Ted Stevens Indicted: Good for the GOP?

Editor's note: Be sure to catch Booman on Steven's Toxic campaign cash

I read Atrios, so I know I'm not allowed to say this, but I fear that the indictment of this Republican senator by a Republican Justice Department helps the GOP, unfortunately.

The right-wing line since about ten minutes after the polls closed in November '06 is that the GOP lost Congress because of corruption (plus Mark Foley), not because of Iraq or health care or the economy or Katrina; this is one talking point on which McCain didn't have to do a flip-flop to get in sync with his party's conventional wisdom. Prominent righty bloggers disowned Stevens a long time ago -- all right, all right, they threw him under the bus -- and a lot of them seem either somewhat pleased or even excited at the opportunity.

Somewhat pleased:

Stevens' indictment isn't exactly good news for the G.O.P., but he's a corrupt politician first and a Republican second. Patrick Ruffini notes that the right thing to do to safeguard the tarnished Republican brand is to demand he abandon his reelection campaign. Once that's done, if anyone dares to use Stevens as an example of how the Republicans are uniquely corrupt, you can remind them that Democrats apparently don't have too much of a problem with the fact that William Jefferson is still in Congress.

Somewhat excited: