EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK , the Bush-era Republicans, they of the moral high ground, are going down.

Randy Cunningham, the powerful San Diego congressman who loves defense spending, had to resign this week after he pleaded guilty to taking payoffs from a military contractor.

And the Washington Post reported Nov. 26 that the Justice Department's investigation into former lobbyist Jack Abramoff is entering a new phase that could wind up with indictments of more than just a fixer or two: "Prosecutors are beginning to move on evidence pointing to possible corruption in Congress and executive branch agencies," the Post reported. Among the half dozen member of Congress who are part of the inquiry: Rep. (and former majority leader) Tom DeLay of Texas, Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana, and California's Rep. John T. Doolittle.

And the Valerie Plame case keeps on going.

This sort of thing tends to happen when people like Bush and Cheney and DeLay have been in power for too long. They start thinking they can lie and cheat all they want and nobody will ever notice. If I were a truly cynical person, I might even suspect that some of the real players behind the modern GOP are happy to see these sorts of scandals, because they undermine trust in government.

Which brings us, in a sort of roundabout way, to California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will decide sometime in the next 12 days whether to grant clemency to Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the onetime Crips leader and antigang crusader who is scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 13.

Like supporters of the war in Iraq and foes of same-sex marriage, death-penalty advocates are on the wrong side of history. Ten years ago, 80 percent of Americans supported state-sponsored executions. Now it's down to about 65 percent, and 50 percent if life without parole is given as an option.

Schwarzenegger has moved to the right since his election, even campaigning for Bush and Cheney. But he took a beating at the polls in November, and his efforts to claim he fights "special interests" have become a joke. If he wants to have any political future in this state, he's got to decide if he wants to be lumped in with Bush, Cheney, DeLay, and that whole backward, corrupt gang – or if he would rather be a leader like George Ryan, the Illinois Republican governor who commuted 170 death sentences. We'll be watching.

Tim Redmond tredmond@sfbg.com