats posture as the party of the underdog — the oppressed, the exploited, the “little guy” — their graft and swindling gets excused by a sort of ends-justifies-the-means rationale. Oh, Ted Kennedy helped poor people, so who cares if he left a girl to die? This is but another example of how the “social justice” mentality operates. Being a liberal in good standing means that, no matter how corrupt you are, you’re never really guilty. By advocating putatively noble causes, Democrats thereby ensure they are forgiven all their sins in the eyes of the liberal congregration.

This points toward the fundamental corruption at the heart of liberal ideology — the Great Something-for-Nothing Swindle by which Democrats promise, “Vote for us and we’ll give you stuff.” It’s a chump’s play, as transparently crooked as a three-card monte game, and yet the people who elect the likes of Maxine Waters to Congress never seem to get wise to it. As Michelle Malkin says:

 Go back and look at my liveblogging of the TARP debate. Note how aggressive Waters was in taking a lead role pushing congressional black caucus members to swallow the crap sandwich. No disclosure of her own self interest in the matter. She’s just a Champion of The People, speaking Truth to Power.

I’m sure if you go talk to Maxine’s constituents, they still think of her that way. Their political worldview is impervious to facts.