The Franking Commission - an office that approves taxpayer-paid mailers for lawmakers - prohibited Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi from sending a piece to 20,000 California constituents because it contained the words "culture of corruption." The Commission decided that the phrase constituted a campaign slogan that belonged to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Roll Call's Mary Ann Akers found a list suggestions made by Democrats to replace "culture of corruption" that Akers points out has been used to attack the GOP for "virtually every topic under the sun-Medicare, Rep. Tom Delay (R.-Tex.), student aid, lobbying, Scooter Libby, presidential campaign funding, Hurricane Katrina, the federal budget deficit, energy policy, and the Central American Free Trade Agreement, to name several."
One might think a lonely Democratic staffer had a long night with a thesaurus judging list of replacements that included: climate of corruption, atmosphere of corruption, environment of corruption, milieu of corruption, surrounded by corruption, quagmire of corruption, engulfed in corruption, swimming in corruption, drowning in corruption, mired in corruption and under a cloud of corruption.
Pelosi finally chose "environment of corruption" and "climate of corruption" for her mailer, which was approved.
