Funny how Charles Rangel's ethics violations were flogged for weeks but you don't hear a peep about this one

Remember Mean Jean Schmidt? She's the vile wingnut who defeated then-netroots darling Paul Hackett for Ohio's 2nd Congressional district seat in 2004.

Well, the very same House Ethics Committee that gave a "public admonishment" to Rep. Charles Rangel for ethics violations has found that Mean Jean has taken bribes from some shady sources.

Howie Klein:

Schmidt hasn't had any impact at all in Congress and is widely considered an embarrassment and one of the least influential members of the House. The only other thing she's known for is her dogged opposition to the legitimate aspirations of the Amenian-American community. Schmidt, a dim bulb, isn't exactly someone would expect to even know anything about Armenia or Armenians. But she has been taking bribes from shady Turkish sources and helps run their anti-Armenian efforts. Friday the House Ethics Committee issued their report on her corruption, but decided not to recommend expulsion or arrest, claiming, in effect, that she was too dumb to know she had violated House rules. You have to be pretty dumb to not know taking bribes is against the rules... and the law.

The report is here.

It may very well be that Jean Schmidt is too much of a moron to know that what she did was unethical. And getting the vapors over Congressional bribes is kind of laughable right now, when the Koch brothers are openly buying Tea Party members of Congress. But the issue for me is one of spin -- that when a Democrat is accused of ethical lapses, or found to have committed such lapses, it's flogged in the media for weeks. But when it's a Republican, even as insignificant a Republican as Jean Schmit, it lands in the Friday news dump and you don't hear a peep about it.