From an AP feed about the Republican National Committee winter meeting:

Mehlman couldn't have been more blunt: "One of the oldest lessons of history is that power corrupts," he said, telling RNC members that any Republicans guilty of illegal behavior should be punished.

Emphasis mine. It's a clever parsing of words: "guilty of illegal behavior." But who's writing, passing and signing the laws? It's not just about illegal behavior. It's about ethics too.

And morals. Remember those? You know, the core system of beliefs about what is right and wrong that were alleged to have decided the 2004 elections.

With all the loopholes in election laws and House ethics rules, it's unlikely many Congresscritters' transgressions would rise to Mehlman's lukewarm standard of behavior.

And just in case you plan to try and plant the "Democrats did it too" argument in a comment, not a single Democrat has ever received a campaign contribution from Jack Abramoff. From some of his clients, perhaps, but not from the fabisina himself. And those same clients lost the most by trusting the lobbyist. In some ways, what he did to them was the most immoral of all.

But why let morals get in the way when you can just hide behind the laws your cronies pass?