Well, it's started. Now that the thieving republicans are getting caught with their hands in every cookie jar open to them (and since they control everything, that's all cookie jars available), they have to say that, well, Democrat's do this too...gee, that would be what, the first attempt at bi-partisan governance since they took the House and Senate? Here's how Howie (aka Mr. Sherri Annis, republican mouthpiece) spins it:

Is the recent spate of corruption cases a growing problem for the Republicans, or is that just Democratic spin?
...
Of course, the Democrats don't have totally clean hands. Abramoff was friendly with some D's as well. Ohio's Jim (Beam Me Up) Trafficant is in jail on a 2002 bribery conviction. And Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson is under investigation over a telecommunications deal in Niger.

But Kurtz does provide exactly what his republican paymasters so desperately are seeking in this all-news all-the-time world: Cover. Each little bit of crap like what Kurtz puts out there lets someone else point to what he has written as factual, and then it becomes gospel that "All Dems as dirty as All Republicans" in about two news cycles (because heaven forfend, actual journalisism occur).

The best defense at this point seems like a good offense. Reid and Pelosi need to take an aggressive point position, followed by Howard Dean and others, like Bob Kerry and Bill Bradley ... squeaky-clean and utterly vanilla Democrats who are pissed at being tarred with brush of the Rove Blast Fax on corruption just for their party affiliation. We did a great job on Social Security...it's time to mobilize those efforts towards this issue NOW before we are overcome by republican talking head talking spin points