Howard Dean (D-VT) to link allegations of insider trading by Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) to the then-emerging Abramoff Scandal.
The phrase was thereafter repeated by other Democratic Party leaders, including Nancy Pelosi (responding to the indictment of Tom DeLay), "The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom DeLay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people."
Political corruption was a key issue cited by voters at exit polls during the 2006 Midterm Elections.
Responding to the use of the phrase "culture of corruption" by the Democratic Party, authors Lynn Vincent and Robert Stacy McCain published "Donkey Cons" in April, 2006.
A review on right-wing web site WorldNet Daily said: "Vincent and McCain do not claim that the Republican Party boasts only the good, the pure and the beautiful, as Aristotle said..." Democrat William Jefferson was re-elected in his district despite the ongoing investigation, which some political commentators such as Rush Limbaugh have decried as a hypocrisy of the "culture of corruption" label with which the DNC had been branding the Republicans.