[webheart]

I wonder something, when the average idiot sees a headline like, “Former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski dead”, do they think the “Rep.” stands for “Republican”?

I generally don't think of myself as an idiot, thank you very much.

But seriously, I read it as Republican for a few seconds, before I started searching for any political party reference. I didn't find one, so I must conclude that the "rep" is used to suggest that he must have been a Republican, because that is the only reference to party affiliation in the entire article. You really have to parse the media these days.

[Brytani]

Plus, look at this sentence.

An old-style, blue-collar, rough-and-tumble politician once known as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's man in Washington, he was defeated in his re-election effort by Republican Michael Patrick Flanagan, a political neophyte who served one term in the House, and was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

That can easily be read that the Republican who defeated him and served one term was pardoned by Clinton in 2000.

Two references to party affiliation in the entire article. First, Rostenkowski's father was a Democrat Alderma while the second is in reference to the Republican who served one term. Anyone who was not a political junky and had never heard of Rostenkowski would never know the guy was a Dem. At least the reporter went into his corruption charges, guilty plea and prison sentence.