This post, written by Howie Klein, originally appeared on Down With Tyranny!

Karl Rove says it was the Republican Culture of Corruption in DC, more than Iraq, that did the GOP in last November. And he thinks Iraq won't hurt them much in 2008. Apparently he's lost his mind. But let's humor him for a moment.

Rove's clear advice to the candidates is to distance themselves from the culture in Washington. Specifically, Republican candidates are urged to make clear they have no connection with disgraced congressmen such as Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley.

I don't know whether or not Rove mentioned John Doolittle, Rick Renzi, Tom DeLay, David Diapers Vitter, Katherine Harris or Bob Ney in his little closed-door Tuesday chat with GOP House candidates and their (chatty) aides, but Bob Novak didn't mention any of them in his report of the off-the-record event.

Perhaps someone should, since, in all likelihood, at least some of these Republicans will be in the news between now and the Republican electoral debacle of 2008. Not to mention serial perjurer Alberto Gonzales, a bevy of Bush Regime-connected war profiteers, and... a certain over-tanned, weepy, House minority leader. All recent polling data shows conclusively that the Republican Party can't escape the DC web they created, broadly called the "Culture of Corruption," any more than they can escape the catastrophic war they started in Iraq. Off the top of my head I can name a dozen Republican House members being investigated by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, at least some of whom are likely to be indicted-- and I'm not just talking about the low hanging fruit like John Doolittle, Gary Miller and Rick Renzi. Friday's NY Times mentions that "Among members of Congress, Mr. Doolittle is far from alone in feeling heat from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department. More than a dozen current and former lawmakers are under scrutiny in cases involving their work on Capitol Hill."