Will Foley seal the deal for the Dems?

Good editorial in the NYT this morning, remarking on how quickly the GOP slipped into crass opportunism and "turned itself into the partner of every special-interest lobbyist with a checkbook." The choice cuts:

History suggests that once a political party achieves sweeping power, it will only be a matter of time before the power becomes the entire point. Policy, ideology, ethics all gradually fall away, replaced by a political machine that exists to win elections and dispense the goodies that come as a result...

The good news is that American democracy, so flawed in many ways, is often fairly efficient at punishing parties that become addicted to self-perpetuation. This November may not force Congress to come up with a plan for Iraq, or even immigration. But if it reminds elected officials that there’s a punishment waiting for those who fall in love with their own sense of entitlement, it will have done its job.

Of course that assumes that the vote will be counted fairly and not stolen again by mysterious quirks in electronic voting machine tallies. One can only hope the electorate will not complacently accept suspect and apparently fraudulent results this time around, as simply politics as usual.