Ahab Has A Blog.

Linked on Drudge: Congressional relatives on the payroll. Any idiot could guess that this is getting flogged in the wingnut echo chamber today. I can almost hear Rush intoning dramatically about corruption, blah blah blah. Good thing I don't actually need to hear or smell that gasbag.

The wingnut cavalry is surely counting on their gullible listeners' inability to analyze information, do math, or understand statistics that involve complicated things like medians and averages. If they could do those things, here are some things they might noodle on:

• See what DeLay's family got compared to the total figures.
• Sort the list by dollar amount, and draw an R or a D next to each figure
• Write down what they were paid for on a separate sheet. Rank what they were paid to do on a scale of "legit" to "monkey business", taking into account how much was paid for the services (e.g. a minimally-paid accountant is legit: a high-paid "consultant" is monkey business). Now write down the political party next to each.

Results? Republicans are clearly more involved in raking campaign money into their own homes; their relatives got far more money than those of Democrats for services generally less tangible. Yet in the end, most of these have some degree of legitimacy, while DeLay sticks out like a baboon's ass. He's still going to be a target, because he's crooked as hell.

For reference:

• House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas: Wife and daughter were paid more than $500,000 since 2001 for working for DeLay's campaign and political action committees.
• Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman: Son Matthew received about $34,000 and daughter Rebecca about $36,000 for working on the senator's 2004 presidential campaign.
• Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash.: Nephew Todd Reichert was paid $3,000 last year, plus several hundred dollars for mileage, for serving as driver.
• California Democratic Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark: Wife Deborah earns $2,400 a month for serving as campaign consultant.
• Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.: Wife Arlene Willis serves as congressional chief of staff at a salary of nearly $111,000.
• Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.: Wife Laurie Stupak earned about $36,000 annually the past two years as the finance director for her husband's campaign.
• Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio: Wife Elizabeth was paid about $1,730 a month during his 2004 campaign. She has worked as a campaign consultant for him since the 2001 election cycle.
• Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif.: Cousin Ken Costa made about $45,000 for serving as a co-campaign manager last year.
• Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah: Three college-age children worked on his campaign last year. Emily was paid $5,425, Jane $9,508 and Laura $17,766.
• Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn.: Sister-in-law Sharon Davis has been his campaign treasurer since 1994,and daughter Libby Davis was his campaign coordinator in the last half of 2004. Libby Davis was paid about $2,334 a month; Sharon Davis was paid about $1,000 a month for bookkeeping last year.
• Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, employs his wife, Kathy, as his campaign manager. She was paid $21,791 over four months, including a $7,500 bonus last November.
• New York Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop: Daughter Molly was paid $46,995 as his 2004 campaign's finance director.
• California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: Wife Rhonda Carmony makes $40,000 a year as his campaign manager.