Fresh Blood -- Please

One of Washington’s more corrupt figures has drawn a primary challenge:

Alabama State Senator Scott Beason (R-AL) announced his candidacy for Alabama’s 6th Congressional district late last week against 10-term incumbent, Spencer Bachus (R-AL). This comes on the heels of multiple accounts of corruption exposed initially in Peter Schweizer’s best selling book, “Throw Them All Out.”

Since Schweizer’s book came out, CBS’ 60 Minutes did a feature on Congressman Bachus’ insider trading, and that of others. Since then, his own constituents held a rally demanding Bachus’ resignation. In response, he committed to hold hearings on the STOCK Act, an effort to reform insider trading. Later, the Congressman reneged.

His constituents reacted angrily, committing to recruit a strong candidate against the Congressman, and many names were floated. Just after Christmas, Judicial Watch named Bachus one of the top 10 most corrupt politicians in Washington.

“This (Spencer Bachus) is clearly not proper representation of the good people of Alabama” said Deanna Frankowski, of Rainy Day Patriots, a local Tea Party group. “I told Scott Beason that we need his leadership against Bachus, and that I would help him if he ran.”

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Good. The GOP is undergoing a period of eating its own, which hurts in the short run. But the party got fat, corrupt, and lazy during the Naughts, and must now pay the price.

In the long run, this is a good thing. In the short run, you end up with some deeply weird candidates like Christine O’Donnell and Sharon Angle. But more stories like the one above, and the process might be mostly sorted out by 2014 or even 2012.

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