Name That Party: Dem Scandal, No Party Mention/GOP Scandal, Party Mentioned at Top

And now another episode of Name That Party where the news customer reads a story and tries his darndest to discern from what party a scandal plagued politician hails. We have many times said that one of the main rules of the Name That Party parlor game is that if the Old Media is talking about a troubled Democrat, often times the pol's party is either not mentioned at all or is buried way down in the story. On the other hand, if it is a troubled Republican, why the party affiliation often leads the story if it isn't right in the headline itself. Today we have a pair of stories that proves this axiom well.

First up is the mysterious case of Detroit City Council Member Monica Conyers (wife of Representative John Conyers) who the Associated Press reports is "snarled in bribes probe." All the sordid details about the tale are laid out for us... except one. It seems the AP somehow forgot to mention that Monica Conyers is a Democrat.

Curiously, the AP does give a hint of our Mrs. Conyers' affiliation by mentioning that her hubby is a Democrat. I guess we are supposed to extrapolate that she is also a Dem?

The AP alerts us to the fact that the feds have fingered Monica Conyers as "Council Member A" in a bribes case involving cash bribes handed over in a the parking lots of fast-food outlets around Detroit. Still, no mention that we are dealing with a Democrat here.

In fact, this story mentions nearly half a dozen convicted or indicted Detroit politicians without ever once mentioning that any of them are Democrats. Curious that.

In typical tiresome fashion, Monica Conyers asked for prayers to God to help her in these troubled times. There are no atheists in foxholes, eh?

And now for story two:

Once again we find an AP treatment of a troubled politician in theirs headlined, "Sen. Ensign admits affair with ex-campaign staffer."

So, how do you think the AP handles to which party our friend Mr. Ensign is affiliated? Well, let us check the very first sentence of the story to see...

LAS VEGAS – Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, a leading Republican mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday he had an extramarital affair with a woman who was a member of his campaign staff.

Gosh. It took them all the way until the eighth word of the story to peg Ensign as a Republican.

The AP must be slipping!

(H/T NewsBusters readers Larry Ham, Steve Savino, and Marty)